Honest mistake

Idk why people complain about self checkout. I absolutely despise having to interact with someone at the store. The fact that I have to be around all these people is bad enough please don't make me talk to them.
- I only complain about them when they get mad about me using my own unweighed bags or moving products around on the out feed table as I pack the bags.

Self-checkout is the best thing that happened to shops, I wish more had it. No waiting in long lines, no talking to people. Perfect.

Well wait in line then...
- But there's also a line for self checkout.

Nobody at the self checkout is holding me up because they are having a chat with the cashier. No one in the self checkout is holding me up because they want to talk about every item I purchased like it's some rare lost artifact. No one in self checkout is causing me to be "in the slow line" because one line feeds to multiple kiosks. No self checkout ever struck up an unwanted conversation with me, or caused me to roll my eyes in irritation with their inability to figure out how to pay wirh some obscure format, or wait for 10 mins for some stupid price check or price compare with a website or another store or whatever.
I get my shit, and I leave unbothered. I'm not working for the company any more than I am by picking my own food off the shelf. I am, however, unburdening myself of other people. I actively avoid places with no self checkout.
- I absolutely agree with all those points and I'm glad self-check oot exists, however... When you stand in line for 10 minutes at the hardware store to get up to one of four kiosks, and something scans as an invalid UPC. Now you're waiting for one cashier that servicing four registers. Or you're at Target and there's only four self checkouts open. Zero regular lanes and you've got a cart full of groceries You've just spend an hour curating. Each one of those checkouts is able to handle about two bags.
  
  Each one of those checkouts is able to handle about two bags.
  Fuck Walmart. With that said: the local one has huge flat spots (bigger than a normal checkout actually) with no scale for their self checkout, it's perfect
  
  I'm not advocating for there to not be normal lanes. Both have their use cases and yeah if I have an assload of shit that I can't be fucked to scan, I'll go to a normal lane and deal. But an overwhelming amount of the time, I just want to enter, get my shit, and leave without being hassled.
- Amen.

its funny at one regional market here, the cashiers are fed up with people being stupid and neet help or are even stealing. so sadly its disabled most of the time. at a different place, there keeps being a loooong line, but literaly noone uses the self checkout. it is so useful. if i forgot something or just gotta get coffee beans, i quickly swing by that place because i know no matter how busy it is, i dont have to wait in line xD

There are two stores at the end of the road into my neighborhood. The one on the other side has several self checkout stations so I exclusively go there now. I haven’t had to speak to anyone in months. It’s awesome

I use the self-checkout so I don't have to talk to anyone.
- That's why they are so good.
- Same

You can pull the self checkout option out of my rigid, dead, introverted hands.
- Most times the corpos have the employees watching you like a damn criminal during self-checkout, I find talking to the cashier much less awkward
  
  I haven't had this experience, thankfully. I usually have the opposite problem where I need assistance, and I look around helplessly as I wait for someone to notice me.
  
  Have you had that lovely experience where some giant camera overhead shows you it's recording your face on the screen as some kind of deterrent?
  That deterred me alright. From shopping there.
- Fuckin' conversators with their 'eye contact' its just bullshit.

I love self checkout. It allows me to scan avocados for my daily avocado toast as russet potatoes. Only 50 more years of that and I'll be able to afford a house!
- I pictured the people overseeing self checkout calling you the potato guy amongst themselves
  
  We 100% know and 95% of us don't care lol.
  Also, if any readers want to try this, the people most likely to care are older workers, but they're also the least likely to notice.
- Going "beep" (optional) and just pocketing every other item does the trick too. At least at Aldi. They skimp on security.
  
  I work in a secure area that requires every person entering to have and show id to security, whether you're recognized or not. They have these scanners that tell them if you're allowed or not. sometimes the scanner doesn't work, so they'll have printed sheets of paper that I'm sure is the equivalent, just takes longer.
  One day I came in, gave my ID, heard a "beep", got it back and continued on. About 10 seconds later my brain caught up to the very obvious vocal "beep" that came from the security guy. I have no idea if they just decided to say fuck it that day and let all the fun people in, or if just the speaker wasn't working and they were just having some fun.
  
  Your aldi has self checkout? None of the ones around me do.
  
  Aldo near me, in Aus, has good security. They do bag checks at the manned checkouts and the self checkouts and watch for mis-identified fruits and veg. I've only been caught "forgetting" to scan some items in my trolley twice, both at Aldi.
  
  If you move to SF you’ll have to learn credit card fraud
  (not all SF^, and in SF it’s only certain neighborhoods that do this)
  Especially if they play this hand
  
  Anyway, learned that liquor stores in India might operate exclusively with this method!
  PS: UBI when!!
- My local Kroger now will say the name of the item you just keyed in very loudly. "Put your bananas in the bagging area!"
  
  "PUT YOUR HEMORRHOID CREAM IN THE BAGGING AREA!"

Look, saying “I don’t work here” to avoid using self-checkout completely misses the point. Technology has always evolved by shifting little tasks onto the user in exchange for speed and convenience. It’s not about “working for free,” it’s just self-service - like when grocery stores first let people grab stuff off shelves instead of asking a clerk behind a counter. At the time, some people probably whined about it too, but now nobody thinks twice because it’s way faster and gives you more control. Same thing with ATMs - you used to have to stand in line and talk to a bank teller just to get cash, now you punch a few buttons yourself. Are you ‘working for the bank’ when you use an ATM? No, you’re just getting your money faster without the hassle. Self-checkout is the same idea: a tiny bit of effort, way more convenience. Complaining about it like it’s some moral stand is honestly missing the bigger picture.
- That'd be a great point if self-checkout was anywhere near as convenient as an ATM. But it's not, it's literally the same machine a cashier uses, bolted onto a card reader. There's no added convenience unless you're buying literally only one item. It's not innovation, it's outsourcing labor to the customer so the company can cut jobs and boost profits. You're doing 100% of the work they used to pay Someone for.
  
  Not to mention the constant paranoia and assumption that you're stealing from them whilst saving them an immense amount of labour costs. Cameras watching your every move and "UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA".
  Makes for such an enjoyable shopping experience...
  
  You are completely wrong about this. The cashier UI is less friendly and has lots of functions. Many are designed to be used with a keyboard or with small touch targets.
  The user UI can basically do nothing but add items and pay. It is drastically simplified with few larger buttons and a greater degree of thought put into UI as you don't get to train every user to use your UI.
  
  Ah, but you're forgetting the emotional labor of forcing your lips to say "hi" while awkwardly shifting your eyes away from the cashier because after 20 years of life in your lonely, desolate suburban wasteland with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no people to see, you've grown unimaginably socially anxious and you've completely forgotten how to talk to anyone.
  Frankly, I think you're just a luddite, or something. You.. hate.. barcode scanners, just admit it.
  
  Bad design, no effort for user ease. I wouldn't use that.
- Except self checkout isn't faster. The professionals that check you out do this every day, they're way faster than me.
  Not to mention 100% of the time I use self checkout, the machine doesn't realize I've put something in the bagging area and I need a staff member to sort out the broken machine, but because there's 1 staff member doing this for a dozen machines, they're constantly busy sorting out these broken machines so you often have to wait minutes for them to fix it.
  
  Not sure about your lower-than-ideal scanning success rate machines, possibly a location issue. The machines i use work pretty much flawlessly and even if the process itself might be a little longer, the lines are usually nonexistent compared to a cashier.
- I prefer to go to the bank and withdraw cash, now that my bank is ATM only I want lower card fees or something. The bank saves money on this deal at my expense.
  Same thing with self checkout at the groceries stores, they save a lot of money while I do the work. I could only accept it if I got like a 5-10% discount.
  
  Why would you want to wait in line and only be able to access your money during 9-5 M-F
  
  Machines still cost money to purchase and operate lol. So fucking entitled.

This is such a boomer take.
- Nah fuck that, the machines are scabs, I want someone to earn a paycheck for work.
  
  I'd rather they do a more fun and fulfilling job than to do menial tasks just because it has always been like that.
  Shit jobs disappearing is a good thing.
  
  Nah fuck that ain't having time to hang around the whole checkout lane bullshit just to luddite around.
  
  Why? To maintain capitalism as something we can pretend is viable for one more generation, just long enough for you to die before you might have to change?
  
  It's shit work that most people don't want to do.
  
  All that's going to do is pull employees from other areas of the store when it gets busy and the rest of the time they will have like 2 cashiers. Even if they did switch back to registers they won't hire a significant amount of people.
  When I worked at Walmart I absolutely hated being sent up to the register. I hated talking to customers and I didn't like that it took me away from finishing my job and my manager would argue with me about why my area wasn't done when they sent me up to the register for 6 hours and therefore did not have the time to finish my work.
  
  I have never met a machine that offered to weigh your bags before you start that didn't immediately fuck everything up if you accepted that offer
  
  Then you will pay higher prices.
  I load garden shit at Lowe's. Sometimes we get blown out and people bitch for faster service. OK. We can always hire more people, any given business' top expense. Then we charge more. Then the customer bitches about prices and goes to Home Depot. Where they don't have as much staff. Rinse and repeat.

To me, this has always been more of a boomer complaint.
- The things boomers complain about aren't always wrong. I ain't their damn employee.
  
  I'm also not an employee of the vending machine company. I'm also not an employee of the gas station.
  I don't really see what added value a cashier checking out my items for me has.
  
  Like most things, the answer lies in the middle. You should be able to choose either.
  
  I always wonder if people complained about stores when we started to get the merchandise out of the warehouse ourselves.
  Something like, "why isn't there a clerk getting the groceries on my list for me, I don't work here, I shouldn't have to go into the back and get my own shit."
  I prefer bagging my own shit anyways when I go shopping. I don't break shit and at least in my area it looks like they disabled the weight shit or set the tolerances higher so I'm not constantly told to bag something I already did or getting told I bagged something without scanning .
  Now it's pretty good actually.
  
  I mean, sure, I'm not there employee either, but I'm also not going to be snarky with a similar response.
- People working those jobs aren't from a passion for registers or retail commerce. They don't have many options or can only work part time to accept a low paying job with few responsibilities other than keeping accurate count when making change. I'll prefer cashiers until we have better social support for people that need those jobs.
  
  I agree 100%.
- Those self checkout lanes are only there so they can cut jobs while charging more for groceries.
  
  I'll defer to @whotookkarl 's comment as they put it best. No one "wants" those jobs.
- I mean we can agree on some things, no? I literally want to stand there while someone checks out my stuff. I have to work to pay for stuff? Oh sweaty.
  If I have to self checkout, I should get a discount since an employee was not needed.
  
  Sure, I'm not saying it's exclusively a boomer complaint, just that boomers tend to complain about it more from my perspective.
  I'm all for getting out of there as fast as possible. If I'm in line at self checkout and a cashier says "I can get you here", I'm over there.
  But generally, I prefer self checkout.
  
  That discount is negated by the higher theft rate.

OK Boomer.
Do you get the stuff off the shelf for yourself though, or give a list to the stock boy like when you were growing up?
- Look at these plebs pumping their own gas
- I just click a few buttons and my groceries appear at my door in a few hours. It's like magic!
  
  It's just exploiting different workers, not magic
- I mean... That is effectively what Instacart and Uber are.
- lol do you see companies passing down the savings to consumers for doing work that was once done by workers.
  It has nothing to do with boomer mentality, whatever that means.
- Haven't really needed to since COVID actually

The self-checkout at Aldi is a godsend. Way too many times I've been on my lunch break trying to buy a sandwich and snack, only for some old git to be using the time at the till to have a chinwag with the cashier!
By all means, have a chat with the cashier, but not when there's a massive queue of people waiting behind you! Also, you know those shelves near the window with the sign saying "Pack here"? That's not a suggestion. Pack your shopping away from the tills so people can keep buying stuff.
- Man I always hear such good things about Aldi. They started building one near us and I got excited. I was gonna see what the job situation was like because I heard they were kinda based.
  Nah. It's reportedly a Taylorist hamster wheel. Unrealistic productivity metrics that, if you really bust your butt, are rewarded with tighter metrics. Sucks, man.

My local grocery store self checkout after every single item:
Unexpected item in bagging area.
If they're going to treat me like I'm stealing the groceries I'm paying for, making the process slow and inefficient, then I'm just going to go to the regular checkout and not deal with it.
- Haven't heard that in forever. It was hell for some time, but it seems a solved problem everywhere I've gone, for many years.
  
  There's a sensitivity setting that can be adjusted. At first most stores were set to +/- 1oz, so even legitimate items that have varying packing weights could set it off. My local stores have adjusted it so that you really have to put something heavy on there to trigger that alert. They also don't seem to care if you take stuff off the scale anymore, which is nice because it's never large enough even if you have an item limit.
  
  Maybe I should give the ones near me another try then - thanks for the heads up.
- Yeah and if you have alcohol you wait eleven minutes for the one employee who is supposed to be helping, to actually notice there are people waiting. Then she realizes five people need help. Gets the cigarettes for the one guy but it takes three trips to the cage and back to get the right ones. Helps the lady with the coupons they grabbed the wrong items for. Helps the really old person who can't even stand scan and bag all of their groceries (why were they in self checkout anyway?).
  Finally comes over to my white-bearded ass after 20 minutes and they could just hit the "customer is over 40" button, but they want to see my id. Yeah I'll just wait in line for the one cashier.
  
  This problem is caused by shopping at busy times, not self-checkouts.
- I find it fascinating around here that all the self checkouts do that except Walmart which is actually pretty good. I usually go to the cashiers at other places because the self checkouts suck, and the cashiers bag stuff better than me.
  
  Walmart's self checkout probably doesn't accuse you of stealing out loud. They want to wait until they can "prove" you've stolen over $1000 worth of goods over time so they can charge you with - I forget - either grand larceny or grand theft, which are felonies.

Self-check out makes it easier to steal from the mega corporation. 🤷🏻‍♂️
- They're the most surveilled places in the store and now stores are looking into face recognition tech to effectively ban thieves from stores
  They might not care about small stuff, but repeatedly doing it will definitely put you on their radar
- honestly no, you'd hypothetically probably be better off putting something in your bag than risk being one of those times the machine asks a worker over to scan shit
  
  Lol, the cashier dgaf. They come over, input the code to canal the alert and go back to their chat, 90% of the time without even looking. The times they do look, they tell you what's wrong and you fix it.
- It's not stealing, it's getting paid to do the cashiers job. Honestly I underpay myself every day i go to work at the self checkout.
  
  Why waste time in a queue? It's quicker to self checkout and get back to my own thing.
  Self checkout hate is plain stupid, it's for the customers who wanna get in an out quick.

"I don't work here, and I refuse to be a class traitor." Fuck corporate greed that kills jobs for more profit.

I tend to buy so much booze that self check out is a hassle.
- It's always a hassle for me. Items not scanning. The machine screaming about the item not weighing correctly. The machine screaming at you because you moved your item.
  It's great for quick purchases. But I'm going to a cashier if I have more than 10 items.
  
  This isn't problem too. If I have a couple things, fine self checkout might be better, but every store has replaced most of the regular lanes with self lanes and more often than not I have an order of sufficient size that the hassle of self checkout isn't worth it for exactly the reasons you state. Code doesn't scan, items being moved or bagged too soon or too late. Also the speed at which the scanners work is awful. I've worked as a cashier, and the scanning didn't have any delay between items, but the self checkout is rate limited to an asinine level that, going back to my opening point, is frustrating for anything other than a few items.

If I look at this topic the American skewedness is so obvious.
In Belgium the only thing you get by going the old fashioned way is they scan your shit and push it off at the end or you need to rush to put it in your cart. Same in The Netherlands. There are no baggers.
So yeah, let me just scan my items, put them in my bags like I want them, scan the thing at the self checkout, put scanner in tray, pay, walk out.
Every so often you get a bag check and if less people cheated on their scanning there would be less of that (is what they hope you think)
- I don't know how the self-checkout is constructed in Belgium, but in the US (at least, the stores I go to), the self-checkout is a small kiosk with a small weight-sensitive platform where you bag your groceries. You're supposed to scan each item and then place it in the bag so the scale can register it, and then scan and bag the next item, and so on. The problems are that:
  The technology is buggy and doesn't always recognize that you've bagged an item, so it locks up and won't let you scan your next item until an attendant comes to assist.
  Certain items like cooking wine or cough syrup or matches require proof that you're old enough to purchase it (again, an attendant has to get involved)
  If god forbid you take a second to rearrange items in one of your bags to make more room for your next item, the stupid machine nags you and then - yep you guessed it - locks up until an attendant comes.
  The machine-monitored security camera sometimes misinterprets what it sees you doing. For example, one time I was done scanning my items and realized I was still holding onto my shopping list, so I tucked it into my pocketbook as I was getting my credit card out. The camera must've thought I was stealing something, so it locked up until an attendant came to review the video footage.
  The bagging platform is too small for a full week's worth of groceries, so it's really only useful if you're picking up a handful of items, meaning you still need to go through an attended line if you're doing your weekly shop.
  Honestly I prefer bagging my own groceries, and if the problems with self-checkout were fixed, I'd be happy to only do self-checkout. But the way it is now, it's annoying to use.
  
  Your self checkouts oversee bagging and lock up constantly? No wonder you hate it.
  
  We had that weight platform system like early days of self checkout. It sucked hard and thankfully they just gave up on it.
  Do still have age checks when buying alcohol and doing self checkout
  
  The only time it's ever useful for me is when I have to come in and grab 2-3 things fast.
  I hate that it basically kills cashier jobs and I hate having to do a weekly grocery on them because of how shitty the systems are... It's to the point where I'll avoid places where there's no cashier the day I do my grocery or do it online and pick it up or get it delivered.
  
  Around here there are a variety of supermarket solutions. Morrisson's for example near me has about a dozen cashier lines, usually 3 or so open unless there's a rush. They have a self-checkout section like people are describing, with the small bagging area (about big enough to cage a toddler), maybe 10 of these. They also have a trolley self-checkout area, which is the same but has a bagging area big enough to cage a lioness.
  M&S have cashiers, basket self-checkout, and a third scan-as-you-shop section, where you put things in your basket and scan them, and on your way out you put the scanner back and tap your phone and bag stuff, or if you're using a trolley, just push it out to your car, whatever.
  
  Yeah most self checkout at grocery stores is hot garbage for all the reasons you mentioned and more.
  My favorite self check out experience is at Uniqlo. You walk up to what is effectively a plastic bucket with an iPad attached. Toss your shit in the bucket it shows you what it thinks you put in there and you click ok and tap you CC. It takes like 30s.
  Grocery stores are just cheap and won't put the 5 cent RFID tag on things.
  
  Polosh self checkout:
  One cashier per 6-8 machines, on watch to take care of age verification or occasional lockuo
  Machines do lock up when weight doesn't match...and unlock when scale decides that it's okay after all. Happens sometimes with lighter things, or when someone fucks up values in software (once met error where buns were 900g per piece xD Cashier gal was busyyyy that day, had their fixed code, but until it got into menu, they had to punch it themselves)
  Age verification, of course, is there
  There's only scale. Sometimes you need to also scan your receipt to leave. That's all.
  Sometimes that cashier taking care of self checkouts even gets their own command center - console that can allow to give age verification without physically moving or to bypass weight alerts (useful when cashier sees from far away you carry, for example, hair bands. )
  
  American here. Haven't had most, or any, of the hassle in a long time. #2 is a fucking pain though. Yes, I'm 54 and am allowed to buy spray paint. OTOH, the attendant usually clears it before I even notice.
  
  In my supermarket they don't have the scale under your bag and no camera, and the plagform is just big enough for a weeks groceries, so it works a lot better
  
  The store nearest my house, where I shop a lot, is a bit more upscale. They've installed fancy self-checkout kiosks that tell you to continue scanning items while waiting for the attendant to come deal with an issue. The giant, discount grocery store with locations on the edge of town have enough room that they've installed self-checkout lanes that have about a 2-meter conveyor belt to a large bagging area. It's enormous.
- American here. Love going to Aldi. Cheap as hell and I can bag as I like it. (My first job was grocery bag boy, I know how I want it.)
- I think Amazon tried that here and shut it down
  This only works in a respectful society that isn't exploited
  
  So one in which Amazon doesn't exist!

Self-checkout gang here. I like my groceries bagged a certain way and it's mildly infuriating to sort stuff on the conveyor belt only for the cashier and/or bagger to mix them randomly in the bags.
- You can always bag yourself, they will absolutely let you do it.
  
  Yeah, but then I’m holding up the line as everyone’s watching and waiting for me to finish bagging. I also have to go back to the terminal to pay after the cashier is done ringing up everything, then go back to bagging if I’m not done yet; all the while telling the cashier and/or bagger not to help. At least at the self-checkout, no one is specifically waiting for me to finish.
- Having somebody bag your items is such a USA thing.
  
  Eh, I come from a 3rd world country and baggers are common. In fact, it makes more sense that jobs like those are more common in places with cheaper labor.
- Cashiers everywhere around here stopped to put things in the bags for at least 10 years now. I still remember the good times when the bags were carefully and properly put by them with all the items magically fitting. Good old times. Nowadays there's barely a difference between self checkout and using a human operated one. The main difference is that on self checkout I'm not rushed and can take my time to put the items how I want in the bags.

Cashier line: Empty
Me: "I don't come here to talk to people"

Any mistake during self-checkout and my local supermarkets will consider it shoplifting and pursue it all the way to court if needed. I'm not running that risk.
- Lol as if...
  
  Article in Danish where the head of public affairs for COOP, one of the largest retail chains in Denmark, explicitly states that they'll report anyone who forgets to scan even the smallest item.
  
  Speak for yourself. I had a security guard who watched me scan then try to run up to me when I finished to recheck my stuff.
  Like dude, you watched me from the beginning.

My grocery store recently got rid of their self checkout machines, and I'm actually upset by it. It went from having 6 self checkout lines plus the cashiers to only the cashiers, and now it takes like three times longer to buy my shit.
Also I'm team self check out because I dont want to talk to people
- The dollar store near me recently did the same. Almost.
  The self checkout machine is still physically there. Presumably all the internals are as well. It's just turned off and now, as you said, it takes three times longer to buy things.
- The grocery store here got rid of 2 out of 5 cashier lines to introduce self-checkout stations. They were in full operation for two months or so. Since then they've been mostly closed for whatever reason. Now half of the self-checkouts are back open, but they hung up a sign that you're only supposed to use them, if you have 10 items or less. Who goes to a grocery store to buy only 10 items? Yeah, I really don't know what they're doing. Were they experiencing a massive spike in theft or why did they introduce these self-checkouts only to then nerf them out of usefulness?
  
  I do that all the time. I have 4 super markets I can easily walk to, so I usually just get the stuff I need for whatever I'm gonna cook. Don't usually do the whole "weekly shopping" thing. Makes it more annoying to plan for when you need fresh stuff, and how long you can store it.
  If I already have some of the ingredients I need, it isn't that uncommon that it's less than 10 items total.

I love it when a cashier checkout is available because everyone is doing the self-checkout and I can get my stuff bagged properly (I’m terrible at bagging up). I’ll even chat with them as they’re in the middle of the most boring shift imaginable.
- Workers bagging your stuff at a store is so incredibly weird to me. In Sweden you have to bag your own stuff and afaik it has always been like that.
- as a former cashier, fuck talking to people, the mind's enough
- Cashiers no longer pack bags in my area, unless you’re paying for the bag.
  
  Shrinkflation you say?
  Weird that the money supply can grow so fast, raising home values to ungodly levels, while we keep getting worse service; you cant even put an overhead bag or choose a seat on an airplane anymore, but nothing to see here inflation is only 2%.
- Will they bag groceries into reusable bags, or are you using plastic bags?
  
  At every store near me they'll use your reusable bags if you have them.

Honestly with my social anxiety, self checkout works perfectly for me. I feel a hard to describe tension when being rung up by most folks that I don't feel when ringing myself up, and if I'm just popping in for a few things I'd rather not stress myself out more than I need to.
- Honestly, even without social anxiety, not having to spend the effort to do basic small talk and engage with someone makes it pretty convenient sometimes. The only time I really use the cashier line is when I have a lot of stuff or my kids with me.

Nope, I gotta price match. I will wait for the cashier.

If you don't trust me to the point where you're going to point 2 security cameras at me while I checkout, and this is your idea of "more efficient", then I can grocery shop somewhere else.
- 8 hous at $15 an hour is $120
  Two security cameras. At most $2000
  Assuming the register is basically the same price
  Do you want to pay a person to stand and scan groceries for 2 weeks for $1200?
  Or do you want to spend $1200 on cameras that will last years?
  30k+ a year vs. $1200 once
  People could steal 29k worth of stuff, and the company would still makes the same profit.
  The cameras are basically security theater anyways. No one is ever going to watch the footage unless needed.
  The efficiency is definitely there
  
  Cameras are there to lower insurance premiums. That's why for years and years every security camera video looked like it was filmed on a potato because there was no incentive to upgrade. The rise of phone cameras has caused the price of 4k cameras to plummet though so they are getting better.
  
  Sure, what you've described is cost efficiency for the store. I think the person you're replying to is more concerned with efficiency in their shopping experience, which won't be improved by lower costs given that the savings will just be funneled to corporate execs and board members (depending where you're shopping).
- Hate to tell you but there are cameras on the "regular" checkout lanes too and they think everyone is stealing all the time.

At my usual supermarket, you can take a scanner thingy and scan your items as you put them in your cart. Once you're at the lane, you put back the scanner in place, pay for your stuff, and it's done.
- You're still doing the work, though. And without pay.
  
  "What do you mean you take the items from the shelves? And you have to walk around the store yourself?! How is that 'convenience'? You're doing all their work without pay!"
  — Probably someone's grandma when the first supermarkets were opening.
  
  You people are really like those humans in wall-e lmao

Self checkout (at least in my experience) is now just become "regular checkout" with extra steps.
Each time I scan an item it refuses to scan, so I need to wait for an associate to approach me.
- This hasn't happened to me in years.
  
  Lasers read the most fucked up UPCs now days. I can point my Lowe's phone at a filthy, half-torn UPS, in sunlight, and it reads. I'm more surprised when it doesn't work instantly.
- I experienced this 15 years ago. I have not experienced this in the last 5.
  Except home Depot, fuck home depot
- This is user error.
  Should be MAX like 5% of items give you an issue. That’s mostly just due to age approval for some items.
  
  So if you buy 20 items each visit, you'll always get one item. 5% is a lot.
  The age approval thing you either misunderstood or you just tried to put words into NarrativeBear's mouth.

Not only do I not work here, I wish to spend as little time here as possible.
So I’ll hand the scanning and bagging task to someone who has been doing it every day for years and can get that done quickly, in the lane where they provide enough table space to actually work, two people to do the two jobs of scanning and bagging… and all that without the extra steps of weighing every individual item, stopping for assistance if you look at it funny, and stopping to upsell you on the fucking loyalty program.
Grocery pickup > normal checkout > self checkout.
- They aren't nearly as motivated to go as fast as I am, and they can only bag one person at a time and have lines, while usually there are 4-6 machines wide open for me to jump onto immediately.
  I fucking hate going to the grocery store though.
  EDIT: also lonely old people will stop and chit chat sometimes slowing shit even more.
  
  Probably just different grocery stores with different patterns and workflows.
  My experience is a normal checkout line is usually a reasonable wait so unless someone bought three carts of groceries they’ll get through before too long.
  In contrast the self checkout is a clusterfuck of idiots who don’t know how to use it, people not sure where to stand while they wait because there aren’t really lines, and 1 frazzled attendant trying to cover 6-8 people simultaneously screwing up their self-checkout.
  I fucking hate going to the grocery store though.
  On this we agree!
  
  Ugh, yeah, i hate customers that take their damn time. if there's no line, i may go to a traditional register, but i highly prefer waitig for self check out rather than waiting for a cashier
  
  I didn’t realize this was such a contentious subject.
  When this first became a big thing like 15 years ago, I feel like most people hated them. Then it becomes normalized, society shifts.

It really depends. I do it in one shop because its more convinient. I have to put the stuff only one time in my hands.
get the scanner on entry of the shop.
scan item at shelf and put it in your bags
repeat 2
scan exit
pay
put bags from shopping cart into car.
- That sounds like a dream self-service option.
  in my experience it is:
  Go put it all the things in the cart
  Unpack each thing from the cart.
  For each thing: scan it, weigh it, maybe you pack it in a bag. You get three bags, so no real option to organize, and hope you like plastic bags. Also zero table space to work with.
  As you go, put the things you scanned on the cart with the stuff you have yet to scan, don’t mix anything up though!
  if you scan too fast or encounter an item that is wrong in the system: get fucked wait a few min for an attendant to punch in their PIN so you can try again. If that doesn’t work, get fucked wait for a supervisor to come around and override whatever shit their system is doing wrong.
  If you scan too slow or look at a prompt too long get fucked an attendant will be on your ass instantly to demand to know what you’re doing wrong. Yes this is contrary to the above wait time, and I don’t know why both of those things are true.
  So yeah you can probably see why I hate self checkout.
  
  I would hate that too.

I like the scan and go in the Sam’s club app. Scan the items with your phone, and if the QR code receipt is visible when you walk through the gate thing they usually wave you on without a person checking.

Then just wait in line.

It’s reasonable to have a store provide a service where an employee processes the customer’s items to check for damage, verify prices, and bag them intelligently.
But it’s not worth the risk of getting the wrong chatty cashier.
No, I’ll roll the dice and scan them myself. If I hit an “unexpected item in bagging area” error that requires someone to come over and help me, I can always burn down the store and run away and try again somewhere else.
- To each their own, for sure, but I love a chatty cashier.

I go at my own pace since I'm doing their job essentially. It's their fault they didn't put enough self-checkout lanes. It gives me time to bag and organize everything logically before returning to my vehicle. If they wanted speed they should either hire more cashiers or build more self-checkout.
- Fuck that I'm there to get my shit and go, the less interaction the better. For me, personally, it's ideal.
  Sucks about the low paying jobs tho =/

Now playing The Bravery - An Honest Mistake

A local grocery store had self check out lanes and removed them and replaced them with 5 express check outs. I feel conflicted about it.

Seriously, you want me to do the job of a cashier and a bagger, give me a 15% discount or go fuck yourself.
- Where do you have baggers?
  
  In stores that haven't outsourced that, free of charge, to the customer already.

ah yes lets make things harder on service workers just because they exist. Make some random stocker that's already been repeatedly threatened to be fired for not meeting targets stop what they're doing and come ring you up and scan all your shit. If they're lucky the boss will let them stay over and work off the clock to get their stuff done. As someone who has 2 degrees and is underemployed because our society is corrupt and broken: fuck this type of behavior. Fuck people who bully service workers. I suppose next there will be a meme about bullying fast food workers for being worthless members of society. ha. ha. where funny.