Honest mistake

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's shit work that most people don't want to do.

Nah fuck that ain't having time to hang around the whole checkout lane bullshit just to luddite around.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I agree 100%.

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.

Maybe I should give the ones near me another try then - thanks for the heads up.

Your self checkouts oversee bagging and lock up constantly? No wonder you hate it.

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.

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

Polosh self checkout:

1. One cashier per 6-8 machines, on watch to take care of age verification or occasional lockuo
2. 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)
3. Age verification, of course, is there
4. 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.

So one in which Amazon doesn't exist!

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%.

At every store near me they'll use your reusable bags if you have them.

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.