Self Checkout Lanes Are Not For Everyone · September 6, 2008

I’ve really gotten to like self checkout lanes. I’ll checkout using those lanes at any store where I shop that has them. I really wish more stores had them. It seems to be a better experience all around: I get to pack my purchases how I want, and it’s usually the path of least resistance. Usually…

So, I went to get a few groceries tonight after the gym. I picked up 3 items for dinner and headed to the self checkout. I recognized the scene immediately: 4 self checkout lanes, three of them occupied with people getting a week’s worth of groceries for their entire family, a line of people waiting to check out that backs up into another isle of the store, a solitary regular checkout lane open with a line at it just as long as at the self checkout, and 3 other store employees milling around doing seemingly nothing despite all of this. Would it have killed them to open a couple more regular checkout lines? Had I not needed the food in my basket for dinner, I would have said screw it, put it all back, and left the store.

There really needs to be some training for people wishing to use the self checkout lanes, and some rules posted. The first thing they should tell people is that the scanner reads the barcode on the item, so don’t just wave it around willy-nilly and wonder why you’re not hearing the magic beeps. Second, the long table after the scanner is for your scanned items, and it’s keeping track of how much they all weigh, so don’t put your kids, your purse, or things you haven’t scanned yet on it and wonder why you can’t scan anything else and the machine keeps yelling at you. The third thing is that if you have a week’s worth of groceries, you’re probably nowhere near as efficient as the cashiers are, so go to a regular lane and stop holding up the rest of us who have a handful of items that just want to check out quickly and go home. Fourth, if the attendant has to come over and help you more than once in a single shopping trip or every time you do self checkout, or if they roll their eyes when they see you coming because of their past experiences with you, self checkout is not your thing – STOP TRYING. I’m not even going to get into the chaos and confusion that unmarked produce causes…

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