this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
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When you see this, you should be thinking "look what they fucking took from us."
Once upon a time, those lanes all ran. The CEO's megayacht is the reason you have to stand in line or check out yourself.
This has been Target and Walmart for the last 30 or 40 years. They build them with 30 lanes with the idea of Xmas rush but then only have one or two lanes open no matter how many customers are waiting.
This was a problem long before self checkout or higher minimum wages or any of that.
Hell, 20 years ago when I worked at Walmart we usually had about half the registers open most days. More when we were expecting a crowd. There was a fair amount of downtime, but not an excessive amount.
They don't even open the other lanes for xmas rush anymore...
TBF, I haven't seen a Christmas rush requiring all the lanes open since maybe 2010 or so. Combination of ordering online and/or just buying less I think.
And all the sales start in October, instead of the December now.
Thanks CEO's megayacht. I'll always pick self checkout over forced human interaction.
At my place a few remaining workers of normal checkout posts frequently run to self-checkout kiosks whenever they encounter random errors or booze (ID requirement), while the lines of customers form and grow on every side. They don't get paid more for doing extra, their further empoyment is at risk, and their work day is full of complaints on how sloppy both they are and how wacky that tech is. Somehow, yet to surprise of no one, the idea that could get rid of unnecessary discomfort ended up salting the wound.
It's almost like the driving force behind such innovations has rabies.
The CEO's megayacht thanks you for doing the cashier's work for free
You think that's bad, did you know some stores make you pick the stuff up from the shelves instead of the worker doing it for you!
Yeah, I'm not sure why I would be bothered by having to scan my own stuff, especially since I get through self-checkouts much faster. I value my time more than saving that physical action.
I beg to differ. I don't have pay attention in the normal checkout - that time is fully mine.
In the self checkout that's time I can't use on anything else.
Its specifically because I value my time I avoid the self checkout unless I am only picking up a couple things.
Ah yes the valuable time you have to spend standing in line, especially since where I'm from it takes longer to use regular checkouts.
I'd rather do the scanning and be out there quicker.
I mostly use the spare time to post on lemmy. On avg I probably get one more post in than the avg lemmy self checkout enthusiast.
I get back to home sooner where I can utilize my home PC to post with extra horse power
really depends. If you are a busy buiseness person, sure. but if you just stand there and wait for rhe people infront of you, you might as well do the self-checkout if its faster
My labour ain’t free.
This is why I always use the cashier lanes. I can goof around and check my phone while I wait. The store can pay somebody to check my items out
You don’t to talk to the cashiers, no one is forcing you to do anything and they won’t even remember you, it’s fine. Why so mad about having the smallest interaction with another human being?
i dont think you win this discussion by talking down other peoples fears / inconvenoences. a lot of people generally just really dont like this kind of interaction, and while i agree with the whole megayacht thing, but people's preferences should not be talked down upon
That’s very clearly not what I was saying, though. That person was acting like we’re forced to talk to the cashier and literally that’s not what happens. You rock up, they scan their stuff and maybe say “hello” and then you can just pack your bags and say “credit” and “no receipt” and take off.
Look I’m honestly fine with a self-checkout lane in some large stores and I’m not saying that there aren’t people with some much more serious issues they’re dealing with but we got way to many people with no excuses who just hate other human beings and that’s weird.
Because the cashier knows they are organic bananas. The self checkout has no idea.
Some of these people are fucking weird. Like the person you're replying to? Yeah, I would not want to know someone that antisocial IRL.
Maybe you're weird for making such a statement. Have you ever heard of social anxiety? It can be crippling.
You don't even have to speak to the checkout person. Yet lemmy treats anxiety as normal, memes abound! Yeah, that's fucking weird and anyone that crippled is, well, crippled, needs serious help.
I have crippling anxiety - and i overwhelmingly prefer a manned checkout.
Manned checkout:
Robot:
The robot tends to have significantly more human interaction, it's slower than having a professional do it, and the human interaction is SO much worse.
Different strokes for different folks, for sure. I don't particularly care either way but there are days that I only have a couple of items and zipping through self checkout is preferred.
Sometimes you want to just buy your shit in peace.
Lucky for both of you, that seems to be mutual
Yeah fuck workers amirite
Do you think about the shoe shiners losing their job when you choose to wear sports shoes instead of dress shoes? Would that be a valid argument to stop you? It's not my responsibility to go out of my way to make sure certain jobs stay relevant.
Hunter-gatherers must have been real mad when agriculture was invented
Should have become sex workers. That job is still relevant.
Agriculture is no longer relevant? Holy fucking shit, it's really the end times.
Little known fact, serfs bought a bunch of yachts with their ill-gotten hunter gatherer wealth, which is where the term "surfing" comes from
Stores having you do labor for free to replace workers and increase profit is not the same thing as a shoe shiner losing their job because of new types of shoes, like not even remotely the same issue.
You're not going out of your way to make sure certain jobs stay relevant, you're being forced to do free labor so these companies can kill those jobs, and you're seemingly complacent in that.
It used to be that you went to the counter and told the store worker what products you wanted and they'd collect them for you. Now I'm doing free labour collecting it all myself.
I'm not being forced to go to self-checkout, I deliberately choose to do so wherever it's available. Choosing not to do so for the benefit of cashiers' jobs would be going out of my way.
To be fair, my experience with self-checkout does not match what I see in the comments here. It has always been faster than the regular check-out wherever I go.
There used to be a Fresh & Easy near where I lived some years ago that had zero employees in store. I just went in, got what I needed, paid at self-checkout, and I was on my way. Perfect shopping experience.
Edit: already mentioned somewhere else in the comments, stores used to have all products behind the counter and you'd have to ask the merchant for the products (there are still a lot of places like that). But people don't complain about having to do the labor of picking up their own products from the shelves. Because you grew up used to this new way of doing things and you find it normal. People just try to rationalize their aversion to change.
Minimum wage did this. If they have to pay more than the natural rate for that labor they are going to hire as little as they can. Eventually things will slow and they will get through the queue but you will have to wait. But the company had no downtime for expensive labor.
The alternative was hiring a lot of people at an extremely low rate, meaning you end up with more labor than you need by a lot when things are slow, but at least you aren't paying much for that excess labor and your customers never wait so they are likely to return. The consumer really wins there but someone will have to be paid a low wage.
Have you been to other countries where they actually pay people a living wage? Cashiers can even sit. Imagine that!
Somehow big chains in some European countries can pay their employees a living wage and still make a profit, yet, in the US, the employees should be eating dirt in order for businesses to be profitable?
And as someone buying things in general, I prefer to go to stores and businesses where employees are at the very least paid minimum wage, if not more. Even if this will cost more. I know those business will be better for the community.
You are eating the lies of corporations if you think they cannot afford to pay their employees even minimum wage.
EDIT: Poe's law. I may have eaten an onion.
Yeah I've heard of those places. They don't even provide urine sacks and catheters! You have fifteen minutes a few times a day to walk allllll the way to the bathroom to relieve yourself. Shocking treatment.
You say that, but grocery stores keep posting record margins.
Yeah that's because they have a few very well paid people who figure out ways to crowbar their overlords' impossible goal of eternal growth into reality.
Whatever that means in practice, these filthy plebes will have to live with it.
Fucking lol, what a bootlicking moron.
iTs bEcAUsE TheY hAvE tO pAy bEloW poVErTy liNE WagEs
"natural rate" lol
The hate you must feel for those employees while waiting in line. Enough diving in mad brains for me today.