In Deutschland noch schlimmer. 🤭
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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Fun fact: This is why a huge amount of people don't use self-checkout despite it potentially saving a lot of time. They are afraid the person behind them is going to judge them like this while trying it for the first time.
Super fun fact, the people who aren't idiots at the self checkout, are not notable and therefore are not noted. It's the morons who stand out.
Just like with driving. The guy in front is always too slow, and the guy behind is always going too fast. Because you don't notice when the inverse is true.
I avoid self checkout for different reasons.
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I'm not getting a discount while I have to do more work and the supermarket less.
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I take extra responsibility, if I forget to scan one item I could get in actual trouble during a random check.
Further:
- Most self-checkouts are too small and unwieldy to hold two shoppings bags when you're packaging a week worth of purchases.
- You still need an employee to come over and certify that you're over 18 if you buy alcoholic drinks, and there's usually just one for many tills who is usually busy with somebody else.
- I like to pack my weekly shopping in specific ways (cold items together, fragile stuff on top, weight balanced) and whilst in a normal checkout I can do packaging in parallel with somebody else doing the checkout plus already place things roughly ordered on the threading band to the cashier, in the self-checkout it's just me and things are in whatever order it went into the trolley so it takes at least twice as long.
- They often have quirks, such as for example the one I used more recently would not let me start unless I put a bag in the output compartment first, so I needed to have or buy a bag even though I was buying just 1 item (mind you this might have just been trying to force people to buy a bag, since many forget to bring one - in other words, structuring the software to force people to spend money which is a form of enshittification).
- They're non standard and each store has a different model, with different physical structure and different software with a different UI with buttons in different places and often different quirks, so anything you learn beyond the basics about how to use one effectively is often non-translatable to self-checkouts in different stores.
- They often don't take cash. Cash is good, it means your buying habits are not in some database somewhere and used for things like having an AI estimate how much an airline company can wring out of you for a ticket for a flight or a Health Insurer assessing your risk profile and upping your price, it works always even during outages (of power, of your bank, of payment processors) and studies have shown people save money if they pay in cash because they tend to spend less (something about the physicality of parting ways with your notes and coins makes people be more wary of paying more than if it's just a number on a screen).
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My number one reason for avoiding self checkout is that I want people to have jobs.
If fewer and fewer people use the manned cashier lines, there will be fewer manned cashier lines.
If it's busy, and I'm just grabbing a few things, sure, I'll divert to the self checkout, but if there's nobody in line, or just a few people in line, I'll avoid self checkout. I'm not going to be the reason someone lost shifts.
- It’s often very time saving to go through checkout. It is really that much hassle to scan your own items? If you’re using a card you typically handle that yourself anyway and many places already have you bag your own goods.
- you’re not going to get in any real trouble if you forget one item. If they happen to check and you did, simply go pay for it, or say “oops, missed that, here take it back I’ll get it next time” if it’s not needed.
number 2 works less well if you are off white
🎶 the land of the freeeeeeeee 🎶
🙄
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I remember self checkout arriving in 2008 when I was living in the arse-end of Ireland. Took quite a few years for it to arrive anywhere in France, I guess because we could clearly see it was gonna kill more jobs... anyway, they didn't take over but for little old me who is used to it, it's a godsend when I'm faced with families doing their weekly shopping or, worse, pensioners...
And yet, somehow, after all these years, I regularly meet people who indeed seem to have never faced one. No hate on them, I just find it amazing! And I always wonder what suddenly pushed them over, made them decide "today is the day I face my fear and confront the Beast!"
No matter what line I pick at the supermarket, that’s the line that will have a technical issue, a grandma with 200 coupons, a guy who wants to scan 50 lottery tickets, and a price check that takes 10 minutes.
Also no matter what spot I pick in line, that’s the spot where people decide to pass through
That the saving grace of self-checkout lines; it tends to be one line for a dozen checkouts. So the dense fucker clasping their block of cheese to their chest - in the manner of fleeing refugee carrying a child - while the machine repeatedly begs them to "please place the item in the bagging area" only slows down the line a little bit, but the Hutt going supernova at the cashier because they can't use a different supermarket's app's discount code for 15% off Kleenex on a 3L bottle of Pepsi and demanding to see the manager grinds everything to a halt until they're adequately soothed.
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And so you blame the person whose thrown into having to use a self checkout with little to no instruction having to figure it out instead of the corpo execs who wanted to siphon a few local jobs into their new yachts?
If that person can't even read a screen or do a minimum of reasoning, yes.
In the Netherlands , 18% of the population can’t properly read (functioneel analfabeet).
Yeah I didn’t believe that either first time I read that.
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Working with office and business types all day long in a highly technical field, I will say this: people don't even bother reading when it's literally their job to read, understand and act upon something.
I'm not even going to touch the minimum of reasoning thing.
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Either that, or I have to wait for an employee myself for the stupidest reason, i.e. that I've brought a canvas bag that they have to verify I didn't steal.
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If you’re there for a bag of brown sugar or a carton of half and half self checkout makes sense.
I’ve used scanners outside of this retail environment and I know how to pack both a vehicle and a box well. But the awkward height, shape, configuration of self checkout and its bags or lack thereof turns me into a fingerless, blind man trying to use a calculator.
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OMG this.
Person in front checking out:
BEEP
Lays item on the scale, but is leaning on the scale.
PLEASE REMOVE ITEM FROM THE SCALE
Picks item up
Please put item on the scale
puts item on the scale but has their hand on the scale still
PLEASE REMOVE ITEM FROM THE SCALE
HELP IS ON THE WAY
(help was not on the way)
Them: These things NEVER WORK!!!!
30 seconds later the POS resets and lets them try again.
me: Stop touching the scale, just leave you item there and back off
it works
They scan the next item and place it on the scale and leave their hand on the scale.
PLEASE REMOVE ITEM FROM THE SCALE
Every single item, they never learned. I eventually went to stand in the single manned line that had 15 people in it.
I learned after a software update my local store now glitched if you put down a bag before you start scanning, it won’t let you proceed past the first item bagging without override. So now I wait and put the bag down with the first item so it won’t notice the specific bag weight and won’t force the person to help.
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My husband was that guy, but I trained him. Eventually.
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I like self check because it's less interaction with people, mostly. Also, you can rip 30 packs of PBR near the handle and just scan the can instead on the box.
A 30-pack for a six-pack price is a good deal.
But yes, they are shifting labor to customers.
I'm surprised that:
- You don't get flagged for a human to check your ID
- The weight doesn't flag you
Mos def.
They check ID but I've never had them scrutinize the price. I think they are just focused on the ID.
I hold the 30 pack and scan near the handle (which I have ripped a little) to scan the can (which I have rotated). Place case on ground to save room for other groceries.
Yaknow that tracks. No one at self checkout will give a shit. Underpaid.
I hate how everyone with a billion items in a cart goes through the smaller, 1-3 items checkouts that have no belts, while people with 1-3 items are all at the belted lanes. Why are y'all so bass ackwards?
I personally really like self checkout. Even with a full cart im in and out significantly faster than most everyone else. I dont get how people get tripped up at them but my god Is it so many. I would like to have the option to remove something I accidentally scanned without needing someone though. We finally got passed the bag scale issues this is the next hurdle!
As a side note I only do self check with a full cart because im a late night shopper I would never in a million years do it during busy hours.
What kills me is when I'm behind an old person attempting to use a check like it's 1989. I haven't been to a grocery store that accepts checks in the past decade, I just don't understand why they think it will suddenly change back to how it was, and they always act angry and confused when stores don't accept their checks even though like I said I haven't seen a store that accepts checks in the past decade
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Everyday driving to work is almost the same experience for me. Not too sure they are even sober.
If there is a cashier available, then I refuse to use self checkout.
These things seem to be meant for people buying a few items, not for 250 items a family of 4 would have In a cart.
This is the most true thing anyone has ever said.
The problem is that, at least over here, every supermarket chain seems to have vastly different machines.
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