• MajorHavoc@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    Silly fluff piece.

    Self-check out is there by customer demand. People suck to interact with, even underpaid, underappreciated people who are being asked to stand all day and deal with shitty customers.

    Shareholders were promised other savings on pure speculation, and didn’t get it.

    Yes, CEOs and shareholders, you get to pay for the machine, then pay someone to maintain it, and pay someone to watch it, and pay someone to help me when I can’t work it.

    In return, you get one more day of staying in business.

    Suck it up, buttercup. Self checkout is here to stay.

    • tyler@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      I’ve seen several of these articles over the past few months. Someone is pushing hard to make self checkout seem bad. If it wasn’t for self checkout I’d absolutely hate the grocery store. Lines fucking suck. Self checkout is a more efficient line because it usually feeds many machines, rather than being 1-1. Not only that but I can do self checkout in about half the time it takes any normal cashier to check me out. I know exactly the stuff I picked up, exactly the way I want it in bags, and exactly the order I need to do things in.

      • Neato@ttrpg.network
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        10 months ago

        But you get lines with self checkout. Longer often because customers are slower than clerks.

        • owenfromcanada@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          But statistically, there will still be a shorter average wait. If there’s a slow customer on one machine, the line only slows slightly as the other five machines are still moving along as usual. And people tend to use the self-checkout when they have fewer items (generally), which means less wait per person.

          Even if you have lots of slow customers, the wait will generally not be any longer. If the wait is longer than the staffed checkout, some people will move over and the line self-regulates. And even if it doesn’t, there are still lots of slow/chatty checkout staff (at least where I live), so I don’t think they’re any faster.

          Unless you go to Aldi. Those people mean business.

          • Neato@ttrpg.network
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            10 months ago

            Last time I was at a store there wasn’t even a staffed checkout. Unsure what they do if someone needs one.

            • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              In my case they end up paying several employees to put the stuff back on the shelf from the cart I left behind and probably throw out some meat/frozen products.

        • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          These are just my personal observations, but I hardly ever see staffed checkout without a line. I hardly ever see self checkout with a line.

        • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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          10 months ago

          That may be the case, but how often before self checkout became available did you go to the store and of the 15 check out lanes there were maybe one or two open.

          That’s the massive difference. With self checkout there will be as many as 12 machines running simultaneously which means that everybody gets out of there so much faster

    • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It’s not an all or nothing proposition. Self checkout has it’s place and I prefer it if I’ve got an armload of stuff and I want to get out quick. I refused to go through a self checkout if I’ve got a grocery cart full of stuff. I have walked out of the store leaving a cart full of $400 worth of groceries due to them having no manned checkout stations before and I will do it again in the same situation.

      • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Maybe you can take a peek at the checkout situation before you fill up your cart