The Top 40

I like the automated checkout machines.

When, and ONLY when, I have just a couple items, all of which are bar coded, there are long lines for human cashiers, and there is no line at the automated one.

Violate any of those conditions and the human trumps.

Much as I dislike spending my life on line, I will wait a minute or two for that last vestige of human/human interface in the commercial venue, the checker/bagger.

Of course the mba-s tell us that the mechanization of everything from the grocery checkout to the scareport checkin gives the 'consumer' (aka customer) more choice and more control. Alas, the entity I labor for is shrinking the backoffice and pushing all hr/pay/benefit inquiries to the co. web interface.
Given the absurd complexity of our union labor pay structures, convoluted benefit schemes and the gov rules that must be complied with and general questions...all I can say is...

Hogwash.

Actually I like the self check items too for small orders and stuff that's easy to scan; i.e. most shopping trips. Its quicker and there's usually no line.

Unfortunately a lot of the cashiers are no-childs-left-behind that do not know what twelve times twelve is and cannot give change without looking at the register screen. Give one the extra nineteen cents so you'll get back a dollar bill and they freeze. If their scanner or register locks up they have to call for an assistant manager, usually a year or two older than they are, and they hoodoo some voodoo on the thing.

I prefer humans everywhere except big box stores, where a culture of product and customer service apathy is the norm. But I prefer bots at shops that push "bring your own bags", and default to "bag your own" when you do, even when all the bagging facilities (that lower space with the things that hold your bags open) remain exclusively on the other side of the conveyor. And I'll wait the extra few minutes for the human cashier who knows how to bag properly.

PLACE ITEM IN BAG!!!!!

UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA!!!!

I like getting in the line so that I can stand there waiting while the checkout clerk has her human interface time with her best bud.

"Oh, I'm sorry - did I express that I want you to shut the fuck up and do your job so that I can leave? How ever did it come that I would expect you to do that. Carry on - no really, I want to hear every bleeding detail of your church's last coffee. Really."

For small loads give me the self checkout.

F**k the self-checkout. If I'm going to do the scut work labor, then I want the scut work wage that any trainee cashier would receive.

Barring that, I want a 4% discount on my total purchase.

Barring said discounts, I certainly shall avail myself of the services of the cashier, as funded in the retail prices of the items purchased.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

F**k the self-checkout. If I'm going to do the scut work labor, then I want the scut work wage that any trainee cashier would receive.

Barring that, I want a 4% discount on my total purchase.

Barring said discounts, I certainly shall avail myself of the services of the cashier, as funded in the retail prices of the items purchased.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Gerard, my apologies for the double post. Do please kindly delete the duplicate, as well as this follow-up?

Much thanks!

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Jim, I have done that too. Gerard has a hair trigger on that POST button or something. Easy to double tap. Thank goodness he doesn't have a selector switch! I dunno, maybe he gets paid for the number of comments(?) Just kidding Gerard.

I live in a small town so all we have is real human clerks. The social interaction is acceptable. In the bigger cities around me I encounter self-checkout stations. They're OK if everything goes smoothly. When the station locks up or can't read a code it is a PITA. Oh, and when you get a person in front of you who is baffled by the process, ditto PITA.

Grocery stores. Ugh. At several (but not all) I have learned to avoid several checkers.

One is old and poor and clearly wishes she could avoid work. I wonder what ill was done in her life that she has this job instead of what she thinks she deserves. A nasty piece of work she is. No one wants to converse with her. If only her comments were as inane as “Unexpected item in bagging area.”

Another checker is so fat, her rolls of flab fall on the scales when she weighs items. I have yet to discover a delicate means of informing her that the weight totals on onions, bananas and the like aren’t meant to include her last meal. If only she could “Place Item on Scale” without her metaphorical thumb on the scale.

One grocery nearby—my preferred one—has no automated checkout registers, and its baggers insist on taking your items in the cart to your car. Nice place. The human touch adds a few percent to the total cost, though. I find it worth it. But I don’t shop there all the time.

Funny... I prefer the auto-checker. No attempts to engage me in inane, scripted "conversation," no up-selling, no begging to round up my bill to "donate" to their latest pet "awareness cause." The machine doesn't mind when I tell it to STFU and doesn't get offended that I'm not there to make life-long friends but just to buy some overpriced crap and get the hell outta there.

And, I'm faster on the machine than the checkers are. And I know enough not to put the heavy item on top of the bread.

Yesterday at Home Depot I bought 9 items totaling $181.11 and wasted no time at all on the subhumans and blew through the self checkout in record breaking times. Logical machines for logical people, or retards for retards, your choice.

I detest those damned machines. Whenever I am forced to use one I always wind up kicking and screaming at the heap of junk.

C, you took the words right out of my mouth!

Wow ghostsniper, you must be such a superior human being I don't know how you live around any other people. It is an honor to post on a website with your self perceived greatness.
Thank you for letting us know how great you think you are and how horrible everyone else is in your eyes.

It depends where you are of course. The checkers at the chain grocery store which I frequent are invariably interesting, helpful, and competent people. This is so unusual that I often ask them why they have this problem. No question in my mind that it is the result of a single manager who understands people. They ride a wave of good cheer and have found it to be better than the alternatives.

There are more than a few convenience store clerks who are wise far beyond their hourly wage. They see, and see often, every form of human dysfunction.

Comparing clerks and customers, I'll take the clerks.

Reading the other comments, I'm a little disappointed with Gerard's readership. Must we always require others to be nice and entertain us? Are we not strong enough in character to overcome this evil? In the words of Mel, they can take our clerks, but they can never take our freedom. Or, something like that ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zFAvzf0Mv0

I go through the human checkout line no matter how long I have to wait because of risk and because there is just something wrong with interacting wit machinery when I should be interacting with a human. (Call me a Luddite if you like, but as an engineer I quite like machinery when it is deployed appropriately.)

Risk ... I avoid the automated lines in order to manage risk. What if I inadvertently fail to scan, or mis-scan, an item? I could be "interviewed" by the corporate "lost prevention team", cuffed like a common criminal by state men with guns and ferried to the local "security center" ... A simply oversight and I am potentially the new owner of a brand new felony charge.

No, I'm not paranoid. This possibility occurred to me one evening after reading the police reports in the local newspaper. On many successive occasions I had read accounts of theft at our local Wal-Mart where the perps had shoplifted by not scanning items at the automated checkout. Was it intentional, or accidental? Who knows, but in my mind I had made the mistake of assuming they were guilty because the loss prevention team and police agreed they were and the newspaper had published only the corporation's side of the story.

However , employers can afford healthcare coverage for robots and will stay in business using robots if the holy grail of a $15 / hr minimum wage is achieved. Robots will be flipping burgers soon enough, also.

An Insurance Board member is quoted as saying, We are trying to get
health insurance in California. Customers should make certain that the insurance insurance health plans company, which suits your requirement.
California health insurance rates are going up just as fast
as they have a lot of hassle and pain in the future.