Checking Out at the Grocery Store

[gfweb]

Ours speak, but they let you checkout faster than they talk

[Maison Rustique]

18 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

I keep a few Rubbermaid totes in the trunk of my car, put them in my cart and just toss the items in as I scan them. 

I love those Rubbermaid totes. I bought 3 of them at Costco decades ago, then decided I wanted more. Had to get them online and they'd gotten a lot more expensive. but they are sturdy and perfect for putting groceries in.

[blue_dolphin]

28 minutes ago, Maison Rustique said:

I love those Rubbermaid totes. I bought 3 of them at Costco decades ago, then decided I wanted more. Had to get them online and they'd gotten a lot more expensive. but they are sturdy and perfect for putting groceries in.

 

I also got mine decades ago.  I had a Saab with a huge hatchback space (I miss that old thing) and I got them to corral the bags so the groceries didn't end up all over the place.  Didn't take me long to  skip the bags and bring the totes into the store!

[lindag]

I have one of these for my SUV

 

 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

* that would be me, the day my credit card was refused (it had been compromised, but I was unaware at the time) and I had to rummage through my purse for cash….including coins…and figure out where the heck to insert them.  I felt like such a dope - hey lady, you’re at the grocery store, is it a big shock you need to pay!

 

That was me, last summer. For some reason I didn't have my card with me and had to pay cash. Trying to find the place to insert cash was embarrassing--I had to ask for help. I kept  saying, "I usually pay with a credit card, so I didn't know where it was!" The employee told me that a lot of people have the same problem. Clearly the store wants us to use credit cards, so that's the most noticeable and convenient location for the card.

[chromedome]

21 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

That was me, last summer. For some reason I didn't have my card with me and had to pay cash. Trying to find the place to insert cash was embarrassing--I had to ask for help. I kept  saying, "I usually pay with a credit card, so I didn't know where it was!" The employee told me that a lot of people have the same problem. Clearly the store wants us to use credit cards, so that's the most noticeable and convenient location for the card.

That's interesting. Up here the self-check lanes just plain don't have a cash option, they're card-only. If you have an issue with your card and need to pay cash instead, the attendant in the self-check area will save/suspend the transaction and take you over to one of the regular checkouts where it can be resumed (and yes, I've learned this through experience).

 

I know merchants a processing fee on credit card transactions, so it must be purely an efficiency thing. Presumably pushing customers through more quickly gives them enough extra cash flow to merit the de-emphasis on cash.

[FauxPas]

I have a love/hate thing with self-checkouts.

 

It's really nice to go through a full-serve checkout when you have a smart and efficient cashier who bags things well but when you get someone who is poorly trained or just a bit thoughtless, you can end up with a bagging mess and damaged produce and soft/fragile goods. Some stores are better than others. There are times when I really prefer to bag my own groceries and it's usually easiest to do that at a self-checkout. 

 

If i have a long drive home or to wherever I'm staying, I really want frozen with frozen and easily broken items with soft produce. Put my bananas, tomatoes and avocadoes in with bread and buns please and not with cans. I try to bring extra bags so I can accommodate things ok and still distribute the weight. 

 

A good bagger makes me very happy. I hate to have to reorganize stuff as soon as I get to the car. Sometimes, even with a cashier, I start bagging my items as they are scanning just to make sure I get things the way I want them.

 

Am I a PITA?  😄

[ElsieD]

@FauxPas If you are a PITA then I am too.  Whenever my stuff is bagged correctly, I always thank the bagger for doing so.

[FauxPas]

4 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Whenever my stuff is bagged correctly, I always thank the bagger for doing so.

 

I've also done that! One store tends to train better, they call it 'bagging school'. 

[blue_dolphin]

16 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

A good bagger makes me very happy. I hate to have to reorganize stuff as soon as I get to the car. Sometimes, even with a cashier, I start bagging my items as they are scanning just to make sure I get things the way I want them.

 

Am I a PITA?  😄

 

Maybe, but not for that!

[heidih]

I used to go to a Food4Less. Large, nonmembership, warehouse style. Customers bagged own groceries. Chain now Kroger owned.

Many big chains employ special needs people as baggers. I've watched the trainers. Very impressive.

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Husband bags.   Don't even think of interfering/helping.   Weight properly distributed, cold with cold, produce with produce, eggs and bread on top.

[ElsieD]

Husband bags.  In order of how they are punched in at the cash.  Sometimes he will put the bread on top.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

In Mexico the large grocery stores usually employ older people as baggers. They always take great care with our food. In one store a serious older man carefully places the liquor and wine bottles on their sides in our cart and places the other stuff around them. It's customary to tip the bagger (it may be their only source of money) and I tend toward the generous. We generally roll the cart out to our car and stow the stuff in the cooler and plastic storage crates. We either take the cart back to the store or give it to one of the parking attendants. They offer to help you stow your food and then manage the cart. They also "help" us back out of the parking slots, even though we don't need the help, and we tip them as well. My husband likes to get the "blessing"--Que le vaya bien (That you go well, i.e. safely). Everybody in Mexico needs to make a living one way or the other.

[MaryIsobel]

20 minutes ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

In Mexico the large grocery stores usually employ older people as baggers. They always take great care with our food. In one store a serious older man carefully places the liquor and wine bottles on their sides in our cart and places the other stuff around them. It's customary to tip the bagger (it may be their only source of money) and I tend toward the generous. We generally roll the cart out to our car and stow the stuff in the cooler and plastic storage crates. We either take the cart back to the store or give it to one of the parking attendants. They offer to help you stow your food and then manage the cart. They also "help" us back out of the parking slots, even though we don't need the help, and we tip them as well. My husband likes to get the "blessing"--Que le vaya bien (That you go well, i.e. safely). Everybody in Mexico needs to make a living one way or the other.

It's a good way for the under or unemployed to make a few bucks. When we're in Mexico, we don't drive so always take a cab home from the grocery store. When we leave the store with our cart, there is always a guy or two to hail you a cab, load your groceries in and return the cart. We too tip generously as we feel that although to us, it's a lousy way to make a living, they are cheerful and helpful and yes, we get the blessing from most of them.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

It always amazes me that the Mexican people are almost uniformly cheerful. We may see them as downtrodden by the corruption and poverty, but that would be wrong. Yes, their government lets them down, but somehow they are able to overcome that and smile at us when we greet them on the street. Every time we've needed assistance--a car accident, for instance--they are quick to help. They seem incapable of ignoring someone who's fallen (that would be me) or is broken down on the side of the road. The nicest people in the world, imo.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

It always amazes me that the Mexican people are almost uniformly cheerful.

And polite!   With morning greetings and abundant pleases and thank yous.   At a local flea market, I also delight in their spontaneous and unself-conscious singing.   A joy at 6am for us, and many of them have been there since 3 setting up.

[Beth Wilson]

Went to store beside Husband's place of work when I was picking him up.  Haven't been there a while and totally forgot it was because they have gone self check out.  At night there is usually no check outs open so you are forced to go to self checkout.  

 

The lone cashier stands there and watches you do her job, and when i got to the banana's there are 3 options to choose from???  The cashier tells me what I have is the 3rd button.  i grumbled something about how the heck I am supposed to know that, so the girl came and showed how the button has a number that matches the sticker.  She was really nice so I thanked her for the "help" but all I could think was "am I getting trained for this job?".  

 

I used to chit chat with some regular staff and would see them run the groceries through and we would discuss the crazy weather or whatever.  It just feels horrible now and I miss that staff interaction.  I feel guilty for shopping knowing that there are people who used to work there but don't anymore because they lost their job. 

 

 

 

 

 

[chromedome]

15 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Husband bags.   Don't even think of interfering/helping.   Weight properly distributed, cold with cold, produce with produce, eggs and bread on top.

At one of my usual supermarkets there are a few cashiers who can be relied upon to bag properly. With the others (how else you gonna learn who does it properly) I'll let them bag, then rebag immediately when I get to the van. If the cashier makes an egregious error I'll politely intervene and explain why it's supposed to be done differently.

 

I alternate between self-check and the conventional lanes, depending how much I'm buying and how the lines are. Oddly, I sometimes find that there's a long line at self-check while actual cashiers occupy themselves with busywork because their lanes are empty. I'll always pick a lane at that point, because a) it's pragmatically my quick option; and b) it's obviously a shift that's hit-or-miss for staffing, so it's an opportunity to put a finger on the metaphorical scale in favor of human staffing.

 

I've always got my eyes open for markdown items, and that will sometimes affect my decision too. We have two main national supermarket chains, Sobeys and Loblaws/Superstore (there are regional chains as well, of course) and they treat markdowns differently. At Superstore I can enter the discounted items myself, and when I get to the "Pay now" part of the process a staffer comes, eyeballs the discounted items, and taps to approve them. At Sobeys the staffer needs to come over and manually enter the price overrides for each item. If I'm at Sobeys, then, and have found several such "targets of opportunity," I'll usually avoid the self-check in favor of a regular lane.

[AlaMoi]

bagging is a science perfected by experience and absence of "I don't give a rat's xss"  - and frankly imho the success of any bagger also depends on the sequence of how items are put on the belt.

there's only so much they can do when you put 20 cans of vegetables on the belt after the potato chips have been scanned and bagged . . .

 

one market here has a turntable bag holder - so the checker can check&bag in one fell swoop (almost...)

another has - sometimes.... - checkers and baggers.  more frequently checkers no baggers.  the management moved all the peons - who actually make things work . . . - to part time.  so,,, count thee not on any specific level of service . . .  I have no beef with their reaction "You want me to come in for two hours and micro$$ to do what?"

 

for self-scan . . . the sequence you shop and sequence you pull things out of the cart . . . drastically affects your success in getting home with 12 unbroken eggs....

[IndyRob]

I just saw the first self checkout lanes in an ALDI a couple of days before the news reports that Walmart, et. al., are scaling them back.

[gfweb]

https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/technology/report-theft-self-checkout-amounts-35-sales?LID=35857737&sp_eh=65fbba08950de8209a5c0c3d1b621580500e1142cb9f58f9b0f15d27f94b88ea

 

16x greater "shrinkage" with self than with a manned checkout

[rotuts]

from the above ;

 

'' Nearly 7% of self-checkout transactions (6.7% ) had at least some amount of partial shrink compared to 0.32% with cashiers. On a revenue basis, the analysis suggested a shrink rate of 3.5% for self-checkout machines versus only 0.21% for conventional cashiers  '''

 

'''  self-checkout accounted for just under 30% of total transactions in 2022. Based on a market size of nearly $1 trillion and a partial shrink rate of 3.5%, self-checkout machines cost food retailers more than $10 billion in lost profits annually, '''

[TdeV]

I had to google "retail shrink".

 

From Loomis:

Retail shrink refers to any type of loss such as missing money or inventory that should be sellable. Below are five types of shrinkage commonly found in stores:

1. Shoplifting or theft

2. Return fraud

3. Administrative error

4. Vendor fraud

5. Employee theft

[Katie Meadow]

We do our major shopping haul at Berkeley Bowl, a large and always very busy market in the East Bay. There is no self-checkout, which is good by me. They have more checkers than baggers, so we just move in and bag the stuff ourselves, with weight equally distributed as possible and heavy bottles or milk containers or unbreakable vegetables on the bottom, other vegetables and delicates on top layers. The checkers appreciate it and we get it the way we want it. We load the belt accordingly and pack two or three bags simultaneously. We are very organized shoppers; I plan about six days worth of meals at a time, and then we coast for a few days with leftovers, makes pot of beans, shop for fill-ins, etc.for another few days. Major runs, which are typically four bags at a time, happen approximately every ten days, as needed. One of my superpowers is knowing how to pack or box up anything for maximum efficiency.

 

My husband does the shopping these days, He's a graphic designer and we designed a printed Berkeley Bowl list of all our usual suspects. It's  organized by how he moves through the aisles. Really clever, right? And verging on OCD.