Check me out
Belinda Humphries
Happy Expectations Day… *ahem* Valentine’s Day everyone!
The other day I received an exasperated SMS from my dear friend Matt, vehemently ruing the day he ever laid eyes on a supermarket self-checkout. He made no secret of the fact his blood pressure rises whenever he hears the robotic phrase “unexpected item in bagging area”.
While Matt is a smart guy and it doesn’t take much to figure these contraptions out, I’ve lost count of other intelligent people I know who are sick of going 10 rounds with these things every time they need to quickly grab a couple of items from the supermarket.
Personally, I adore them. Then again, in the spirit of honesty I will disclose that I am known to be slightly pedantic. I can’t trust another person to pack my groceries – every time I do my bread and eggs are squashed by my milk.
The question that comes to mind for me is: does the self-checkout take the personality out of visiting the local shops?
Without admitting my age, I come from an era when you’d ride your bike (or rollerblades for us super cool kids) to the local shop and ask for 50c worth of chocolate drops and the lovely lady behind the counter accidentally/on purpose popped another one or two in the bag because you started with, “Please may I ...”
Is this the future of customer service, outsourced to a touch screen? Or is there still a place for a person on the other side of the counter?
I personally hate the self-service machines that are popping up at supermarkets! I want to be able to just put my stuff on the conveyer belt and pay at the end! Why would I want to scan, weigh and bag my only items while paying the same amount of money. I reckon I should get a 10-20% discount for using these bloody annoying machines!
I have used them 3 times and while I dont find them technically challenging, I find the whole process very annoying. Now I just pick a line with an actual check out chick and wait a little longer.
Nick of St Peters
Actually, that is a valid point. If the cost of the labour is factored into the goods surely there should be some form of discount for us self-serving customers. Although I do feel bad that I may be doing a high school student out of a job.
Do you find that the checkout person packs your bags well though, Nick? Or do you end up with broken biscuits and squashed fruit and veges?
Belinda Humphries
I don’t mind using them myself. What really annoys me is when the people in front of me do one of 3 things (and it happens...well too often!)
1) Have about 3,000 items in their trolley but decide that self-service checkout is for them
2) Don’t know how to use them. Come on - they’ve been in my local shops for over a year now? Can it truly be that every time I go shopping there’s someone who hasn’t used them before?
3) Know how to use them. Very slowly. V e r y s l o w l y. Or even slower.I think we need another whole set of self-checkout lines: One for people who won’t bother me, and another for people like me. Surely that’s not asking too much
Sean of Strathfield
I agree. With the people that are really slow, it’s so very tempting to take over and finish it for them. I daresay you would get well acquainted with the security staff if you gave into that temptation.
I have heard stories about people being halfway through checking themselves out, leaving their items at the register to go back and get something else.
Belinda Humphries
I love them if I’m grabbing just a few things.
The challenge can be to juggle more than 3 items, my green shopping bags, wallet, mobile phone, trashy compulsory mag from impulse buy stand, the flashy red light thing that alerts everyone else to the fact you don’t know what you’re doing AND, still have time to check out any hotties in the queue. Phew! Next please!
Brad of Surry Hills, NSW
I like them only if I have a couple of items to check out. However waiting in line to use the self-check out is sometimes a longer wait than the express check out chick, so why bother at times like this?
I also find it frustrating when my superior self-check out skills are faster then the machine itself and I am left waiting for “her” to prompt me to do the next task when I am already ready to grab my bag and run…
Overall they are great, but people who can’t use them should stick to the conventional check out options so that this speedy option is left as just that.Lauren of Brisbane
