Self-checkout machines at the grocery store -- Is this what hell is like?

I must be a glutton for punishment! I keep using these self-checkout machines at a couple of Krogers that I frequent down here in Houston, thinking that they expedite the grueling process of checking out, but alas they never do. Note to everyone -- If you want to use freakin' coupons, go clog up the regular checkout lines. Yesterday this woman was as perplexed on how to use her coupons at self-checkout as neanderthal man was when he first discovered fire. There was in fact four of these checkout machines in total. The other three were being used by people who had full carts. Note to everyone -- Take your full freakin' carts to the regular checkout lines. They're professionals, they can check you out a whole hell of a lot faster than you can....................OK Corky????? There should be a maximum item limit on the use those machines IMHO.

Oh, this rant is far from over!:bnghd: A free machine finally opens up and I begin the fairly simple process of self-checkout, or so I thought. What's the deal with these machines? It seems if you're not able to scan one item every freakin' millisecond the machine will stop and say "please wait for cashier assistance". It takes me at least two or three seconds to find the freakin' barcode! It's not humanly possible to scan items that fast.:bnghd: OK, so I look for the person who is supposed to provide the "cashier assistance" and inevitably they're dicking around somewhere else in the store. Stay at your effing post for the love of God!! By this time I could have checked out in the regular line three times over. Oh yeah, I forgot the part about when you put your items in the bag and you set the bag off to the side in the designated area and the machine stops and say "please put the item or items back in the bag". What the hell are you talking about machine???

I finally leave the store drained and demoralized, just as I did the time before and the time before that. When will I ever learn?:shk:

Peace

Very funny rant. I have had the same problems. The pressure censer is set to sensitive.

I would still rather deal with them instead of the the cashiers. The machine has an excuse.

We've had these installed round where I live, I don't get it? Whats to say you only scan in half of what you have in your trolley?

Originally posted by DodgeG1
We've had these installed round where I live, I don't get it? Whats to say you only scan in half of what you have in your trolley?

Then the allarm goes off when you exit the store. I guess the point of these things is to provide another form of cheacking out of a store if you don't want to wait in line for cashier. I tottaly agree that they are slower, usually. Very handy if you only have a few things. They need to be self-sufficient though without any cashier assistance. And whenever I use them I always feel like I'm doing the stores job for them.

Originally posted by cownosecat

Originally posted by DodgeG1
We've had these installed round where I live, I don't get it? Whats to say you only scan in half of what you have in your trolley?

Then the allarm goes off when you exit the store.

I guess the point of these things is to provide another form of cheacking out of a store if you don't want to wait in line for cashier. I tottaly agree that they are slower, usually. Very handy if you only have a few things. They need to be self-sufficient though without any cashier assistance. And whenever I use them I always feel like I'm doing the stores job for them.

The alarm wont go off if I have say 4 cans of beans and I only scan 2 in? Well it doesn't in my one, which is why I asked the question!

it would be hell if there were accordion/bagpipe duos everywhere in the store.

it's just the nwo, as it is. why pay four cashiers when you can pay one? why employ humans, at all, for that matter? humans are so passe.

i refuse to use them. i chat with the cashier happily, and then happily leave the store, giving a sideways glance to all the do-it-yourselfers that were ahead of me, and had less stuff than me, tripping over their thumbs trying to be cashiers.
it's not faster, it's not more convienient, and it steals jobs. i've been boycotting them since the first time i saw them.
incidentally, i think they may have put bush in office for the second term, too.
down with skynet!!!!

i have used them round here(florida) and i have had more good than bad experiences. they are good if you have a couple items istead of going to the express line(10 items or less) and getting behind some knucklehead that has like 12 items and is writing a check or using a debit card without knowledge of the procedure and your stuck whilst others with more groceries are long gone because they got in the proper lane. dont these folk have brains? how did they get a drivers license?

The self checkout lanes are really a payback by the store to all those people who get mad at cashiers for scanning an item twenty-seven times, cleaning the little window, sending someone to the back of the store to check the price and then giving up and punching the numbers in by hand. In the olden days, grocery store cashiers were pretty sharp folks whose fingers ran over the keypad with such speed that checkout lanes were a source of entertainment. They were always knowledgeable about the prices in the store and even memorized the ever changing prices of produce.

Then came the day of barcodes and everything slowed down to a near halt. Instead of hiring smart people as cashiers, they started hiring the developmentally disordered, presumably to compensate for the entertainment factor, but this only made things worse.

Computers have had a wonderful effect on all our lives, but they have also robbed us of much that once was at least tolerable and replaced it with the tedious and the maddening.

[edit on 2005/11/19 by GradyPhilpott]

I have never even seen one of these machines. Then again I live close to the north pole.

I prefer people, over the machines.
I've gotten to know a lot of the cashiers at the stores I frequent.
Even when they are having a bad day, I can tolerate a little 'tude.

I hate and love those machines too. When they are available you can make good use, but its a crap shoot. Sometimes you get hung up, sometimes to fly through.

The one thing that bugs me the most about those damn machines is the pressure thingy they got under the bags.... Every time I try to take a bag off to put it in my cart and start a new bag, it flips out on me-- I almost expect it to have that deep scary, murderous voice saying "Put. The bag. Back."

Is this another one of those things that's leading to robot takeover???