Or just anyone who likes the convenience

The 'job killers' argument is kinda bullshit. I want to kill jobs - I want to eliminate all labor that can be automated, such that in the ideal perfect future, no human ever has to work; they can spend every moment doing things they enjoy without worry.

But self checkout is not automation. No human work has been eliminated. It is the same exact fucking checkout process, only now the customer does it instead, and the store doesn't pay the cashier. And no they don't pass that savings on to you because of course they don't, they just pocket the difference.

This is a bad, regressive argument.

We need to legislate the benefit of automation for society.

Trying to bury the technology never works if it is indeed an improvement. Technology is benign, people twist it for malice.

This is the same argument as still using oil based street lamps, just to maintain a the lamplighting jobs that don't need to be done anymore.

It's a Bizaare hill to die on to fight to maintain jobs a robot can do faster and better, rather than fighting to make society the beneficiary of such advances through taxation. Either way, you have to fight the billionaires and will probably lose, so why not fight for a better outcome than maintaining shitty, menial jobs?

Okay but fuck those stores where the self checkout “bagging area” is smaller than the size of a hand cart. Like what fucking idiot designed those.

"job killer" automation in a reasonable society should mean less need for work and the same amount of resources available (if not more).

But we will never reach the point where we consider picnics, parties and painting more valuable than manipulative marketing, unnecessary polluting but profitable industry, and especially the all-important busywork. Do something profitable. Anything profitable. It doesn't even matter if it's a net negative to society, just do something.

I don't want to interact with a cashier either but fuck if I want to scan my own shit either.

It's also way more awkward when something goes wrong and now I have to initiate.

Self checkout is so much faster than waiting in like with all the other goobers

I think that a lot of people here are confusing "introversion" with having social anxiety.

Being an introvert doesn't mean that you're scared of socialization. It means you generally prefer quiet time over socializing.

From Merriam Webster:

A person whose personality is characterized by introversion : a typically reserved or quiet person who tends to be introspective and enjoys spending time alone.

You can be both, but they are definitely not the same thing.

I would like self-checkout a lot more if those cost savings were passed on to the consumer instead of being hoarded by ownership.

It's the classic paradox. Technology and automation could be used to reduce the amount everyone needs to work and enrich everyone's lives as long as those gains are distributed properly. The distribution is the problem.

no one wants to be a checkout clerk at walmart for $6 an hour. This is a good thing. The problem is that the people displaced aren't taken care of. We should be pushing for ubi instead

I prefer self checkout but I do feel you should be getting a discount for using it.

Fuck me I love self checkout.

Norway has roughly the same unemployment rate as the us, but most supermarkets have the option of self service, most fuel pumps are self service (never have someone pumping it for you), and if anyone bags your groceries for you it's kids raising money for their football team or something. Very few people (comparatively) have menial jobs but unemployment isn't really higher. I also don't know anyone who has to work more than 1 full time job to survive. Menial jobs trap people who could otherwise flourish.

I use it because it's faster.

I'm not waiting in line for someone else to scan my 5 items.

The real job killers are the employers

I'm so tired of people with social anxiety always trying to appropriate introversion. Introverts don't have that kind of phobia of personal interaction.

I only use self checkouts, it eliminates like the only major variable of shopping.

I don't mind using a self checkout except that they're all terrible. The rep has to come over so often, it's just a regular checkout with extra steps.

For a few items, sure. But even I, a rabid introvert, will seek out a cashier for my weekly shopping. To say hello and goodbye. You all forget to be human beings. Stop making being InTrOvErT yet another singular form of personal identity.

It should be

"Billionaires make thousands of dollars per second every day even if they don't get out of bed in the morning, we need UBI for every amercian citizen and double that of a living wage as the minimum wage.

I don't have a problem with self checkout. It has its place. If you're just grabbing an item or two, and want to get out quick and not wait in line, or if you are buying something that you may find personally embarrassing, or any of a number of other reasons.

Cashiers also have their place, for when you have larger checkouts and what have you.

What pisses me off is they are firing cashiers, and replacing them with more self checkouts.. So you have to take your big monthly load of groceries through self checkout, cause theres no cashier, or worse.. one overworked cashier with a huge line.

And its all to have less jobs, less pay checks, and more profits for the C-Suits.

And lets not even get into the fact that its easy for a screw up to happen then some overzealous dickwad comes screaming calling you a thief, and gets you tresspasssed because either you accidentally mis-scanned something or because they THINK you mis-scanned something and thanks to their stupidity you can no longer shop at your local, convenient store.

Everywhere near me has the anti-theft devices turned up on self checkouts to the point that traditional checkouts are both faster and require less human interaction.

I’m fairly allergic to human interaction, but there is now way I’m manually scanning 12 packs of the same soda 4 times.

WHAT? People love self check out, what is this tomfoolery?! lol

The people who deny self-checkout sometimes have quarrels with the cashiers.

As a weekly shopper who only gets 20-30 items at a time, self checkout is better. The cashiers tend to have customers with 100+ items and I usually have to wait 5-10 minutes. At the self checkout, I'm done and out the door in 3.

Wait, you’re supposed to pay for groceries?

I can relate to this so much :D Greatest invention of the 21st century :D

I used to be against these, but when it became clear that jobs were not actually being cut to accommodate these things, I slowly caved that said there's a register open I'm going to use it instead of self service

Because as boomer as it sounds... "I don't work here."

Introvert, but I've purposely stopped using self-checkouts, even if it means longer wait times and having to actually interact with people. In addition to taking jobs away from people, there's no other benefit that's being given to me, the consumer, for using it. It's not like you get a special discount on your purchase for using the self-checkout, it's purely a cost-savings on the store's end. It's also insulting to see rows and rows of checkout lines only staffed by a single person, no matter the time of day. I'll just keep using the people-checkout lanes, just to drive up demand.

Self-checkout is the best thing to happen in recent history, imo.

It's super annoying to need to queue at the counter and talk to the staff. It's not that I have social anxiety and can't talk to them. I just don't want to. I rather use a machine and get my shopping done. I'm there to get stuff, not to talk to people.

I don't mind if the entire store converts to self-checkout save for 1 or 2 counters for those who are unable to use the machine for the time being. Eventually, it should all be converted to self-checkout.

I prefer the stores that let you scan your items on your smartphone and just pay via it or at least go through a fast lane where you just tally it up at the self checkout and go. Especially if they have convoluted coupons or bonuses that o can track as I go.

I do feel like I ought to be paid when a business offloads their work onto me. Not much, I suppose. But something.

Since when are introverts not people?

You can bet a lot of people who hate self-checkouts only hate it because they can't yell at and order the employee around to do their bidding.

My laziness triumphs over my introversion. plus, fuck robots tikin er jerbs

My elderly parents don't do so well with self checkout, its definitely not for everyone. I will use them if I have a few items but they are really finnicky at least the ones my local grocery store has. I wish there was an option to mute them so I don't have to hear 'PLEASE PUT THE ITEM IN THE BAG, PLEASE SCAN ITEM, PLEASE PUT THE ITEM IN THE BAG' on loop. also an 'I know how to bag things please fuck off' button

I just saved hundreds on my groceries by switching to self checkout and fucking stealing.

I love self-checkout. I'm introverted and the last thing I have energy for when doing grocery shopping after work is holding another conversation. Self checkout allows me to check out at my own speed and without having to talk to anyone. It's a blessing.

I do get why people dislike it, so I think we should have both ways of checking out.

I'm an introvert but still prefer to go through the human checkout lines. It's due to a combination of the anxiety of having the self checkout machine screw up and needing to flag a human over to help, plus interacting with cashiers being one of the few "safe" interactions I've come to expect. Since it's their job I can expect a certain level of professionalism and cordiality and I'm not expected to make small talk. I just smile, say hello, pay, and that's my social quota for the month.

I'm also the type of person who sits quietly in the chair while getting my hair cut and hopes the barber doesn't ask too many questions.

Lolol I loved them at first when they still employed all the cashier's so the slow people didn't get in my way

As an introvert I'd rather not use self checkouts. The possibility that something will go wrong and I'll have to call someone over and explain it and have them fix it is much higher than letting someone qualified scan and bag my shit while I stand there silently waiting to pay as both the cashier and myself refuse to talk or make eye contact.

Plus I worked at a walmart for a year as right as they rolled out their mostly self checkout system. So many people lost jobs and the store lost so much money to shrinkage (theft). It's the dumbest fucking thing. Makes perfect sense to have a few for people with only a handful of items but the vast majority should be cashiers.

This meme was brought to us by big self checkout and makes no sense at all IMO.

I love them. the only downside is people who are really fuckin' slow at scanning their groceries.

I like it when I'm going for two or three items I forgot or when buying some lunch for work and don't have enough time, but for usual, big grocery shopping... Nope.

When I can buy beer at self checkout I will never use a standard checkout lane again.

Everything less than 5 pounds is a banana. Mistakes happen when untrained people do the job for the company

The grocery store by my house has their self checkout volume set to 11. I don't want to be yelled at by a machine.

Self Checkouts are not job killers. they still need people to run them. Most stores have 3 SCO clusters that need 3 attendants each per day. thats 9 jobs right there, add in weekend coverage, vacations, part timers, etc and most grocery stores will have a need for around 15 cashiers which is not easy for any store to fully staff.

source: ive worked grocery stores for around 10 years.

I really hate making small talk, I'll use the scanner.

Permanently Deleted

So then go to normal cashier checkout. They haven't been abolished at my grocery stores

I do not like them at all, especially when I have a lot of produce to weigh.

Wegmans just discontinued their app that let you scan your shit from your phone. I'm so pissed off that it got abused and they cancelled it.

I only fear that soon regular cashiers will have an added cost to use.

Cashier is one of the worst job you can. If machines can replace us for hard work, it's for the best.

I had the anti-self-checkout mentality for a bit, because I didn't want to see cashiers losing their jobs. One day at Target I was waiting in line at the human checkout, and the cashier started yelling at everyone in line that there were multiple self-checkout machines open. It sounded like she hated our guts.

Fine! I'll use the damn machines. Haven't bothered cashiers since then if I have other options.

I absolutely hate these. My local Aldi started doing this and the lines are longer than ever as a result. People who get paid to check out your groceries move faster than the customers themselves.

MFW I just order groceries

It's annoying how a lot of stores ask you to join their club and get their credit card (as If I don't have enough already), before letting you into self-checkout.

Especially at Tesco with Scan&Shop. I don't even need to scan the items at checkout, just scan them as I shop.

My introversion and social anxiety is so estreme, that self checkouts make me imagine what I would do if I mess up something, or take too long to finish, or imagine people observing me and the way I interact with the machine.

Damn, I got a bit of anxiety just by writing this. The feeling is similar to using a computer while there are people constantly looking at my screen.

agree so much :D

I just hate them because stores have replaced half a dozen checklanes with an employed human being each (sometimes two if they had baggers) with one minimum wage paid person watching over 20 machines. It's so blatantly disgusting to me, personally.

Introvert here who loathes these fucking machines. Fuck them and their stupid errors. Yeah I put my fucking item in the bag.

Being an introvert means you get more comfortable with not chit chatting. You really don't have to.

In my local supermarket i can scan the stuff on my phone and then pay from my phone. I usually use the checkout, but when i just need 2 items and theres a lot of people in line.. i mean here the advabtage is absolutely no line at all.

Whats the benefit of the self checkout?

i went to target the other day and they had it designed so the self checkout line emptied into 5 self checkouts and 1 normal register. i was in a bad mood and had headphones on and the lady kept trying to wave me over. was praying someone would finish up but no of course not

i happened to be buying a record so she said somewhat brashly 'you and your music huh'

look lady i don't even wanna be here

I hate self check out and what it's become.

It should be the '10 items or fewer' line. Not, a full cart. If you can't carry the items in a basket, you need to go in a regular line.

My local grocery store has like 9 self check outs, with 1 person sometimes staffed to fix them when they fail (not if, when) and they have 1 regular lane open. And everything ends up with a long line and it's infuriating. Oh and the manger standing in the back 'monitoring things' acting like they're doing anything, but isn't doing the right thing and opening up a new lane.

Also, far too many people are over leaving into 'im an introvert' and playing it up to poorly written teen sitcom levels.

As an introvert as well, nah gimme my cashiers back. Annoying ass self check-out machines, make one error and you gotta talk to someone anyway. Then gotta get your receipt checked, because how do we know you scanned everything? So now we're at 2 talkings. Just scan my stuff, cashier, please.

"You could of saved $3.27 if your subscribed to BagBois™ last month"

I prefer self checkout when I'm only buying a few items, which I usually am. The problem is when people try to bring full carts through the self checkout; that takes forever.

The only cashiers I know would rather not ever have to talk to customers either. But they are pretty sour people in general and I don't know if that's common and of course it's basically saying they wish they had a different job. So I'm with the automate whatever you can just pay more taxes crowd. There will always be a place for human customer service, but now we have choices.

I'm an introvert who detests self-checkout. Why do extra work for free? It's not like you have to interact with the cashier in any meaningful way.

Maybe if the store is quiet. When there’s a bunch of people and you’re at the front of the line you better spot the free checkout the second it opens or people will start “helping” you.

And I hope you don’t mess anything up because everyone in line is judging you for not being able to swipe a gallon a milk or not being able to open a plastic bag and making them wait longer.

Instacart is the rich introvert’s choice.

I don't mind them. Where I do grocery shopping there aren't any, but even if there were, I'd still prefer going to a cashier in fear of messing up something. Even if I'm somewhat introverted, saying "Hi" and "Thanks, have a nice day" isn't particularly hindering. As for whether they're job killers I'm not sure; at that same place employees that are doing check out are doing everything else around the store as well.

50% agree!

We can't feasibly stop automation, nor should we. We SHOULD be taking the profits back from billionaires that they've stolen since time immemorial. Automation means less work overall. But we need to ensure the workers actually benefit from that.

I identify as people.

I NEED self checkout. I can't go shopping unless it's in a small local store or there's a self checkout. My anxiety goes through the roof if I can't use one, so the only problem is people using self checkout with a full cart

cashiers were replaced by vending machines. anyone see a Best Buy vending Machine or Japanese vending? cashiers are about as useful as full service gas attendants. They aren't.

Oh I hate those. Not because of the job taking, that was inevitable. I hate them because while when I deal with a cashier I can do some small talk, or just smile at someone and remind myself that I am still alive. I can also mask my underperforming brain with words. When I interact with a machine, it screams at me at super high volume to put my god damned item in a bag. Like OK, you don't have to warn the neighbors that I'm a bit slow. They already know!

As an introvert i hate it. It's always loud and temperamental and really if anything i should get a discount for using it.

Once did a late night Walmart run for a bunch of random stuff. Only to come up to no cashiers. Luckily the sweet girl at the self check out saw my panic and used a bar code scanner to get me on my way

When it just scans tags as i push my cart through I'll consider self checkout. Otherwise it just feels like I'm working for free.

Who on earth says this? Never have I heard someone complain about self-checkouts. It's faster than waiting in line for fifteen minutes when you just want to buy a slab of butter! And someone complaining they have to do the scanning sounds like a lazy, entitled jerk.

Burn the self checkouts to the ground

I am quite introvert, but I had more than enough bad experiences with self-checkouts, I won't touch them with a ten-foot-pole. Then people say: "But you are a computer guy, this should be your thing" - No, thanks. I recognize crap when I see it, especially in my line of business.

Yes, the convenience of the machine having an error and forcing me to wait while a supervisor wanders over to fix what I, or the machine screwed up.

I fucking hate these things. If they want me to ring up my own groceries they can fucking pay me.

Edit: and to those that think these are the greatest, you're all outstanding, grade A suckers.

Slow, buggy, cramped germ covered self checkout POS are far more frustrating than dealing with a pimply cashier and are worse for the community as youth have fewer job opportunities.

Haha corporate profits are ok as long as i can be introverted xD

5 updoots for all my socialist friends out there

Here’s a tip: Get a better job.