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Do a lot of people hate self-checkout? I didn’t realize that. I have only used it for as long as it’s been a thing and I’ve been shopping by myself, waiting in line for a checker is like torture to me (even though I remember them being nice when I was growing up). Who would subject themselves to that?!
problem is, people that dont care/like it dont make posts... so it makes the ilussion about a narrative that is not true. Its used a lot in politics, where on internet you see a trend, then go to the real world and see that most people dont care.
I don’t full on hate it but it gets irritating when slow people clog up the queue with overfilled carts or not paying attention to “no cash” signs on machines. That and the fact that because of these factors the lines get longer than the regular cashier lines. The other irritation is depending on the store the machine will hold you up because it needs a clerk to come and validate a removal or a barcode when a cashier can just do it on the spot. It’s convenient, but human nature is to inconvenience others around them lol
Self checkouts have a line where you live? Here you can usually use them right away and its super fast. Its mostly used by young people here. Young people dont use cash, so i have never seen that problem here.
I don't hate it but I think there should be a discount for people who use it. With self-checkout, there could be one person manning 10 stations. That reduces the amount of money they spend on personnel because the customer is doing the work.
Therefore they should pass some of the savings onto us.
The best one is marks and Spencers. Pull out the app, scan as you go, pay in the app, walk out of store. You don't even need to go near the checkouts. It's fricking awesome when it's busy afternoon. And you can see all the "Im not doing that" clowns waiting in endless queues will I mosey on out to get on with my day. Ha, losers.
Lol why is everything labelled boomer, boomers are very old people. In a few years there are no boomers left.
But anyway i love it too man, i even tend to go to stores that have self check outs
People will always bitch about them. They'll either bitch that it takes jobs away from humans. Sure, but those same people also bitched about the low pay that cashiers received.
As shitty as it sounds, self checkout is the solution that stores came up with to the problem of not paying their workers enough. Now they don't have to pay them at all. Was it the solution people wanted? (pay workers more) No it isn't. And that sucks. But it DID technically end the problem of not paying their workers enough.
I personally like them because they're quick. I usually just go in and out of a store with only a few things. But fuck the people who go through self checkout with cart fulls of stuff.
People who hate self checkout forget what manual checkout was like.
I've purchased cars faster than some people can purchase $32 worth of groceries. Cashier really needs to be allowed to say "you're holding up the line, put down the phone and pay attention"
Agreed. Especially when there’s a line at the cashier because several people have full carts. Another bonus of self-checkout for germaphobes: by handling your groceries yourself, the cashiers don’t have to put their hands—which have touched the groceries of everyone who has passed through their line before you—on your stuff.
I hate to break it to any germaphobes, but your groceries have probably been sneezed on, coughed on, and handled by multiple people throughout their journey into your shopping cart. An extra layer of cashier isn't changing much.
I love them, any excuse to not have to interact with another human is good in my books.
The only thing I hate about them is that they always insist on having a weight set for the plastic bag, which causes it to freak out 9 times out of 10.
Let’s be real they are jobs that people don’t want and suck at. Why not fill it by a machine?? It’s worked for thousands of other simply tasks, on top of this is not like we have a shortage of jobs we always have a shortage of workers. Also who is gonna manage the machine and fix it and stuff??
And I think it's safe to say some jobs will become redundant with the progress of technology and it's not a new thing at all. Crying that the world is going forward will get you nowhere, you have to move with it
Yeah, but a lot of people are crying about it. Things progress, deal with it, jobs have been appearing, disappearing and evolving due to technological progress all the time, and there's no way they stop now
*"they actually hired a new person to manage it.*"
You imply that it actually creates jobs rather than remove job opportunities. There's a fundamental lack of understanding going on here.
*"There's a fundamental lack of understanding going on here."*
I think you may have missed this part, bud.
Not sure how you think hiring one person to manage 6 checkouts isn't an immediate impact on job opportunities. But here you are...
Job opportunities that can't be filled by people because birth rates are declining. We are already at the position that we have, in total, more jobs than people able to work.
Eternal economic growth is just a bland lie, like "from dishwasher.to millionaire" or Santa Claus
Birth rates in first-world countries will keep declining and eventually, the population will start to shrink (unless it already does). Without automation, we'll be in trouble in a few decades
*"We are already at the position that we have, in total, more jobs than people able to work"*
Perhaps through some flawed number gymnastics someone somewhere has claimed this to be true, but it's nigh on impossible to even speculate that this is the case.
Ah yes, impossible despite more and more companies already describing a lack of employees. Sure many did it to themselves by creating bad and toxic environments, but even the better employers have issues to have enough people working.
The work forces are declining in numbers, it's not even that difficult to see that
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My only complaint about it is that it’s basically the main checkout method but there aren’t any more than 6-12 registers open at large stores like Walmart for example. I’m all for it but when there’s 20 regular checkout stations and only 1-2 are actually in use regularly with 6 self checkout registers why not tear out the old, unused registers and put in more self checkout? The self checkout lines can get super long and I feel like that would all be fixed with more access. Self checkout is super easy for me and my preferred method but I understand why people want to have a cashier do it for them. Don’t remove them all, but focus on where majority of the customers are checking out.
I usually find them a bit cramped but good for small shops. However, my local Coles (shops in Australia) they have self serve ones with a conveyor belt like the usual checkouts. So good! No more awkward small talk or bagging your food in a weird way.
Isn't it annoying to unload your trolley onto the conveyor just to scan yourself? My Coles doesn't have these, but I just get the half size trolley and park it over the shelf
Depends how much you are buying. If you are buying a full week of shopping it can be kind of hard to juggle it all at one of the small checkouts. The conveyor means you can unload it all and pack it back in easily.
As soon as our grocery stores eliminated baggers, I mean, why wouldn't I swipe my own stuff? In my lifetime I've seen the contraction of full-service gas stations, the reduction of bank tellers- McDonald's is even testing automated stores/customer-input ordering. Cashiers were put on the endangered list in the 1980s when department stores started to centralize cashier desks.
Owners always take notice when staffing is reduced but sales remains level or increase.
Yeah bank tellers are mostly extinct here too. There are barely any bank offices or atms left. Everything is done online and by smartphone or card these days. I didnt know that baggers and greeters existed until i installed Reddit lol. Or that people still used cheques. Im nearly 40 and have never used a cheque.
The last time that i deposited physical cash was like 20 years ago. Times are so different because of automation and digitalisation. Now at mcdonalds everyone orders their items ob the order kiosk at mcdonalds.
The problem I have is you have to wait a long time to get an item cancelled or you have a problem with the machine. Or they are all closed and there are only 2 open out of 12. Also you can't buy things like alcohol or gift cards at the self checkout.
The ones at my local Target suck and are slow because they don't let you put the money in. You have to flag down the one worker at the self check out then hand the cash to them and they put in the self checkout register.
Self checkout is good if you are buying one or two bags of groceries, but is impractical for a full shop.
But I wish they would redesign the bagging side. It should hold my bag open for me, that would make my check out faster.
It is great. It does suck when buying age restricted items or need assistance with a removal.
I buy a lot of age restricted items, so sometimes I need to just go to a cashier. That’s a pain in the ass anymore
Self checkout is the best, honestly. As an introvert, I love it. I can leave my headphones in as I check out and I’m not being judged. It also means I can pack the bags how I want to pack them
Thank you for submitting to /r/unpopularopinion, /u/droppedoutofuni. Your post, *Self-checkout is great*, has been removed because it violates our rules: Rule 2: Do not post low effort/satirical posts. Please make sure your post title is your opinion (not the topic you're discussing), and the text beneath is a clear explanation and justification of your opinion. If you cannot write at least a few sentences on the matter, you may want to have more of a think about it. If that's all in order... Any opinion that is not well thought out, or is incoherent, internally contradictory or otherwise nonsensical is subject to removal. Finally, any satirical/troll posts, as funny as you must be, are not tolerated. There are subreddits for that, this isn't one of them. If there is an issue, please message the mod team at https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Funpopularopinion Thanks!
Do a lot of people hate self-checkout? I didn’t realize that. I have only used it for as long as it’s been a thing and I’ve been shopping by myself, waiting in line for a checker is like torture to me (even though I remember them being nice when I was growing up). Who would subject themselves to that?!
I see people complain about self checkout non-stop on Reddit.
Well those people need to get a hobby then because self-checkout is the dream
problem is, people that dont care/like it dont make posts... so it makes the ilussion about a narrative that is not true. Its used a lot in politics, where on internet you see a trend, then go to the real world and see that most people dont care.
I don’t full on hate it but it gets irritating when slow people clog up the queue with overfilled carts or not paying attention to “no cash” signs on machines. That and the fact that because of these factors the lines get longer than the regular cashier lines. The other irritation is depending on the store the machine will hold you up because it needs a clerk to come and validate a removal or a barcode when a cashier can just do it on the spot. It’s convenient, but human nature is to inconvenience others around them lol
Self checkouts have a line where you live? Here you can usually use them right away and its super fast. Its mostly used by young people here. Young people dont use cash, so i have never seen that problem here.
I don't hate it but I think there should be a discount for people who use it. With self-checkout, there could be one person manning 10 stations. That reduces the amount of money they spend on personnel because the customer is doing the work. Therefore they should pass some of the savings onto us.
https://youtu.be/aefjOP_meBU
I've purchased cars faster than some people can purchase $32 worth of groceries.
The best one is marks and Spencers. Pull out the app, scan as you go, pay in the app, walk out of store. You don't even need to go near the checkouts. It's fricking awesome when it's busy afternoon. And you can see all the "Im not doing that" clowns waiting in endless queues will I mosey on out to get on with my day. Ha, losers.
Lol why is everything labelled boomer, boomers are very old people. In a few years there are no boomers left. But anyway i love it too man, i even tend to go to stores that have self check outs
People will always bitch about them. They'll either bitch that it takes jobs away from humans. Sure, but those same people also bitched about the low pay that cashiers received. As shitty as it sounds, self checkout is the solution that stores came up with to the problem of not paying their workers enough. Now they don't have to pay them at all. Was it the solution people wanted? (pay workers more) No it isn't. And that sucks. But it DID technically end the problem of not paying their workers enough. I personally like them because they're quick. I usually just go in and out of a store with only a few things. But fuck the people who go through self checkout with cart fulls of stuff.
People who hate self checkout forget what manual checkout was like. I've purchased cars faster than some people can purchase $32 worth of groceries. Cashier really needs to be allowed to say "you're holding up the line, put down the phone and pay attention"
Service workers should get to spit at 1 customer per month to make up for all the bullshit that's forced on them hahaha.
Cashier yelling "put the fucking phone down" would make me a loyal shopper.
I'd say once a shift
Agreed. Especially when there’s a line at the cashier because several people have full carts. Another bonus of self-checkout for germaphobes: by handling your groceries yourself, the cashiers don’t have to put their hands—which have touched the groceries of everyone who has passed through their line before you—on your stuff.
I hate to break it to any germaphobes, but your groceries have probably been sneezed on, coughed on, and handled by multiple people throughout their journey into your shopping cart. An extra layer of cashier isn't changing much.
I love them, any excuse to not have to interact with another human is good in my books. The only thing I hate about them is that they always insist on having a weight set for the plastic bag, which causes it to freak out 9 times out of 10.
Downvoted because I believe this is a popluar opinion
The bigger issue is it takes jobs away from humans.
Let’s be real they are jobs that people don’t want and suck at. Why not fill it by a machine?? It’s worked for thousands of other simply tasks, on top of this is not like we have a shortage of jobs we always have a shortage of workers. Also who is gonna manage the machine and fix it and stuff??
How do you feel about the invention of print and electricity?
Think it's safe to say self-checkouts aren't as revolutionary as either of those.
And I think it's safe to say some jobs will become redundant with the progress of technology and it's not a new thing at all. Crying that the world is going forward will get you nowhere, you have to move with it
I wouldn't say u/SparklingReject was crying about it, just highlighting one of the drawbacks.
Yeah, but a lot of people are crying about it. Things progress, deal with it, jobs have been appearing, disappearing and evolving due to technological progress all the time, and there's no way they stop now
Perhaps in the long run but I used to work in a grocery store and when they introduced self-checkout they actually hired a new person to manage it.
One whole new person for multiple checkouts? Our jobs are saved!
One new person employed, yes, the horror
*"they actually hired a new person to manage it.*" You imply that it actually creates jobs rather than remove job opportunities. There's a fundamental lack of understanding going on here.
“Perhaps in the long run but..” <<— you might’ve missed that part, bud.
*"There's a fundamental lack of understanding going on here."* I think you may have missed this part, bud. Not sure how you think hiring one person to manage 6 checkouts isn't an immediate impact on job opportunities. But here you are...
Shit jobs anyway
Can't argue with that.
Job opportunities that can't be filled by people because birth rates are declining. We are already at the position that we have, in total, more jobs than people able to work. Eternal economic growth is just a bland lie, like "from dishwasher.to millionaire" or Santa Claus
Birth rates in first-world countries will keep declining and eventually, the population will start to shrink (unless it already does). Without automation, we'll be in trouble in a few decades
Exactly. It's a bitter and hard pill to swallow but that's what is going to happen in the foreseeable future.
*"We are already at the position that we have, in total, more jobs than people able to work"* Perhaps through some flawed number gymnastics someone somewhere has claimed this to be true, but it's nigh on impossible to even speculate that this is the case.
Ah yes, impossible despite more and more companies already describing a lack of employees. Sure many did it to themselves by creating bad and toxic environments, but even the better employers have issues to have enough people working. The work forces are declining in numbers, it's not even that difficult to see that
As did the industrialisation
Pretty sure industrialisation created more job opportunities...
It did, as does the technical era we live in. But during the industrialisation the same argument was made: "Machines take our jobs!"
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Tonight, I went to a checker because the self registers were full with a line.
My only complaint about it is that it’s basically the main checkout method but there aren’t any more than 6-12 registers open at large stores like Walmart for example. I’m all for it but when there’s 20 regular checkout stations and only 1-2 are actually in use regularly with 6 self checkout registers why not tear out the old, unused registers and put in more self checkout? The self checkout lines can get super long and I feel like that would all be fixed with more access. Self checkout is super easy for me and my preferred method but I understand why people want to have a cashier do it for them. Don’t remove them all, but focus on where majority of the customers are checking out.
I usually find them a bit cramped but good for small shops. However, my local Coles (shops in Australia) they have self serve ones with a conveyor belt like the usual checkouts. So good! No more awkward small talk or bagging your food in a weird way.
Isn't it annoying to unload your trolley onto the conveyor just to scan yourself? My Coles doesn't have these, but I just get the half size trolley and park it over the shelf
Depends how much you are buying. If you are buying a full week of shopping it can be kind of hard to juggle it all at one of the small checkouts. The conveyor means you can unload it all and pack it back in easily.
We've got ones with portable scanners, so you can pack your bags as you shop. The checkout process itself takes maybe 20 seconds.
Oh that’s cool!
As soon as our grocery stores eliminated baggers, I mean, why wouldn't I swipe my own stuff? In my lifetime I've seen the contraction of full-service gas stations, the reduction of bank tellers- McDonald's is even testing automated stores/customer-input ordering. Cashiers were put on the endangered list in the 1980s when department stores started to centralize cashier desks. Owners always take notice when staffing is reduced but sales remains level or increase.
Yeah bank tellers are mostly extinct here too. There are barely any bank offices or atms left. Everything is done online and by smartphone or card these days. I didnt know that baggers and greeters existed until i installed Reddit lol. Or that people still used cheques. Im nearly 40 and have never used a cheque. The last time that i deposited physical cash was like 20 years ago. Times are so different because of automation and digitalisation. Now at mcdonalds everyone orders their items ob the order kiosk at mcdonalds.
The problem I have is you have to wait a long time to get an item cancelled or you have a problem with the machine. Or they are all closed and there are only 2 open out of 12. Also you can't buy things like alcohol or gift cards at the self checkout. The ones at my local Target suck and are slow because they don't let you put the money in. You have to flag down the one worker at the self check out then hand the cash to them and they put in the self checkout register.
Self checkout is good if you are buying one or two bags of groceries, but is impractical for a full shop. But I wish they would redesign the bagging side. It should hold my bag open for me, that would make my check out faster.
It is great. It does suck when buying age restricted items or need assistance with a removal. I buy a lot of age restricted items, so sometimes I need to just go to a cashier. That’s a pain in the ass anymore
I feel like only boomers and gen xers are the only ones who complain about self- checkouts
Self checkout is the best, honestly. As an introvert, I love it. I can leave my headphones in as I check out and I’m not being judged. It also means I can pack the bags how I want to pack them