Learning on the job

In Deutschland noch schlimmer. 🤭

that's why one line for multiple checkouts is better

Is it not the standard? Every store with self-checkout I've been to has a single line for all machines. I've even seen some stores with a single line for regular checkout.
- Not standard here, but it's a mix. Same applies to other checkouts: so many people are doing the devil may know what, I'm terrible at picking the fastest queue.
- Self check at Sam's Club at other club stores works in a one line per checkout way, where I am at least
- Some places it's unclear, like Lowe's home improvement stores. Most people there sort of gravitate to a one-line-for-all-kiosks arrangement but there's often one douchebag who think everybody else is standing there for no reason and cuts in.
- well, not in Jordan's hood
Where I live the grocery stores all have groups of 6+ self checkouts that are reliable enough that only one or two might be out at the same time but generally work, all of the 'too many items' issues have been sorted out, and they are in places where people just naturally form lines and take the next free one. It works great and is so much better than checkout lines ever were as one person going slow doesn't hold up everyone else.
Went on a work trip to a larger city and holy hell I understand why people there would hate self checkout. Forced lines, machines that constantly required human assistance, etc. That would suck to interact with regularly.
- Yeah, self-chekout in the 'burbs is fantastic, we have like 4-8 machines and most of the time, at least half are available.
- I have the same experience as you and live in a big city, I guess it depends on what country and how up-to-date the hardware is, it used to be like you said but the past 5 years it's been great and I always use it.

Not only the self checkout. I usually end up behind someone who's new to the concept of exchanging goods for legal tender and needs an introduction to it.

This is of course after they have told the story about why they're in the store, starting with the new testament and moving on from there...

I spend a lot of time thinking about how it's not my place to judge these people, but I think very few of them would manage to sit the right way on the toilet without outside assistance.

People on their cell phone who act surprised and annoyed that the act of checking out requires a brief moment of their attention.
- At every checkout you pay twice. Attention and money. If you're doing it correctly.
"Can I go ahead of you in line? My kid is acting up. Great thanks. (To cashier) I'd like to buy this alcohol and cigarettes with these food stamps that I acquired totally legally. No? Let's take several minutes to discuss if there's any way around the law. Now that that's over, I'll pay with a check. Oh, also, can I get 20 scratch off tickets? I just want to scratch them off while you wait. Here, I have a giant roll of cash that I will use, but don't worry, I wasn't doing this to make things go faster. Now is my chance to try to do a cash-changing scam on you."

Oh man! I'm a city bus driver, and the amount of people that struggle with getting fare in the box is too damn high! I don't understand how you could make a bus full of people wait for you to dig through your pockets at a pace that would make glaciers impatient. You're standing at the bus stop, you know you're getting on the bus, know you'll need fare, yet here we are.

I want to get a documentary crew to follow some of these people around for a while just to see what they do with their days. I genuinely wonder how some people function.

Does your area still use cash for bus fares? In 2025? Where I am it feels like we're behind because only this year did they start letting you tap on with your debit card or phone. We've had transit cards since like 2007.
- We've got transit cards, but some people still insist on cash. To be fair the same people that struggle finding coins are the same people who struggle finding a fare card. Or will try to sit in the entryway of the bus, fire up the app, and buy a ticket, then activate said ticket, then struggle to scan said ticket.
- if the bus doesn't take cash how in the world would tourists be able to use it?
here buses haven't taken cash for like 15 years. card or pre-bought tickets only.
- Must be nice. We've got cards, but a sizable population still uses cash
Yup, I rode the bus a lot for a few years, and the first time I went, I checked what the fare was and made sure I was ready, and even on the 100th time, I still kept my fare in hand before getting on. I honestly don't understand why you wouldn't, surely you want to get where you're going instead of digging through your pockets in front of the driver...
some people just living life on hard mode.

Have you seen the couple that both get out of the car at the gas station and have to collaborate way too much to work the pumps?

How do these people function in society? The machine is extremely simple to use. Insert card, type code, remove card, pick gas type.
- Tourists from New Jersey or Oregon.
Yeah, I only do that when my kid wants to "help," and that usually means messing with the squeegee/sponge thing.

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.

I avoid self checkout for different reasons.
I'm not getting a discount while I have to do more work and the supermarket less.
I take extra responsibility, if I forget to scan one item I could get in actual trouble during a random check.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
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.
Fortunately, I'm the sort who goes, "Who the FUCK are you looking at?", when I catch people staring.
I don't need them to be speedy Gonzalez but to just not be actually illiterate buffoons
Screen: scan items to begin
Them: staring at the machine, slack jawed until the employee comes over
Well then don't be a fucking moron. Sorry for being a dick towards those kind of people, but the voice prompts walk you through the entire process. All you gotta do is listen to them. I didn't have any issues when I first tried one 20 years ago. They're self-explanatory.
I mean at this point they've been around long enough that everyone should know how to use them by now, unless you recently moved from a country that doesn't have them. But again, the machines walk you through the process every time.
- Mate, not the previous poster but I'm a senior software engineer with an EE degree and broad enough experience that I could design and implement myself a self-checkout from the ground up, both hardware and software, including UI and backend integration, and I still tend to avoid self-checkouts for those reasons and a lot more (many which I listed in another post here).
  There are two very opposite ends of the curve for people who don't like self-checkouts: those who can't deal with the tech (who you deem "fucking morons") and those who have evaluated self-checkouts as a process and found it to overall be inferior to the existing process for their own usual use conditions or who look at it in a broader context and find it to have indirect social damage.
  That you can only spot the "being a moron" as a reason to avoid self-checkouts is a pretty good indicator of your own intellectual limitations.
For me it's mostly privacy concerns. Now the fucking shop and all their 111 marketing partners know my email and where I live.
- Why? At least here the self checkout gets exactly the same info from me as the regular one
- fucking shop and all their 111 marketing partners know my email and where I live.
  What?
I'm also really lazy and don't want to do it.

There are an unusual number of people in this world who gawk at the self-checkout as if they found themselves at the controls of an alien spaceship.

I always notice people are super cocky about this kind of thing. Yet self-checkouts are so fucking terrible it basically everyone runs into problems at them eventually. So just tempting fate from everyone in this thread really.

I don't know how you can go wrong. You scan the thing, set it down, repeat. Press pay, scan your card, done.
- "Unexpected item in bagging area" was a common misery for everyone in London in 2012. Don't know if it's improved there since.
  In NL they now do 'random checks' of 10 items, which is basically 'you having to unpack all your shopping' and pack again so they can check if you stole.
  The concept of self checkout is ridiculous, making you an unpaid employee and then blaming you for mistakes. It tries to solve the owner's stinginess for not hiring more staff. It's not there to help you, it's there to suppress employees.
- Unless you get booze, need to use cash, or it's an item the machine wants to weigh. Or worse, expects the weight to be different than it is.
  At least most places seem to have turned off the weight thing (or it got 'smart' enough to not care so much).
- Where I shop, if you go too fast it confuses the machine and calls an attendant over to clear it while a video of what I was doing plays. Which is bs.
- It's not you that goes wrong, it's the scanner
- Oh here's one now.
Eh, I love them. If there's a line, I'll go for the human, but if a self-checkout is available and I don't have a ton of produce, I'll take it every time.

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.
- 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.
- Even the legally blind know how to operate a checkout register. But for some reason most machines are radical redesigns that actively work against a lifetime of expectations. 'Juggle these dozen items between three locations while comprehensively reading arbitrary instructions' is absolutely asking a lot of people, especially if you want it done correctly and quickly.
  That's before including hesitance where people have been betrayed. Even 'Pay now?' is reason to think, As opposed to what?, and take a second to look around the interface, because Oops, go back one step might summon an employee and lock you out.

Whoever designed these machines had never used checkouts, touchscreens, or money before.

Early Wal-Mart models were the touchiest, naggiest goddamn things, like whoever invented PRESS X TO NOT DIE got fired from Capcom and went straight into commercial UX. You will bend over two times for every item, you may not swipe the same item twice for duplicates, and that half-ounce blister-pack better register on the bag-side scale or else the idiot alarm will go off anyway. As it will if you spend more than two seconds figuring out a screen that just jabbed your ears with a shrill beep to demand instant responses to a modal choice for no discernible reason.

Recently CVS had one that's ATM-shaped, with an itty-bitty platform for your stuff. The cash slot is at knee height. The lower half of the machine is angled toward the ground. You can't fucking see it, while it's still demanding immediate responses to modal options, like you're playing a game and have no sane reason to look away from the screen. Hi! Press button to begin. Are you buying something today? Press button to buy. Do you speak English? Press button for English. Will you be scanning things? Press button to scan. Okay, begin scanning things. Press button to scan something else. Press button to not scan something else. Press button to check out. Press button to pay your bill. Press button for how you'll be paying your bill. Press button to activate the cash siphon conveniently located upside-down and backwards two feet off the floor, for use with popular brands of shin-mounted wallets, because the cocaine-chewing lizard person who designed this object has never seen a goddamn vending machine.

It was fine ten years ago! For like a decade, you got a shelf with a scanner in the middle, like a goddamn checkout counter, and you did the thing you've watched register-jockeys do since you got to sit in the cart. They didn't model human customers as idiot robots who'll instinctively stare at a screen and blindly follow instructions as quickly as possible. They acted like you had expectations, and were perhaps engaged in some manual activity involving a cart, a scanner, and three dozen disparate objects.

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.
- My local store has the "OWN BAG" button but it gives you like two and a half seconds to get the bags down before it sounds an alert and the attendant has to come over. Since my bags are always buried under the shit I've put in the cart, it's an impossible task.
My husband was that guy, but I trained him. Eventually.
I was doing self-checkout the other day and I kept getting the "UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA" alert every time I put something in my bag. I was getting enraged until I realized that for some random reason I wasn't scanning anything before putting it in the bag. I have no idea what happened to my brain there.

If every self checkout was similar to others, but each of them want to make things different.

Different and worse. How do designers keep seeing other checkout system and think: "You know, I think I see a way that we could make this process slower and more complicated...."
- Well for starters because their job title is designer. Gotta earn that $$$$.
  If they just copy and pasted it would be "What are we paying you for"
  See every single UI/UX change on a modern operating system, or website in the past 30 years.
- I don't understand why the card reader and the screen are separate units, just combine them like those Square kiosk things that counter order places have.
This is doubly true for the card payment terminals. The on screen options are all in different places, orders, and with random questions thrown in. What’s your phone number? Do you want to round up to donate a car to starving kittens? What’s your zip code? Debit or credit?
Also, because this system is apparently developed by a maniac: where I live (might be national and not state level, not sure) EBT cards have to be used on some terminals by swiping, not the chip that comes on the card. But to swipe, first you have to use the chip and let that fail. So if you see someone using an EBT card that looks like they have no fucking clue how to use a card, it’s probably that they’re actually using it the only way they can.
Absolutely insane design choice, especially for people who may already be facing delays like separating items into two separate transactions for non-covered items, having to remove items that seem like they should be covered but aren’t, etc.
- why would a store need a zip code?

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!"

To be fair it is so much better than it was when they came out.

Can you elaborate? This was before my time, so I'm curious what that early experience was like.
- It was a nonstop barrage of "Unexpected item in the bagging area!" on repeat until you just give up and walk out the door leaving everything behind for the store to clear away for the next customer.
- The big improvement has been image recognition on produce. It used to be you needed to either know the produce code, or navigate a terrible menu system. Nowadays, you can just put stuff on the scale, hit the camera icon, and have it show you a few possibilities, which is almost always correct.
  There was also a long period where the anti theft system would trigger if you breath on the bagging area, and require a staff member to unlock it. They seem to have toned that down a lot. Even when it triggers, it just nags you without locking anything.

Lately I've seen people get stuck at the pament step. The screen is begging them to pick a payment option and they just stare at it, clueless, until a staff member comes over.

Which is weird, surely people have used online checkout where they ask for various payment options, no?

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.

Your supposed to weigh the bag first, at least in some stores.
- Unexpected item in bagging area. Please remove unexpected item in bagging area. An associate has been alerted.
- I know my I am, same thing here, but even when I do, if it's a bag previously bought from the same place, they usually want to verify. Maybe the system's watching for the store logo on the bag. Most likely they have cameras watching the self-service checkouts to make sure you don't do anything funky, i.e. weighing apples and selecting carrots on the screen.

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.
- 🤣🤣🤣
- My local grocer doesn't have self checkout but they do have 12 item express and 20 item express with dual/quad lanes.
  So you end up with one line and 4 registers blasting through express people.
  I often make 2 grocery runs a week. A big one on weekends and a mid week one for fresh protein and whatever Im missing until the next trip.

Everyday driving to work is almost the same experience for me. Not too sure they are even sober.

Burn down the self chechouts

Hell no. They're a godsend. Don't have to interact with people and I get out of the store in way less time. And you don't have a person standing behind you waiting for you to pack your shit.
If they made some system where you could buy booze with some sort of pre-authentication tied to whatever that approved you then that'd be perfect
- You must not buy a lot of produce, gift cards or otc medicine; the self checkout is slower every time I have to buy any of these things and it’s given some companies (cvs, Walgreens) a reason to make their employees who would otherwise be working the register do other things and leave the front of the store almost completely unstaffed every time I go in there. Now I have to use a self checkout to buy something I know they need a person there for and then stand around like an idiot waiting for the cashier to come and assist.
  If it’s a grocery store and I have even a moderate amount of produce, I don’t have the codes memorized and there’s no bar codes on it, so I have to find everything I’m buying on their checkout machine. Something else inevitably doesn’t scan or the bagging area detector freaks out about something and then I have to completely stop what I’m doing and wait for an employee to come and scan their card.
  It has made it a lot easier to steal things though and with the terrible experience that comes with these things, I’m not far from doing.
- Honestly self checkout is the bare minimum for me these days. One of the two duopoly supermarkets in Australia rolled out "scan and go" where you can scan it with an app on your phone and pay on your phone and just walk out (with the occasional random inspection to deter theft) and it was such a huge improvement over even regular self checkout. I was gutted when they announced that option was being deprecated due to low uptake.
- And you don't have a person standing behind you waiting for you to pack your shit.
  Can't confirm.
- Before ; someone with a salary did some work.
  After ; you the customer do the work, are not paid for it, forced to see ads, and naturally more and more steps will be added. (do you want to give to charity? do you want our premium card? what is your city? and other bullshit).
  Sorry but I refuse to self checkout. Pretty often if there is only self checkout I left everything in place for the staff to put again in the store.
  If I am forced to use them, I am already in such bad mood that I make my best to make the experience as terrible as possible. I lie systematically to any question, I tend to make mistakes, wait for someone to come. Mainly, I try to make it worse economically.
  How in one generation people have accepted to work for free. Not for me.
Yeah, I won't help companies to save money they should give to their staff.
- They are saving money so ya we should get some of it off the cost

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.

Never had this issue, and always think it's incredibly convenient when a supermarket has a self check-out.
But then, I also live in Denmark, so maybe self check-outs are different here?
- I’m average height. The checkouts are so low, I have to bend a bit to set down items or pack. There’s no counter space for packing a bag, like at Aldi. Instead it’s this low, low carousel wheel of bags that means bend/straighten for each item, heavy or otherwise. The top of the bag carousel is at the height needed for comfortable packing.
  Some locations do not provide bags, you have to wait for the attendant to get one or call for one, depending.
  The only place I’ve been in set up to bag items properly and without back strain is Aldi.
  Some locations show a monitor of you on screen, being recorded, so you feel like a criminal just being anywhere near a self checkout. Bad vibes.

I think that's just called stealing

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.

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?

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

Holy shit, cheques (as we spell it in the UK). I'd not seen one in decades, my bank stopped issueing chequebooks more than 20 years ago but they'll still print a one-off cheque for you if you ask. Then I spent some time in France and they still use the goddamn things and it is an absolute ordeal - I swear they spend two solid minutes passing the thing back and forth between the customer and cashier, taking turns to make little amendments. I understand that in France a cheque has a lot more legal clout than in the UK.
I haven’t seen a single grocery store that doesn’t accept checks. Still a thing here in western Washington.

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.

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.

The problem is that, at least over here, every supermarket chain seems to have vastly different machines.

You use money? I have cash on me very rarely.

Money is not strictly a physical item, it's a verifiable record of tradable value. Cash is a physical representation of money usually in bills and coins, but the number in your bank account or credit card or PayPal or whatever is also money.
Money vs Cash
- I'd say they're the same thing colloquially for many (physical currency), though your point is correct.
  If my kid wanted a quid to go on a ride I might say 'I've no cash on me' or 'I've no money on me', even if I had my bank card, which is money by the correct definition.
- Thank you dear bot.
clearly you live somewhere with stable internet and no food trucks

Huh, never really experienced that myself. Excluding self checkout at fast food though.

To be honest, the self checkouts are almost always time savers for me, but it really depends on the store and set-up.

The poorly designed machines that make you touch the screen before you can even start, scan each item one by one, place each individual item in the bagging area and leave it on the scale until the very end, use "AI" to make sure you're not stealing, and then force you to select your payment option on the touchscreen rather than just automatically detect when you've swiped/tapped? Yes, those are an abomination.

However, there are a few stores in my area (surprisingly Walmart is one of them) where they've mostly got a decent implementation. You can walk up and just start scanning. You don't even have to place items in the bagging area/scale, you can literally scan everything in the cart with that hand scanner if you want. There's probably loss prevention / AI watching you do your thing, but I don't know. I've never been stopped by it or noticed anybody else getting stopped. If I tap my card at any point, it automatically understands I'm paying now and just wraps the order up. Plus, these places usually have a sufficient number of the machines with an open corral style set-up, so that one or two people who've never seen a self-checkout machine in their entire life are only tying up one or two machines and the rest can move pretty quickly.

Not having to put the items on the scale is a huge step up.

The latest models have AI cameras watching you scan your stuff. If you don't hold things and do the motions properly it will stop and contact the underpaid human to help you while the queue behind you gets longer.

This is the kind of person that complains about people only going 55Mph in a 40-50 zone. Like wtf mate. What's wrong with you people? Everybody's gotta go through the same thing, so mind your business. You ain't special.

Move your arse and let other people use self checkout. You ain't special either.
- Sir, check your privilege. We're all in the line. Everybody goes through the line. Get over it.

It’s irritating for sure. They’ve been around for long enough that 95% of shoppers should know how to use them.

I remember before these things came out. It would typically take forever to get through the line to have a cashier ring you up. There was always an old person in front of you that wanted to pay via check, which slowed the line down even more. How about the guy using his 2-way, on speaker, in front of you? That fucking chirp going on and on. What’s that? Someone wants to buy a lotto ticket, which means the cashier has to go to another counter to get the ticket and come back. Next, the soccer mom has 20 coupons she wants to use, half of which are expired or are for a different store. It was so much fun!

I much prefer the self checkouts. I can get through those within a few minutes. It sucks that those cashier jobs have mostly been eliminated. But that’s the price of progress I suppose.

Try going to an Aldi checkout line.
I'm far happier waiting in line with how absurdly fast they train and empower their cashiers to be then I ever have been at Kroger or Walmart. By now all the cashiers recognize me too because they're paid well enough to reduce churn like that, and I don't even get ID checked for alcohol most of the time.
It's a breath of fresh air after being forced to wait in line for self checkout at any store where everyone is slow. Even myself, and even you, because the machines don't let you go fast because they don't trust you or I. It just feels faster because you're doing something the whole time.
Self checkout isnt automation, its YOU doing the job instead of an employee.
- I don’t follow that argument. Am I really doing actual work? Spending 5-10 minutes scanning some items and then paying?
  Is this some sort of “principle of the matter” thing? Because it seems like one of those arguments for arguments sake.
  If you went to a cashier, you still have to put your items on the conveyer belt. The only thing the cashier is doing is scanning the items and placing them in bags. Most people pay by card, which again is something that you do yourself.
  I don’t buy the whole “YOU doing the job” nonsense.
Losing local jobs and making the customer do their own service, while their salary goes to the corp executives, yeah “progress” indeed.

Laughs in European, because we are not greedy enough to think that self-checkout machines are cost-shaving measures to replace human clerks!

it isn't replacing human workers if it's an new business, this shit is the same argument that piracy is lost sales.