The Express Checkout Topic

[winesonoma]

A little aggression is fine.  It defines us a species.  It's why we have teeth that can tear meat as well as plants.  That dumbass wasting my time in the Supermarket line?  Heck, he's just like the other animal that's blocking my path to the watering hole...

Supermarket lines are one thing. Don't block my path to the watering hole!!!

Edited July 8, 2004 by winesonoma (log)

[purplewiz]

I hate the self-checkouts. They are SLOW - because every single person using them has to read the instructions and learn how this particular one wants things scanned/bagged....instead of training ONE person, the checker, to do it. I won't use them if there is a line, because 99 times out of 100, the same sized line at a register with a checker will move 10 times faster.

This is also why I hate the "swipe your own" credit card machines. Every stupid one is different and takes 10 times the amount of time a checker could swipe it. And then I have to hand it to the checker to check the signature anyway. Stupid stupid stupid.

And never mind that the self-check stands have this "sensor" thing going so they know that you've put another item in your bag, so there's NOWHERE to put down your purse to get out your wallet and credit card. (Side note: if I could carry a smaller purse, I would, but then my husband would have no place to have me carry all his things .)

As for those who run their carts into my behind, I have perfected the "stare of death". It is a facial expression that conveys the message: "Do that one more time, and I will rip out your throat." It works surprisingly well. The stare, that is. Not the throat ripping.

Marcia.

[Beto]

The thing that I despise about the self checkout is that they are just another step towards the de-humanization of our lives. Not that I get a lot out the interaction with the checkout person, but it can't be good to have less social interaction.

Social manners and common courtesy are on the decline and more automation surely isn't helping to improve things.

[zilla369]

I've lived in all the quadrants of the US except "northwest", and i've never seen/heard of this concept that two identical cans of beans = one express lane item. Have i been incorrectly hating on the person in front of me - maybe it's you - with 9 unique and 7 repeat items?

Curious. Is this a widely-accepted philosopy that somehow passed me over?

[Rachel Perlow]

I think it harkens back to ye olde days of cash registers when the item was only entered once, but with a quantity number. Now, since each individual item is scanned it doesn't matter as much if they're all the same item or not.

[lamb]

I often shop at the huge Mexican supermarket and I am fairly well known to several of the cashiers and the box persons.  They always help me out to my van and load my groceries and I insist on giving them a tip.  They are very careful how they load my groceries, and are always very polite.  Some of the other markets are very different, if a checker asks one of the box people to help me out there is one young man who I tell never mind because he slings my bags into the van, sets heavy items on top of crushable things, etc. 

I complained to my checker one day that I did not want him bagging my groceries after he put a carton of eggs in the bottom of a bag and dropped a bag of apples in on top of them. 

needless to say, 8 of the 12 eggs were broken.  I pulled the apples and the eggs out of the bag and showed the checker the eggs.  She sent another box person off to replace the eggs. 

Apparently this young man hasn't learned that he is employed to serve the public, not the other way around.  He obviously resents having to perform his job properly.  Too bad....

I've noticed in some of the threads such as this one that box persons or baggers are mentioned.

I have seen them in Florida, and they often escort my mom out to her car and load the bags in her trunk, and won't accept a tip. Here in good ole New Jersey, that job just doesn't exist. There are even very few shoppers who have the checkers bag their groceries. Most shoppers here bag their own.

I prefer to bag my own anyway. I tend to bag like items together, this way I am organized when I go home and have to unload. I hate putting groceries away

There are a few self serve checkouts in my local supermarkets. I almost never have just a few items to justify self checkout for myself, but usually see a person or two at that checkout. It seems to work if you have just a few items to checkout.

[tommy]

The thing that I despise about the self checkout is that they are just another step towards the de-humanization of our lives. Not that I get a lot out the interaction with the checkout person, but it can't be good to have less social interaction.

Social manners and common courtesy are on the decline and more automation surely isn't helping to improve things.

honestly i'd just as soon get my daily dose of social interaction somewhere besides the checkout lane. like online, for example.

[FunJohnny]

A little aggression is fine.  It defines us a species.  It's why we have teeth that can tear meat as well as plants.  That dumbass wasting my time in the Supermarket line?  Heck, he's just like the other animal that's blocking my path to the watering hole...

Supermarket lines are one thing. Don't block my path to the watering hole!!!

Often when I shop on Saturdays, the check-out line is on the way to the Watering Hole!

[cakewalk]

Grocery shopping brings out a weird aggressive side to my personality.

Yes, it's amazing, isn't it? It's usually while I'm grocery shopping that I think to myself, "boy, am I glad I don't own a gun."

Although I have to say, everything really is relative. New York supermarket shopping is absolutely *laid back* compared to supermarket shopping in Israel. They've only recently begun to understand the concept of waiting on lines altogether. And no one packs your stuff for you. They'll ring it up, you pay for it, and then they start ringing up the next person. You have to bag your stuff quickly, or the next person's items are thrown on top of yours as they are rung up. Laid back, New York is, I tell ya.

I go nuts if I'm waiting on the express line and there's a new cashier who doesn't know what the heck he's doing (which is the usual case). I guess they figure if he's new, the express line is a good way to practice because people don't have too much stuff. But hell, it makes the express line slow as molasses! I mean, what's the point?

Well, I hope these will always be the most terrible things we all have to worry about in our lives.

[Raynickben]

I have an ex-friend who refused to put her grocery items on the belt and refused to bag her groceries because that would mean she had handled each item four times (1. taking it off the shelf, 2. putting it on the belt, 3. putting it in the bag, 4. putting it away in her home) No, she was not OCD but SNOB.

I know I have been furious and livid and irate at shoppers in the line in front of me but I can't remember why. Point being it's a quick rage that is soon forgotten.

[NulloModo]

I have seen them in Florida, and they often escort my mom out to her car and load the bags in her trunk, and won't accept a tip. Here in good ole New Jersey, that job just doesn't exist. There are even very few shoppers who have the checkers bag their groceries. Most shoppers here bag their own.

While almost every supermarket here in DE offers baggers, very rarely does anyone offer to carry something out to the car (seems to be a Safeway thing). I would assume FL, with its large population of the elderly, would be a natural place to offer such a service, as many of their customers simply may not be physically capable of carrying the bags themselves.

[Pickles]

The thing that I despise about the self checkout is that they are just another step towards the de-humanization of our lives.  Not that I get a lot out the interaction with the checkout person, but it can't be good to have less social interaction.

Social manners and common courtesy are on the decline and more automation surely isn't helping to improve things.

honestly i'd just as soon get my daily dose of social interaction somewhere besides the checkout lane. like online, for example.

I definitley don't enjoy interacting with gum-snapping, sullen, tattood teenagers with faces that look like they fell head first into a tackle box. But I hate that do it yourself check out thing. It always breaks down when I get on it. And the "voice" is too loud. It yells at me and scares me. "INSERT CASH NOW!!!" Okay! All right already!

[alacarte]

The checkout here in France was the last straw that made us give up supermarket shopping here forever. Where can I begin?

There are 5 categories of checkouts.

5 categories for the supermarket checkout line? I shudder to think how the lines for auto tolls are organized!

[winesonoma]

I bag my own when possible cause I do a better job. If you want help out ask. Just cause I'm 6'2" and weigh 250lb doesn't mean I'm not disabled (ask my former employer). I refuse to carry cases of wine to my truck. You sell it you transport it and I'll do it on my end. It's called customer service and we all deserve some.

[Beto]

I have an ex-friend who refused to put her grocery items on the belt

So how do her groceries make it onto the belt, by Jedi mind-trick?

[gus_tatory]

I have an ex-friend who refused to put her grocery items on the belt

So how do her groceries make it onto the belt, by Jedi mind-trick?

yeah, or else she's counting those six Red Bulls as one item...

[Raynickben]

I have an ex-friend who refused to put her grocery items on the belt

So how do her groceries make it onto the belt, by Jedi mind-trick?

She would tell the cashier to do it. Some places here the cashier always unloads the cart onto the belt and in others the customer does. It didn't matter to her what store she was in she always had the cashier unload her cart. Ballsy.