Self Checkouts

[eyoungren]

Hmm, didn't realize that. It ain't worth $99 a year just for that though (even $49 for the first year).

Yeah, it gives you other benefits but... none that I'd use.

I signed up for the Walmart+ earlier this year. When Walmart advertises this you see Walmart vans and employees right? So you think that it's Walmart employees that are delivering. No.

The basic Walmart+ is like Uber/Doordash/etc for groceries. You get a private citizen in their own car delivering your stuff. I had one order that included orange juice and milk and the delivery guy left it on my neighbors porch! In 100º heat.

I caught him and he brought it over. His defense was he didn't speak good English. I live in a HOA community, all the houses have the same address markers. Numbers are universal (almost) so not knowing English is not a defense to getting the wrong house.

So I added the home delivery thing - which is what Walmart is implying you will get but they don't tell you that you have to add it to the standard delivery subscription to get. It's the actual employees in vans that you thought you were getting with the basic subscription.

Anyway, the delivery dates for groceries by Walmart employees were either next day, two day or three day delivery windows. And I wasn't cool with the whole 'access to the house' part. So, I dropped the whole thing. What's the point if delivery windows are like that? I mean, I live less than 10 minutes from my local Walmart.

The point of getting it originally was as a same day convenience. But given my experience with it, it's LESS inconvenient just to drive there and get my own stuff.

 

[splifingate]

Visited my local Krogér this eve, and my CSR was Ms Peggy.

While I was waiting for Ms Peggy to complete the transaction of the person in front of me, I could not help but overhear the semi-obtrusive automated self-checkout kiosk annunciations, and admonishments from the SC section over-yonder (<-).

We commenced our usual "Thanks for shopping-at..." and "Do you have a K+ Card?" tête-à-tête . . .

. . . I segued into "You know, Ms Peggy: I would love to create a Petition to have your voice be the one recorded to those machines!" She admitted that She had not thought about the fact that someone had to be recorded (speaking to allow for such human-like automation).

I shared that--though I preferred hearing Her natural voice (and interacting with Her, on a face-to-face basis)--She was a perfect candidate for such a thing.

Eye-contact is central to my well-being, it seems

 

[eyoungren]

Visited my local Krogér this eve, and my CSR was Ms Peggy.

While I was waiting for Ms Peggy to complete the transaction of the person in front of me, I could not help but overhear the semi-obtrusive automated self-checkout kiosk annunciations, and admonishments from the SC section over-yonder (<-).

We commenced our usual "Thanks for shopping-at..." and "Do you have a K+ Card?" tête-à-tête . . .

. . . I segued into "You know, Ms Peggy: I would love to create a Petition to have your voice be the one recorded to those machines!" She admitted that She had not thought about the fact that someone had to be recorded (speaking to allow for such human-like automation).

I shared that--though I preferred hearing Her natural voice (and interacting with Her, on a face-to-face basis)--She was a perfect candidate for such a thing.

Eye-contact is central to my well-being, it seems

Fry's self-checkouts do not have any voice announcements. I mention Fry's because in Arizona Fry's is Kroger. Perhaps it is a feature your Kroger store can turn off…

Back in 1990, Albertsons opened near where I was living. At the time it was only the second chain store that had ever opened in that area. Local residents were met with the register (not the cashier) announcing the price of every item scanned.

That lasted maybe a month or two. Sounds like your Kroger has not gotten the privacy memo.

 

[Herdfan]

Fry's self-checkouts do not have any voice announcements. I mention Fry's because in Arizona Fry's is Kroger. Perhaps it is a feature your Kroger store can turn off…

WHAT? You suck!

At the Kroger we went to before we moved, you could mute her. It was a constant "you saved 12 cents on this with your Kroger Card" Got annoying so I would mute it every time.

The Fry's, at least the one up here in Cottonwood can't be muted. It isn't as obnoxious as the Kroger one was, but still.

 

[eyoungren]

WHAT? You suck!

At the Kroger we went to before we moved, you could mute her. It was a constant "you saved 12 cents on this with your Kroger Card" Got annoying so I would mute it every time.

The Fry's, at least the one up here in Cottonwood can't be muted. It isn't as obnoxious as the Kroger one was, but still.

Huh. I guess it must be store dependent. You do get the voice telling you welcome and start scanning to begin and such, but after that there's no further noise except the actual 'beep' of scanning.

I will admit, when I first started going there it was much more intrusive. I wonder if someone complained then. This would be the Fry's on 107th Ave and Indian School if you care to look it up (or not).

 

[Herdfan]

Fry's on 107th Ave and Indian School if you care to look it up (or not).

Not ever been over to that side of town. Might have to see what is over there sometime.

 

[eyoungren]

Not ever been over to that side of town. Might have to see what is over there sometime.

LOL, well…anything west of Central is the West Valley and…you know, SMH!

 

[splifingate]

Perhaps it is a feature your Kroger store can turn off…

Ha!~

Prob. as much chance of that as getting the same accomplished at my local HD's (the annunciations there are as obtrusive as obtrusive gets)

There are a few hills I'd possibly choose to die-upon, but getting kiosks to mute (and the whole in-your-face LED Catastrophe) are not ones I wish to climb right now.

Thank you, however, for letting me know that there is a possibility, and that I might find a willing Ear!

 

[splifingate]

your Kroger has not gotten the privacy memo

My Krogér hasn't gotten a lot of things, unfortunately 🤷‍♂️

 

[scorpio vega]

And I have long loathed self check outs for a variety of reasons.

My biggest issue with self-check out is when you have to buy 18/21+ years of age items.
you still have to wait for the worker to approve the purchase.

Or scanning fruit or veggies is annoying.

 

[eyoungren]

My biggest issue with self-check out is when you have to buy 18/21+ years of age items.
you still have to wait for the worker to approve the purchase.

Or scanning fruit or veggies is annoying.

I don't mind that. I'm still getting out faster than if I'd waited in line. And at my local Walmart, where 99% of our grocery shopping is conducted, they have about 2-3 employees dedicated to the self-checkout. Just a matter of getting their attention - which the system has already alerted them to.

Walmart also makes it easy with the vegetables. Most have a bar code with the number. Scan, weigh (or input amount) and done. The only code I have to remember is 9510 for when I'm buying water for our 5 gallon bottle.

 

[Faize]

I wonder if our grandparents and great-grandparents had these kinds of conversations when grocery stores started moving to a self-service model (as opposed to going up to the counter and telling the clerk the item(s) you want to buy) a century ago.

I also wonder how our descendants a century from now will react when learning that paying for groceries once involved moving them from your shopping cart to a conveyer belt to be scanned by a cashier, handing over the money, and then moving them back from the conveyer belt to your shopping cart.

 

[minik]

I use self-checkout as much as possible in grocery stores, clothing stores, Target, Costco, etc. I hardly loaded a shopping cart full of items and it's manageable without any assistance. Scan and bag the items, double tap my Apple Watch and off to the exit.

True that I have seen people pretended to be scanning the items or even bagged the unpaid goods and left the self-checkout area. Thief remains an issue as long as the store is opened for business, self-checkout or not.

Living in the area where Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh are available, that approach isn't great as well. One time, I helped a different shopper to get an item from the top shelf, but the cameras pick up that scenario as I ‘purchased’ that product. From time to time, cameras didn’t pick up on items that I took even in clear sight. You may say it's pro-customers, but this type of automated system isn’t in prime time at all even at Amazon-level.

 

[rhett7660]

My biggest issue with self-check out is when you have to buy 18/21+ years of age items.
you still have to wait for the worker to approve the purchase.

Or scanning fruit or veggies is annoying.

Heck, in my area, they won't even let you do self-check if you have alcohol in your cart. You have to go to an attendant. What is fun, is if you go real early, there are no attendants and you have to wait for someone to come up and check you out. UGH. Don't judge the guy buying a beer and bourbon at 0500 hours...

 

[Chuckeee]

Don't judge the guy buying a beer and bourbon at 0500 hours...

Been there, done that. 😉

 

[Apple fanboy]

Heck, in my area, they won't even let you do self-check if you have alcohol in your cart. You have to go to an attendant. What is fun, is if you go real early, there are no attendants and you have to wait for someone to come up and check you out. UGH. Don't judge the guy buying a beer and bourbon at 0500 hours...

Have you thought about joining a program 🤪

 

[rhett7660]

Have you thought about joining a program 🤪

LOL... that is for quitters! Momma didn't raise no quitter!

 

[Chuckeee]

Have you thought about joining a program 🤪

Buy 4 and the 5th one is free?

 

[scorpio vega]

Been there, done that. 😉

Me quite often lol

 

[bousozoku]

The local Dollar General stores generally have no one using self-checkout lanes. I always have to ask if anyone is using them and go around six or seven people in order to use them.

I was working the Target self-checkout, which didn't have ATM-style machines for cash. Two people would work together, and one furthest from the door would have cash and the one closest to the door would just leave, after scanning a few things.

I had a woman with about US$400 of small kitchen appliances who was barely scanning anything. I went to her and said "If you would like, I can get a cashier to take a lane and they will scan everything for you, so you don't have to lift a finger until payment." She replied "I can handle it!" I took the handheld scanner and said "This is such a good price on this blender" and scanned the blender. She replied "I don't want it!" As I went to remove the blender, I voided the whole transaction with "Oops!" and she replied "Oh, is that how you're going to play it?" and left the store without any (extra) items.

Even regular customers can be quite surly.

 

[rhett7660]

The local Dollar General stores generally have no one using self-checkout lanes. I always have to ask if anyone is using them and go around six or seven people in order to use them.

I was working the Target self-checkout, which didn't have ATM-style machines for cash. Two people would work together, and one furthest from the door would have cash and the one closest to the door would just leave, after scanning a few things.

I had a woman with about US$400 of small kitchen appliances who was barely scanning anything. I went to her and said "If you would like, I can get a cashier to take a lane and they will scan everything for you, so you don't have to lift a finger until payment." She replied "I can handle it!" I took the handheld scanner and said "This is such a good price on this blender" and scanned the blender. She replied "I don't want it!" As I went to remove the blender, I voided the whole transaction with "Oops!" and she replied "Oh, is that how you're going to play it?" and left the store without any (extra) items.

Even regular customers can be quite surly.

Ha... I don't know if I would call that one a "regular" customer lol. Sounds more like a thief.

 

[bousozoku]

Ha... I don't know if I would call that one a "regular" customer lol. Sounds more like a thief.

I was referring to other people but there are regular thieves, as well.

I had a regular couple, on four-wheeled scooters, come through my lane at Target for a second time. I remember that the lady was disagreeable, while her husband was silent. As I was bagging the bread by itself, she said "Don't put the bread on the bottom!" and I replied "It's the only thing in the bag." to which she replied "Don't argue with me!"

 

[rhett7660]

I was referring to other people but there are regular thieves, as well.

I had a regular couple, on four-wheeled scooters, come through my lane at Target for a second time. I remember that the lady was disagreeable, while her husband was silent. As I was bagging the bread by itself, she said "Don't put the bread on the bottom!" and I replied "It's the only thing in the bag." to which she replied "Don't argue with me!"

Ah yes... retail. Love dealing with folks.

 

[Allyance]

I was in the computer/networking business for twenty years, I don't have any qualms about using self checkouts. At my Sams Club just about everybody uses self check outs. In my local grocery store I prefer to use a lane with a human checker. As a retired single person pushing 80 this year, I enjoy the banter with the clerks and I usually go to one I know.

 

[chown33]

I was referring to other people but there are regular thieves, as well.

I had a regular couple, on four-wheeled scooters, come through my lane at Target for a second time. I remember that the lady was disagreeable, while her husband was silent. As I was bagging the bread by itself, she said "Don't put the bread on the bottom!" and I replied "It's the only thing in the bag." to which she replied "Don't argue with me!"

"You're right. I'll move it to the top."
Take bread out of bag.
Put bread back in same bag.