People have a lot of opinions about self-checkouts. I, for one, hate them. Despise them actually. Every single time it tells me I’ve removed something or placed something in the bagging area and every single time I stand there like a lost child with the red light flashing until someone comes and keys in a code. Only to repeat the experience with the next item I scan.
Self-checkouts are designed to make things quicker and easier but also cut down on the costs of hiring people to interact with customers. But, at the end of the day, there are a lot of things wrong with the system and I’ve come across several open letters to grocery stores begging them to change the system.
One system change you may have noticed is that now big shops, like Kmart for example, have someone standing at the door scanning your receipt before you can leave. On busy days, there’s usually a queue to wait in line to have your self-checkout items checked by a human.
‘I’m not interested in proving I did my job for you’
On one particular trip to Kmart, a woman decided to skip the receipt queue and just walk out with her self-checked items, even though she could hear the scanning lady telling her to come back.
Her seemingly simple act of defiance has thousands of people admiring her actions and questioning why this is how things are now.
Here’s what the woman wrote:
Dear Woolworths, Coles, and all other stores that have self-checkout. You are heading towards almost exclusively self-checkout now.
The lady checking receipts at the exit was stopping everyone. I didn’t choose to participate in that nonsense, I had already:
- filled my cart
- emptied my cart
- scanned the items
- refilled my cart
And so I just skipped the exit line and left.
I heard her saying “umm – Excuse me ” as I kept walking and raised the receipt above my head, leaving the store.
You can either trust me to do self-checkout, or you can put your cashiers back in place like it used to be.
I’m not interested in proving that I did your job for you.
• If you want me to be a cashier with no training then that’s your problem not mine.
• Keep employing young people and give them job opportunities.
YOU DON’T PAY ME TO SCAN MY OWN SHOPPING.
YOU DON’T GIVE ME STAFF DISCOUNT FOR WORKING FOR YOU.
Signed ….All of us
These are jobs that are needed to have for young and old.”
‘You don’t pay me to scan my own shopping’
The Facebook post has hit a note with shoppers around the world who also struggle with the concept of self-checkout.
Simply put, the whole thing is a bit of a mess with people pointing out that self-checkouts are leading to “dishonesty”, plus stress for many shoppers, especially those who may have trouble with the technology.
I hate them and refused to use them for the longest time, but it’s gotten so there’s sometimes no staffed checkout open that you have to use them. Then there are the errors and waiting for someone to fix it,” one person wrote.
Self-service stresses me out. Half the time I place the item in the bagging area and it doesn’t compute,” said another.
There’s also the issue of taking jobs off people and the fact that the self-checkout areas are TINY so you can’t even fit a trolley in the space.
The other annoyance is no space to pack your trolley. And I I feel rushed because it’s always a huge line up. I’ll stick to having a human serve me, thanks.”
Self-checkouts are nothing new so I suppose most of us have had time to learn to live with them.
Please queue to see a human, after we already replaced humans with self-checkouts…
But the concept of checking your receipts and your bags as you leave is still a fairly new concept and it’s a hard one to understand. If shops require a human to check the receipts and bags, why don’t they have a human working the checkout?
A Kmart spokesperson earlier told Daily Mail Australia:
At Kmart, we strive to deliver an enjoyable and convenient shopping experience to all our customers whether they choose to shop with us in-store or online. The conversion of our manned registers to self-serve helps to aid the speed of transactions, but we will always have a Kmart team member available to support customers putting through transactions if they would like.
Like many retailers, it is also a condition of entry across all our stores that if requested, customers present any bags and receipt for checking before leaving the store.”
Bring back staffed checkouts, please!
I, for one, would love to see fewer self-checkouts, more staffed checkouts, and no more of this ‘line-up to show your receipt’ business. What about you?
