I don’t know if the letter is real, but this was my parents. They refused to use the self-checkout because they didn’t work there and it might take away jobs. Meanwhile, they’re the same people who complained that pretty much any basic customer facing job shouldn’t pay a living wage.
They exist.
The letter isn’t real in the sense that it says Malwart at the top. Otherwise it does exist.
I can’t believe my brain didn’t catch that. I instantly saw the walmart brand symbol and looked no further.
You know you can take the good part and discard the second one?
Remember that multibillion dollar corporations are pushing you to self checkout because they are too cheap to pay someone minimum wage to work a register. The boomers are right.
some people don’t want it wait for a million years for the person in front of them with 600 items to get through.
Some solutions are not just about solving one thing or a personal attack.
That is definitely one of the reasons to skip self checkout.
Tell that to people that could have had jobs as a cashier that those machines have taken away.
May the hammer of Enoch do it’s work.
Doing less work has been the primary motivating factor behind basically all of human progress. The problem is that the savings is lining shareholder pockets instead of reducing employee workload.
Yep, hence the Luddite reference.
I will, no problem. Luddites have no place today, thank you.
Heck, cashiers are still wprking where I live. One of them just gets assigned to 6 or 8 self checkouts instead of normal register.
Like you’re not waiting for the person in front of you in self-checkout to fumble their way through scanning those items? Who do you think is faster at it, the boomer in front of you in line or someone who does it all day? You’re just buying into the bullshit narrative you’re being fed.
Self-checkout has almost always been faster for me. No bullshit narrative, just actual experience.
When’s the last time someone checked you out?
Don’t remember. All I know is that the average time I’ve spent waiting for when doing self-check is shorter than the average time waiting when not.
Next time your feeling social or not it a rush have someone check you out. Hell you can even do it if there’s a cute bean working.
Alternatively, self-checkout is a great way to shoplift from big corporations destroying civilization and the habitability of the planet.
Doo Doo Doo… Doo! 🌠
I refuse to voluntarily pay for bags. How many bags did I use? Zero, motherfucker!
That’s one of The reasons I don’t use the self checkout. Also since I want to pay with cash and can’t do that at the self checkout.
And that is why I stopped using them. Actually, I just order online for most things and curbside pickup.
I have mixed opinions on self checkout… but the best is when I go to buy beer, and only beer. Someone that works there has to ID me and plug my birthday into the computer anyway so it’s like shrodingers self check out.
On a more serious note, I enjoy not having to make small talk with the cashier but also would rather not be watched like I’m a thief when I ring out my stuff.
Also, it’s kinda nice to eat all organic fruits and vegetables and only pay the prices for the GMO versions.
Surely you can find human connection than just at a checkout. We don’t have to inconvenience everyone and refit everything in our world just so someone can have a conversation with someone else. I mean we still have public areas other than a shopping place that’s meant to stand around and have convos that doesn’t plug up everyone else’s time.
They make you let them scan your ID half the time anyways, why not just let you scan your own ID?
In case it’s someone who looks plausibly old enough but who “borrowed” Mom’s ID. I doubt they have facial recognition to match ID to face on those cheap POSs.
Did shrodinger also buy beer at self checkout? Maybe all that drinking made him forget if the cat was dead or alive
Haha like the ONLY good thing about self checkout is the potential for stealing. As for the small talk thing: the most I’ve ever had to say to a cashier was “hello” and “thank you”. I can handle that.
I hate the self checkout at my local Kroger because it works like fucking dog shit. Always playing a patronizing voice telling me to put the item in the bagging area even though it already is. Always has an inadequate amount of space in the bagging area.
If the purge happens everyone is going to be looting and murdering. I’ll be the person burning down Kroger.
I went to self checkout at Costco cause I was borrowing my sister’s card and didn’t want the cashier to check it, unrelated but self checkout does gave uses
My experience with self checkout at Costco is very much that they still do 80% of the work if you have more than 2 things. Like they’re flipping things and scanning them in my cart and I’m just handling pushing buttons and paying on the touch screen. It’s kinda bizarre but not bad imo.
The real trick is they don’t have the weight sensor and cameras that flip out over every move. Like damn I told you I was putting 3 bags in the bagging area; they are not unexpected items.
Never understood why people struggle with the bagging area thing. You’re doing something wrong. Here’s a hint: Every item in the store is weighed, and the bagging area has a scale on it that measures that weight. If you accidentally put more or less weight into the bagging area, it’ll complain.
Scan, immediately bag within 3 seconds, and don’t let anything touch the bagging area, not even your hands. Utilize the “skip bagging” button for items that take more than 3 seconds to bag (but don’t hit "skip bagging more than 3/4 times or it’ll complain). Immediately remove any excess weight (such as your arm or a bag) after bagging. I promise you’ll almost never have another an issue again.
Sometimes they are just broken. Bad scales, sensors, etc. Kroger’s converyor style checkouts are especially bad.
I know how to bag groceries, you fucking condescending asshole. The Walmart and Home Depot self check work every time for me. Kroger has defective ones. Maybe their scales suck. Maybe they need different values for their timers. I am not going to debug it for them unless they pay my software consulting fees which seems highly unlikely because they’ve broken for more than five years.
I only use checkouts with people. The Malwart near me refuses to open any registers other than self checkout. There are always ladies at the front wanting to check receipts. So, I just abandon my purchase a lot.
If they can’t hire people to open a single register than they can hire someone to put back the items in the cart.
Arguments:
“But POTOOOOOOOO you are being an asshole!”
I helped build POS machines. I know how often they are inaccurate and if they think you made an error stores are quicker to trust the POS machine more than the person.
The POS machines at self check outs have a ton of cameras and most want you to pay with a credit card. Some machines won’t flag you for shop lifting until after the fact. Then they will be able to cross reference the credit card that paid for it.
“You’re being paranoid”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/walmart-shoplifting-lawsuit.html
TL;DR: Don’t use self checkouts.
I can’t even begin to understand the “you are being an asshole” argument. Am I an asshole because I protect jobs? Am I an asshole because I don’t want to pad the earnings of a multi-billion dollar corporation at the expense of workers? No, dude, I am 100% with you. I have abandoned my purchases as well, and I actively avoid stores that push self checkout.
I’ve stated similar things on Reddit. Someone flipped out at me for creating food waste and staffing issues for making them put away things.
I don’t buy food at malwort if I can help it.
Protecting jobs is the stupidest possible reason to be anti self checkout. I don’t care much about the other points but that one I find really stupid. I guess we should also remove all automation from manufacturing and use hammers and nails to build cars as well. Let’s also destroy all calculators since we can just go back to people crunching out numbers on paper.
Look at all these poor women that lost their jobs because of big calculator.
Self checkout is not automated, you fool. you are doing the work for the company. It is not a new technological solution. A human is still working the till.
The thing is you’re distributing that time onto a lot of people. Instead of a person having to sit at the register 24/7 now people spend 1 minute longer at the store because they have to scan stuff themselves, which is negligible. In fact, you’re (or at least I am) almost always faster at shopping because now you don’t need to wait for a register to open up. Now you have an entire human being that’s free to do something else.
Another important fact is that for me at least the difference between when a cashier checks out goods for me and when I do it is maybe 30%, which again doesn’t count the fact that you don’t have to wait for a free cash register or the wait is much shorter most of the time.
Another thing it helps with is when you have a grandma fidling with her coins trying to find exact change for 5 minutes blocking everyone behind her. You can just go to a different self checkout instead of waiting for the single open till to free up.
You may be faster at the till than I am. I admit I lack practice. You make a good point about waiting in line behind slow customers, though. One of the biggest advantages of the self checkout is the single queue. Having six lineups for six checkouts never made sense.
I was in a malwart for the first time in over a decade last week. There wasn’t a single register open like you said. I also walked out without purchasing anything. Maybe I’ll try in another ten years.
I’ve asked them to open one and the employees have stated “no use self checkout” absolutely insane.
I stepped into a Fred Meyer the other day and was fucking horrified by the amount of cameras and face recognition around the self checkout section. It’s dystopian. I just left and went to a different store.
I heard they are trying to charge for self checkout now, it was already a no thanks, now it’s a fuck no.
If I hear that, I’m dropping my shit where I stand and going to the grocery store down the street.
Upvoating because it’s funny. Not because I agree with Walmart.
Malwart
The major supermarket chain where I live has a “shop and go” system. You get a battery powered barcode scanner that you take round and scan items before you put them in your trolley, then hand it over to an operator at the end. They can download the list of items to the till, then you pay and leave.
They have a “random spot check” system where sometimes they pick a few random items out of your trolley and check that they are on the list. I’m imagining that some people get away with theft, but it’s probably not a lot more than people who are going to steal normally anyway
I’ve tried those a few times, what trips me up is that they don’t do well (or I don’t know how to) with -30% and the nightly -60% stuff. That stuff is vital to me
Self-checkout lanes are anti-union machines. Theft was the only way we are getting rid of them
Hey, I don’t work here, but if I did, I would not sell you shit 🎶
But maybe I should, so I could hide all the things you want from you! 🎶
Burn all the self checkouts, what do I get out of this lazy " automation " I’m not touching one till I get a discount for don’t someone else’s job
PS let me smash those stupid one way gates at the entrance with a hammer
You transport yourself to the store, walk around the store, pick the items up off the shelf, take them around the store, take them with you to checkout, take them to your car, bring them into your house, and put them away. But moving the item 36 inches from your basket to your bag is something you’re too enfeebled or important to do yourself?
Sorry man but what do get out of that extra effort how ever small it is, “oh no I’m going to wait a bit longer while I’m on my phone”, maybe it’s because in from a small town and such things are pretty recent but they just feels like there’s dishonest about them
Ok, boomer.
I don’t want to be a 30 year old boomer
Ok, bitch.
They’re way, way, way faster for me and funny enough at the same time I have peace of mind in that the person next in line isn’t breathing down my neck while I’m putting stuff in my backpack.
You know these things are for Your convenience, right?
These things are so they don’t have to pay people to check out your groceries anymore. There’s not much convenience in them when you’re buying produce and have to go through multiple pages to find the item you’re scanning in or god forbid the barcode doesn’t read or put something in the bagging area too quickly and then you have to stand there looking stupid while an employee comes over to help you because the machine encountered an error and won’t let you continue scanning your stuff.
You know, You don’t have to go to a self checkout, right?
Sometimes that’s all they have open (Home Depot) so you do have to go to them. If these companies can save a buck by having you ring yourself up, they will.
I’d rather walk out with nothing
[Darth] Maul Wart…
Everything’s half off at maul wart
Get out of the way, you old fuck, I’m in a hurry.
You should vocalize this next time so some old men can take turns beating your punk ass.
It’s amazing how much harder old men punch.
Please consider that saving someone’s job is worth the 2 minutes more that you spend waiting in line at the cashier.
I have never saved time at a self checkout unless I had 1 item. I am absolutely not interested in looking up the code for a poblano fucking pepper using their shitty menu.
Same, I’ve never even thought to try it at the grocery store. I always have produce and alcohol and I’m not about to try to fuck with all that on self-service. Cashiers can do it faster. I sometimes use it at big box stores if I only have a couple things but for the most part I wait until I’m in dire need before I go out to the store so I usually end up getting a bunch of stuff at once.
Please consider that people suck.
