Self Checkouts

[eyoungren]

You can’t pay by cheque in the UK anymore. Probably for 10 years or more. Lots of bars etc won’t even take cash anymore. We don’t at the stores we have at work. That stopped around Covid and many didn’t start again.

Cash is still king here in the US. We can't even kill the penny (1¢). My daughter (she's 15) routinely picks up a few extra bucks from all the change people drop and don't bother to pick up. For myself, after COVID I stopped doing that (picking up change).

As to checks, yeah still a thing too and still accepted at major businesses. A lot of small business stopped accepting them decades ago though for the reason that they often bounced.

Americans still get a paycheck, although a lot of us have opted for direct deposit. You do have to opt-in though as you'll get a check if you don't. A lot of people do not have bank accounts though so check-cashing is big business.

And then of course, there are the older generations who will not be denied the writing of a check.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm totally fine with self-checkouts (even-though I am ultimately irritated with the automated admonishments and declamations as to what I should do, and when).

What I really miss is the human interaction . . doing-so affords one a few moments of interpersonal contact, affirmation, and (usually) well-received palaver

I despise self checkouts. I value the human interaction of having an actual cashier, and I’m in favour of protecting their jobs against the cost-cutting measures of the big supermarket chains.

When I go to pay at Walmart or any other place offering self-checkout I am there to get something done. I'm not there to have human interaction, a chit-chat or shooting the breeze. I want to get my stuff and get out. I am also not into dealing with lazy employees who do not want to do their job or waiting behind people who cannot figure out how to operate a point of sale machine.

This is a particular irritant. These devices have been present in supermarkets since the 80s, yet there are still people who are not ready. They fumble for a card, the cashier has to help them use the machine and then there is a problem with the card or the machine and now it's all a big thing.

Self-checkout enables me to go right to a machine, scan away, pay and walk out. We shop one particular Walmart (sometimes 3-4 times a day). I know which machines are going to give me issues and thus avoid. I know the produce codes or I make sure there's a bar code. I know how to search up items.

I'm glad that manned checkout is still around for you guys. But I will not be using it. Like I said, I am not there for a conversation or human interaction. I want to get my stuff, pay for it and leave. It's the same at any store for me. I know what I want before going in and I am there to get it and leave - nothing else. I get my human interaction in other places.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Cash is still king here in the US. We can't even kill the penny (1¢). My daughter (she's 15) routinely picks up a few extra bucks from all the change people drop and don't bother to pick up. For myself, after COVID I stopped doing that (picking up change).

As to checks, yeah still a thing too and still accepted at major businesses. A lot of small business stopped accepting them decades ago though for the reason that they often bounced.

Americans still get a paycheck, although a lot of us have opted for direct deposit. You do have to opt-in though as you'll get a check if you don't. A lot of people do not have bank accounts though so check-cashing is big business.

And then of course, there are the older generations who will not be denied the writing of a check.

Wow! You guys really are behind the times when it comes to finances. It was the same with chip and pin. You were decades behind Europe.
Nobody gets paid by cheque anymore.
I don’t miss the change in my pocket etc. Get less holes in your jeans to!

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Cash is still king here in the US. We can't even kill the penny (1¢). My daughter (she's 15) routinely picks up a few extra bucks from all the change people drop and don't bother to pick up. For myself, after COVID I stopped doing that (picking up change).

Yeah, cash is actually seeing an uptick because credit/debit processing fees have gotten so high here that businesses are increasingly offering cash discounts or tacking on extra fees for credit/debit card use to account for them. Last I read, the banking industry here is too loosely regulated in this regard compared to the EU and are abusing the hell out of us, thus the driving force behind this trend.

 

[eyoungren]

My mother loved her cheque book, (she used to study the stubs closely, keeping an eye on expenditure), but never really got the hang of cards.

Checks are what used to get me in trouble. At one point, when first married, I had my wife write a check for groceries that bounced. Since it was her name on it, it was the local district attorney's office contacting her with regards to passing a bad check.

Her recourse was to attend a class or be charged for a misdemeanor. Of course she took the course, but I felt so awful that I asked them if I could also attend. I told her to write the check so this was really my fault. They let me attend and that was the last time I really used checks. After that it was only cash or the debit card.

 

[eyoungren]

These days I don’t usually even sign the back of my card. But yes I’m old enough to remember working where cheques were taken with a cheque guarantee card.
Those little machines you would run over the card with and it would print on the carbon paper. Then a signature to match.
That was my first job actually. Working on a market stall at 15.

In the 80s and 90s I could use my parent's credit card with a note. It was deemed acceptable. I remember the sliding machines for the credit cards. I'd sign my own name for the purchases. By the early 00s though they stopped allowing that. Fraud had finally caught up and that part of my childhood was definitively over.

 

[Apple fanboy]

In the 80s and 90s I could use my parent's credit card with a note. It was deemed acceptable. I remember the sliding machines for the credit cards. I'd sign my own name for the purchases. By the early 00s though they stopped allowing that. Fraud had finally caught up and that part of my childhood was definitively over.

lol. No I was never able to do that. But I’d use cash for purchases back then. I was spending my own money then. Never really spent my parents.

 

[eyoungren]

Wow! You guys really are behind the times when it comes to finances. It was the same with chip and pin. You were decades behind Europe.
Nobody gets paid by cheque anymore.
I don’t miss the change in my pocket etc. Get less holes in your jeans to!

America is a very big place. And some places you'd be surprised if they managed to make it into the 1970s or 1980s. One of the reasons I despise rural living.

Anyway, there are places you do not want to be caught without cash. Apple Pay does not work there, the internet is not there, there are no systems to facilitate your bank card and you left your checkbook at home. Cash will get you through almost any door and when you're stuck at the side of a road in the middle of rural America nowhere at 3am, cash will get you home.

The wise traveler across America will always carry cash for those times where technology will not avail you.

PS. I always try and have about $20 minimum in my wallet.
PPS. You cannot pay for a lottery ticket with a debit card, credit card, or a check. You cannot use Apple Pay to buy a lottery ticket. The government entity behind the lottery wants cash.

 

[Apple fanboy]

America is a very big place. And some places you'd be surprised if they managed to make it into the 1970s or 1980s. One of the reasons I despise rural living.

Anyway, there are places you do not want to be caught without cash. Apple Pay does not work there, the internet is not there, there are no systems to facilitate your bank card and you left your checkbook at home. Cash will get you through almost any door and when you're stuck at the side of a road in the middle of rural America nowhere at 3am, cash will get you home.

The wise traveler across America will always carry cash for those times where technology will not avail you.

PS. I always try and have about $20 minimum in my wallet.
PPS. You cannot pay for a lottery ticket with a debit card, credit card, or a check. You cannot use Apple Pay to buy a lottery ticket. The government entity behind the lottery wants cash.

I always carry emergency money just in case. I have some coins in the car to pay for parking (although most places require you to pay by phone these days which I loathe).
I don’t play the lottery. No point with my luck!

 

[TechRunner]

My wife loves the self-checkouts because she grew tired of coming home with three-sided bread, broken eggs, and other bagging disasters. I dislike them, and generally appreciate the brief social interactions that come from a manned register. Having said that, I would be less opposed to self-checkouts if there was a discount involved in using them, but there isn't.

 

[eyoungren]

lol. No I was never able to do that. But I’d use cash for purchases back then. I was spending my own money then. Never really spent my parents.

My parents let me have their card for a particular purchase or simply because it would be inconvenient for them to be with me when I was buying something. It avoided them having to run to the bank for cash and me using a check from them would not have been accepted.

It was a momentary, one-off thing. I gave the card back. Equivalent to asking your mom or dad if you could get something and them buying it for you.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Checks are what used to get me in trouble. At one point, when first married, I had my wife write a check for groceries that bounced. Since it was her name on it, it was the local district attorney's office contacting her with regards to passing a bad check.

Her recourse was to attend a class or be charged for a misdemeanor. Of course she took the course, but I felt so awful that I asked them if I could also attend. I told her to write the check so this was really my fault. They let me attend and that was the last time I really used checks. After that it was only cash or the debit card.

My mother greatly lamented the (cost cutting) measure introduced whereby banks decided to cease returning (checks that had been written and honoured) checks - this is decades ago; Mother used to compare her cheque book stubs to the returned checks - an act of financial reconciliation - a kind of manual control - which she enjoyed.

While she grumbled for an age about that, she was still able to consult the stubs - for, she always faithfully recorded what that cheque had funded (and how much it had been for) on the corresponding stub, which was a very useful method of reconciliation, and, in her estimation, enabled her to keep tabs on expenditure.

In fact, as I had become a joint signatory on her account for almost a decade before she died, (and then, for the final few years, when we had an EPA in place), I also used her chequebook for certain specific expenditures for the house - such as heating oil; for obvious reasons, I haven't written a cheque since she died.

 

[Apple fanboy]

My wife loves the self-checkouts because she grew tired of coming home with three-sided bread, broken eggs, and other bagging disasters. I dislike them, and generally appreciate the brief social interactions that come from a manned register. Having said that, I would be less opposed to self-checkouts if there was a discount involved in using them, but there isn't.

So here we all self bag regardless of if you use a self checkout or not. I wouldn’t want my groceries bagged for me. Most supermarkets deliver in crates. One we use delivers in carrier bags (which I hate). We don’t need more plastic bags thank you.

 

[eyoungren]

My mother greatly lamented the (cost cutting) measure introduced whereby banks decided to cease returning (checks that had been written and honoured) checks - this is decades ago; Mother used to compare her cheque book stubs to the returned checks - an act of financial reconciliation - a kind of manual control - which she enjoyed.

While she grumbled for an age about that, she was still able to consult the stubs - for, she always faithfully recorded what that cheque had funded on the corresponding stub, which was a very useful method of reconciliation, and, in her estimation, enabled her to keep tabs on expenditure.

In fact, as I had become a joint signatory on her account for almost a decade before she died, I also used her chequebook for certain spcific expenditures - such as heating oil; for obvious reasons, I haven't written a cheque since she died.

Yeah, it was kind of cool getting the checks back. Where I got into trouble a lot was not marking the transaction in my register and or writing a check for something I wanted that would cause an overdraft. My rationale was that my paycheck would be deposited before that check came through. It was dangerous and my wife paid the price for it.

You can't do that with a debit card. Withdrawals are immediate, you can see it right away in an app or online. And I've set our account to not honor online transactions that would overdraft the account. But for me, the immediacy of seeing a real-time balance keeps me in line.

I still have to account for digital checks, like those vendors (such as my mortgage bank) who only accept bank accounts and not cards, but that's far easier (for me) to keep track of and I know the exact dates those things are supposed to come in.

If I actually do need the equivalent of a paper check written out to someone or something, I get a money order.

I haven't written an actual paper check in a very long time and for me that is intentional and a good thing.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Mother was meticulous with cheque stubs; the transaction (oil, electricity, whatever) was noted as was the sum paid, and this was done at the time the cheque was written, which was how she taught me to write cheques; all of this meant that reconciling her accounts was relatively easy - and she would visit her bank a few times a year to tansfer monies between her accounts.

She managed her money well; however, in the 1970s, she did experience difficulties with some stuffy bank and stuffy (male) bank managers when travelling with my father, (who was always supportive of her) when her right to such monies, and right to cash cheques, exchange cash and access accounts (her own accounts, funded from her own work) was queried and challenged which left her outraged, and utterly incandescent (and rightly so).

I think the last cheque I wrote was for heating oil a few weeks before my mother died; we had an EPA in place for a few years by then, and I had been a joint signatory (at her request) of her accounts for the best part of a decade before she died.

 

[Chuckeee]

What I despise in particular is; when I used a self checkout and then the pad prompts me to leave a tip.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

What I despise in particular is; when I used a self checkout and then the pad prompts me to leave a tip.

Yes, that is an especially egregious practice.

A tip for what exactly, one might reasonably ask?

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yes, that is an especially egregious practice.

A tip for what exactly, one might reasonably ask?

The coding of course! The interface on the checkout doesn’t write itself!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The coding of course! The interface on the checkout doesn’t write itself!

Well, I have the European attitude to tips.

Thus, "the coding" would not merit a tip (of any description) from me.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Well, I have the European attitude to tips.

Thus, "the coding" would not merit a tip (of any description) from me.

Not me. I have no problem tipping good service. Mediocre service not so much.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Not me. I have no problem tipping good service. Mediocre service not so much.

Good service, absolutely, yes.

Mediocre service, or poor service, I prefer to reserve the option of reminding people that tipping is discretionary, and conditional on the quality of service received.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Not me. I have no problem tipping good service. Mediocre service not so much.

I'm fed up with the tipping culture. Everybody and their mother wants a tip now. I think the.. "tipping point" for me was when the Apple employee's union was demanding the right to accept tips. What the actual hell? Wait staff who rely on it because they don't even make minimum wage, I get it. There are certain services that merit it. But the workers at, oh, let's say Firehouse Subs isn't working any harder than the workers at McDonalds or doing anything special, yet only at one of those are tips an option, and they make at least the same starting wages as the other, likely more. Why SHOULD I tip them? I'm honestly beginning to feel like it's a bribe to not have my food spit on.

 

[eyoungren]

Not me. I have no problem tipping good service. Mediocre service not so much.

Good service, absolutely, yes.

Mediocre service, or poor service, I prefer to reserve the option of reminding people that tipping is discretionary, and conditional on the quality of service received.

My primary objection to tipping is entirely about precedence. There is precedent to tip good service at a bar or restaurant where you receive good service. To not tip that would not be right.

There has never been a precedent to tip your barista, or the person who walks your meal to your car. Before the last few years or so, these things were and always have been just a part of the service. And quite frankly, why should I tip a barista who is flying through drink orders where I am but one of those orders? Why should I tip someone to walk ~50 feet to bring me my meal? There is no specialness in this, no above and beyond - which is what you are tipping for when you get good service.

I also object to being used by a company as a means to compensate for their lack of paying an appropriate wage.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

My primary objection to tipping is entirely about precedence. There is precedent to tip good service at a bar or restaurant where you receive good service. To not tip that would not be right.

There has never been a precedent to tip your barista, or the person who walks your meal to your car. Before the last few years or so, these things were and always have been just a part of the service. And quite frankly, why should I tip a barista who is flying through drink orders where I am but one of those orders? Why should I tip someone to walk ~50 feet to bring me my meal? There is no specialness in this, no above and beyond - which is what you are tipping for when you get good service.

I don't think that tipping for bar service is usual in Europe; certainly, I've never seen it and I'm pretty widely travelled.

Restaurants, in general, yes, (but, again, it is discretionary, and depends on both quality of service and nature of restaurant).

Then, again, the pay (and conditions) in bars are probably a lot better than they are Across the Pond, and, in some cases, bar staff are unionised.

I also object to being used by a company as a means to compensate for their lack of paying an appropriate wage.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[Chuckeee]

I learned that this isn’t true but I did believe it for a long time: Tip is an acronym for To Insure Prompt service.