Are you sick of self serve check out being crammed down your throat?

That's also true. It's to a large degree the result of someone (an entity that will not be mentioned in this forum) enabling those people to live without working.

I used to work at a factory as a manufacturing engineer. Every Friday the supervisor would walk the floor and ask the assemblers if they wanted to work on Saturday. One of them told him he couldn't, because if he exceeded a certain income, he would lose his subsidies. So he purposefully stayed below that income level. This is the system of disincentives we have created.

 

Here's an idea... why don't you go ahead and buy some stock in this publicly held company.. then, when you get the dividend checks, you have your corned beef money.. That seems to be a more logical way to deal with the situation, than bitching about it on the internet. And thank goodness you live in a free country, where this is possible. Go try and even get corned beef in Venezuela... now there's a good socialist society that cracked down on those evil corporations, and confiscated their business.


Not sure who brewed up the idea that a company having success in their business is a bad thing..

Obviously it was not someone who ever owned a business.

JW

 

I do this a lot, especially on days that there longer lines to check out. I does save time in that situation. The person at the door scans the QR code on your phone and a couple items in the cart.

 

Geez Jim. It was just convo. Trust me, I am a capitalist. I put the max in my 401k, but that's retirement bro.

 

I am all for unnecessary jobs going away (and let's face it, being a cashier today is one of them) and people training themselves for jobs that have a legitimate demand. Had we subsidized or protected the horse and cart business in 1900, they would still be on the road today.

The problem is that this entity that I will not name, creates policies that freeze people in semi-poverty and in jobs that exist artificially, instead of people having the incentive to acquire skills in industries that are truly in demand.

 

Sorry, I get touchy about folks bitching about business success. The average Joe being able to participate and profit in some else's successful business, via the stock market, is a truly American thing, and their success should be celebrated, not used as something to condemn the entity as "corrupt".

We live in the most successful country in the history of the world, bar none.. and a large part of that success is due to us adopting Capitalism, and free market principals. Socialism and government control are the enemy to our success.

 

Understood, and agreed.

 

Back to the original question. To be honest, it depends on what the cashier looks like.

 

Local Winn Dixie had self checkout for two years. Reduced the number of people staffing check-out lanes.

Too much theft so they ripped them out, but did not increase the number of open check-out lanes.

I do not go there anymore.

 

Exactly! Publix Markets is in the process of installing automated checkouts in all of it's stores. I will not use them . About 30 years ago I used a Bank in Needham, Massachusetts. One day the teller told me that I would receive some kind of a prize if I would use their new ATM (they called it something different then). I asked the sweet young woman why was she pushing something that was going to cost her her job? She replied that it was for the customer's convenience and would not eliminate any jobs. A year later the bank had gone from five tellers to one.
As to jobs - there are panhandlers at practically every major intersection here in Collier County FL. As you say, just about every business here has help wanted signs on their doors. I hate to say it, but I agree with your last sentence.

 

As to your second line - Many grocery stores hire people who are (I'll say this politely) mentally disadvantaged. They can handle bagging groceries and bringing in the shopping carts. My local Publix has a van from some kind of assisted living facility drop off about six of these people every day. It's great for the people, and it's also great for Publix - these young people like having something to do, and Publix gets employees that actually show up every day.

 

Ironic that you just revealed the big secret.

Self checkouts are being put in place for the robots that will take over our lives.

They think the self checkouts are hot, and are not at all turned on by, ugly giant bags of mostly water.


Well, maybe...

 

Ha! Nice Trek reference

Devon

 

I think the original question of this post was about having SS crammed down your throat (only option). Pretty sure the original idea behind self check out was to speed up the process and add an option to getting out of the store. The stores here have both running and they are getting pretty reliable so I'm ok with the option. In the beginning the machines never worked right and you were left (holding the bag) until someone took pity and bypassed the machine error. You can fix the problem by shopping at the stores that give you the options you need (market principals?!).

 

I don't care one way or the other but my wife who is a retired grocery store mgr hates the self checkout. She says it takes jobs away from people. I think it moves the employees around to different job types. For example, people that were working as checkers are now overseeing the self check out. Some are now filling online orders and taking the orders out to customers vehicles. I have some experience as a grocery checker and given the choice I would rather fill orders and deliver to customers cars, than stand at a cash register all day listening to people bitch about prices. The checkers have no control over the prices, but get to hear the bitching all day!

Bob H.

 

I love the self check outs for times when I''m only buying a few items. However, sams and walmart self check outs do not take cash, and they only have 1 lane open that is manned. Sorry, but I'm not waiting in a 20 minute long line for a couple items I want to pay for with cash, I'll buy that stuff elsewhere where my cash is accepted and appreciated.

 

My problem with the stupid self checkout has nothing to do with people or the machines that replace them. It has to do with the idiotic way they rigged the software. As a former coder extraordinaire, I know some bean counter asked for this "feature" that scrapes my knees. I MUST scan an item and place it on the other side in a bag before I can scan the next item. I'm very efficient. When I buy four 8-packs of Gatorade of the same flavor, I scan one of them 4 times but the machine complains that there was an error because it must sense there isn't enough weight in the bagging area. I'm not taking them out of the cart only to have to put them back.

 

I believe they have the "time to scan" delayed to prevent sloths and people that have had too many Redbulls from scanning one item ten times by accident.

To test that, hold a different item in each hand and try to scan them at the same speed you would scan one as multiple quantity, (you might need to drop the first item on the bagging area as quickly as possible to rule out the weight thing).

May not prove anything, but it will occupy the time you used to spend oogling the checkout girl..
(unless you're a robot)

 

Couple days ago wife and I were at Wally World going through the self check out with 4--5 items. As she scanned and bagged I watched a "lower income family"( and I dont say that in a dissenting way ) at the register behind us. I saw the lady not scan then bag several items in full view of the attendant. You can see the light flash and hear the beep when it scans. So thats profit walking out the door. Wife works at Publix and sometimes has to work the SCO area and she says her hands are pretty much tied when it comes to theft. Some stuff they can intervein in a tactful manor but cant outright accuse a customer of theft.