That is NOT Real
Make up your mind - Self Checkouts
9/16/24
Piggybacking on my last post "Maybe They Are All Wrong" here is one of "things" that was supposed to be the latest and greatest for humankind, but instead has been dumped into the trash bin of history. Why? I don't know, "maybe they are all wrong" and “it was not real.”
Self Checkouts (SCOs)
The Covid-Me-Too-Freakout™ pushed self checkouts at stores to an all-time high. SCOs were supposed to save time and money. The stores no longer had to hire employees to man the checkout lanes AND the customers would do all the work by scanning and paying for items themselves at the SCO kiosks.
Win win all around, right?
Guess not.
SCOs are being removed from many stores (Walmart, Target, etc.) because they are costing too much money to maintain and "supposedly" too many of us stupid shits (aka customers) are stealing items because we do not how to scan them correctly.
Whatever.
I actually kind of liked SCOs. I could scan my items slowly (to make sure the correct price rang up) and bag them myself. As long as the SCO accepted cash, I was good to go.
Yesterday, I went to crappy Walmart for my crappy monthly grocery shopping. I always buy a cartload of plastic/poisonous food, so I only have to shop at crappy Walmart once a month.
After loading up my crappy cart with crappy grocery and paper product items, I went to the self checkout to scan/bag/pay, just like I have been since the Covid-Me-Too-Freakout™.
"Whoa!!" said the old lady manning the SCOs.
"You are NOT allowed to checkout here. Only people with 15 items or less. You need to go to the checkout lanes."
Shocking. NOT.
I glanced over at the checkout lanes and saw only 2 lanes were open out of 20 lanes.
Nice.
Thank God it was a Sunday morning (8:45 am) or I would have waited in line for at least 30 minutes to checkout my cartload of crappy plastic food. All of my frozen perishable items would melt into a pile of mush while I waited for the human cashier to checkout other crazies who shop once a month for groceries.
I only had to wait 10 minutes for the woman in front of me to checkout her two separate orders of soda and processed plastic food.
Thank God!
When it was my turn, the cashier on autopilot (I don't blame her) scanned my items too fast for me to see if the items scanned correctly. Plus I live in crappy NY where single use plastic bags are banned, so I had to bag my items at the same time I was eyeballing the scanner thingy that was constantly freezing up.
The cashier said she would help me bag, but she kept putting the bread with the meat and/or heavy cans, crushing the delicate plastic bread. I told her I would take over bagging so I could bag like items together.
I have a crazy system. I like my heavy items in one bag, my dairy items in another, my meat in another, etc.
I know...I told you it was a crazy system.
As my items were being scanned by a real person, the line behind me filled up with people who had more than 15 items, but NOT a cart load of plastic food like I did.
Oh well, two cashiers were open per Walmart management. Customers now have to wait for shitheads like me who only grocery shop once a month.
When it was all said and done, the total of my plastic/poisonous food came to $196 and change. I paid the cashier, got my receipt and moved my cart to the side so I could peruse the receipt to make sure the items scanned correctly.
ALL THE FOOD IS POISON!
As I pushed the crappy cart, full of crappy plastic/poisonous food, out of crappy Walmart I noticed the floor was taped down in multiple spots and the entire outside of the building had been removed of its fascia leaving dirty concrete full of rebar sticking out.
Nice.
Walmart is dying a slow death, just like Kmart and Sears.
I thought to myself, what happened to technology that was supposed to be the savior of humankind?
Self Checkouts (SCOs) were all the rage during the Covid-Me-Too-Freakout™. Customers could check out their own crappy shit without breathing their "germs" on employees, which caused instantaneous deaths from the pandemic that never was.
Now, less than five years after the glory that was SCOs, they have been tossed into the trash bins. We are back to human interaction, but with less humans manning the checkout lanes, just 'cause.
I guess SCOs were not real.
I guess they never saved money for the stores. It was all a lie or a failed "AI is going to save us" experiment. Plus I am guessing the SCO machines were constantly breaking down and the Chinese/Indian companies that design/manufacture and sell the SCOs were charging a shitload more every year for crappier and crappier equipment and software.
I knew the SCOs were not long for this world when last month at Walmart, the SCO I was using would not take a ten dollar bill.
Why?
The employee told me the SCO machines no longer recognized ten dollar bills. Just 'cause.
Okey, dokey and here we are. Back to 1980's when SCOs were only dream. That is probably a good thing.
Here is a cartoon we made highlighting the joy of shopping at Walmart. Enjoy!
I prefer SCO's because I don't have to paste a smile on for a real person. However, during the Freak Out, I purposefully went to actual people, believing that it was a pretext to get rid of most real people by replacing them with the tech I was guilty of using just because I am asocial and uncharitable (love of neighbor gets real hard at times). So one day I was in the real person line and that real person was complaining to me about how lazy people are for NOT using SCO's. I told her actually I prefer machines but I also think people should not be replaced by them and the only reason I came to her line was so she would not be replaced by a machine. Sadly she did not seem to understand, agree, care or something. I still don't get it.
Well, yes, I did enjoy this fine post. It sounded very familiar. Very. Monday morning I also left home for a 30 minute drive to the nearest Walmart. I really didn't want to go out, but I needed a few things, fewer than 15.
And I ALWAYS use a SCO, for the same reasons YOU do. I can take my time, scan each item, look at the register to see if it was correct, then bag it. Yes, I bag each item separately, most items anyway. ALWAYS by type - breads together - one bag. Frozen - one bag. Cottage cheese - one bag. Shredded and block cheese - one bag. A glass jar of pasta sauce - one bag. Bag of sugar - one bag. You get the idea.
This trip was not a "stock up" trip. I only needed two 20 pound bags of economy-mix birdseed, sugar, a pepper grinder, and a package of marked down hoagie rolls from the marked down bread cart. It was loaded with all kinds of large unsliced loaves, and boxes of donuts, and boxes of pies.
I have gotten proficient at using the SCO. I know how to look up produce that doesn't have a sticker. I learned how to use the handheld scanner for the bags of birdseed. And I know which SCO machine dispenses "cash back". I like to use my bank debit card to pay for the items, and get cash back. This time I needed cash to take back to my small town to pay the water bill that was due Monday. I always pay that in cash. During the Kovid Hoax days they wouldn't let you go inside to pay, you had to drop it in the outside box, so I had to use a check, and the check took two weeks to clear, which messed up my bookkeeping.
My local Dollar General started using one SCO about a year ago, and I preferred to use it. Then they made it five items or fewer. If I had 6-10 I would just scan 5 and pay, then scan the rest and pay. Then not long ago they stopped using it. Word was they lost too much from unscanned items, otherwise known as poor people taking stuff without paying. The only good thing about my local DG is they now carry produce. I can buy a banana for 35 cents, or a bag of potatoes, or a box of plastic tomatoes. And with the receipt you get a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase on Saturday. I give those to my cousin who has the money to use several of those coupons each week. Sometimes now you get a coupon for $10 off $40. She likes those.
Well, it seems I need to start writing my own Substack, lol.