I love self-checkout. I’ve only gone through a regular checkout line about a dozen times when self-checkout was available at a store but backed up, and haven’t had a single fast or good experience. The small talk is depressing, they’re so much slower at scanning and keying in produce codes I’ve memorized by now, their bagging strategy is always abysmal, and unless the line is empty (which, it almost never is), you have not just 1 but 2 people to throw a wrench in the gears of getting checked out. About a quarter of the time the buyer in front doesn’t have any basic estimate of how much the stuff they’re trying to buy costs, and they end up putting back milk, eggs, and produce but keeping the pack of cigarettes when the card is rejected.
The waiting isn’t nearly as bad as the bagging, honestly. I would never put a carton of eggs in its own bag when there are loaves of bread or bags of chips lined up right behind it on the belt. I would never mix refrigerated foods in the same bag as drain cleaner, or go willy nilly mixing pantry items in paper packaging with frozen foods.
I love self-checkout. I’ve only gone through a regular checkout line about a dozen times when self-checkout was available at a store but backed up, and haven’t had a single fast or good experience. The small talk is depressing, they’re so much slower at scanning and keying in produce codes I’ve memorized by now, their bagging strategy is always abysmal, and unless the line is empty (which, it almost never is), you have not just 1 but 2 people to throw a wrench in the gears of getting checked out. About a quarter of the time the buyer in front doesn’t have any basic estimate of how much the stuff they’re trying to buy costs, and they end up putting back milk, eggs, and produce but keeping the pack of cigarettes when the card is rejected.
The waiting isn’t nearly as bad as the bagging, honestly. I would never put a carton of eggs in its own bag when there are loaves of bread or bags of chips lined up right behind it on the belt. I would never mix refrigerated foods in the same bag as drain cleaner, or go willy nilly mixing pantry items in paper packaging with frozen foods.