Anyone else totally fed up with the self check out machines at grocery stores?

you should just grow your own food, do away with the grocery store altogether!

Sounds like operator error. It's not hard to scan your item and then put it in the bag. It's that simple. Hell, they even make the fruit and vegetables easy for you by letting you search by type and give you pictures to help you identify it.

Now, yes, the fact that some stores are run too shitty that they can't adequately staff the self checkout to take care of issues when they do arise is very annoying. Wife and I were at Target the other day...4 self checkouts. Absolutely no one to help with issues. We were 4 or 5 people deep in the "line" and there was a guy there waiting for someone to clear whatever the issue was. He was still waiting on help by the time we checked out.

Btw, was just in London for business, went to the local Tesco. All self-checkout with the exception of 2 registers...and the only time they staff those registers is on the weekend. They had 2 people (from what I could tell) that were helping with the self checkout, if need be.

Timely thread. This week I was at a self check out. I scan item, place in bag on scale, and hear...PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN BAGGING AREA. So I take it out, place it there again, and the stupid thing yelled at me again to wait for assistance.

So I stand there. And stand there. And stand there. The guy at the machine behind me is doing the same. Seeing that no one was interested in clearing the issue, I finally left the items and walked out. Went to the store down the road and used a manned check out line.

I despise self check out. Never again.

Nope love them.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Sounds like operator error.

It's not my job to scan groceries. You're selling me something and I have to do the work?

Maybe I'm a moron, but so are lots of others, because almost every time I've used them, either I or someone else in line had to wait for an employee to clear the thing. I'll never use them again.

My biggest annoyances are:

1) Items incorrectly labeled or not labeled. Always requires customer service.

2) Items that don't fit in a bag or are too light to be detected when placed. Nothing is worse than when you scan it just fine and then have to stop everything because the bagging system doesn't recognize you've placed it correctly.

I'm with you. I always drive to the other side of town to have an attendant pump my gas. Businesses just scrimp on customer service these days.

Only issue I have is when my kid leans against the bagging station and it yells at you to remove the item.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Sounds like operator error. It's not hard to scan your item and then put it in the bag. It's that simple.

Ha! No it's not that simple. Scan item, place it in the bag, and the scale doesn't detect it. Then you have to wait for the attendant, who may or may not be in the vicinity, and may or may not be paying attention, and may or may not have any sense of urgency about their job.

Or you scan and ITEM NOT FOUND.

I'd say it's about 50/50 on whether or not I'll have to get the attendant to come over. Unacceptable rate. I'm done with them.

Mostly I'm fed up with the other people in line who don't know how to operate the self check out machines and slow the rest of us down. I would use the manned check out lines but those lines take even longer than the self check out.

I often get two or three items at my local store.

One item is usually milk and it always has trouble reading that I put it in the bag after I scan it.

The red light comes on and I have to wait for someone to clear it before I can scan the next item.

At the same time, there is one cashier manned checkout that has people with many items to check out.

Saw a news item recently that some stores are reducing self check out lines due to the high rate of errors, customer frustrations, and theft (both intentional and accidental). Evidently, it's making inventory tracking harder and that's eating into the labor savings.

Bill Burr had a pretty good riff on selfcheckout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxINJzqzn4w

At first I thought you were criticizing him for it being operator error (which usually it isn't, these machines are buggy). But then I noticed in your second paragraph you have the exact same problems with these machines as he does, so you maybe are commisserating, not criticizing.

pfahsjsh wrote:

You almost always have to have the attendant come clear something, which means standing there like a goofus until they actually notice you and casually saunter over. I'm done. I've reached my breaking point and will refuse to use them going forward, even if it means waiting in line.

I don't have a problem with the machines. Last time I had a problem was when I bought something at Target that was on sale and the sale prices wasn't in the system so they had to type it in.

If you feel anxious when people are staring at you in line, I suggest you grow some balls.

Why can't they figure out how to let the scanner check your ID when you buy booze or cough syrup? That is the most annoying part of self checkout is waiting for the attended to check your ID or hit the bypass if you are old like me.

I don't like having to talk to checkers, so I use the self-check line. But then when the item's weight isn't detected, or it's alcohol, or or a cold med, or has two bar codes (ran into that one last time), then you have to have the attendant come over which defeats my whole goal of trying to avoid checkers in the first place.

Self checkout + grocery basket = live checkout

end of problem

I have never had this happen. Ever. Not once. Maybe those machines are crap, or... other possibilities :)