Self Checkout Stands at Grocery Stores

Now, let me preface this by saying, there is a small handful of reasons why self checkout at grocery stores is useful. However, the usefulness is far outweighed by the extremely irritating qualities.

First, let’s start with the good:

a)    If you are buying a few items, all of which have barcodes (aka – non-produce)

b)    You (usually) don’t have to wait for a stand; there’s usually a stand open

c)    You don’t have to make small talk with the cashier

d)    You’re not tempted to buy gum, candy, magazines, or other things you don’t need because they aren’t staring at you in the face while you’re waiting in the same way they are at regular checkout stands

And now, the reasons way self checkout stands are incredibly annoying:

a)    The sensors in the bagging area don’t always recognize that you’ve set your product down, and computer nags and nags and there’s no way to make it stop

b)    When you do have to wait in line, it’s because all 4-6 checkout stands are being used by people shopping for a family of 16/preparing for a snowstorm, an earthquake, or the Rapture

c)    Looking up produce and picking the picture of the right item for the right price is nearly as difficult as multivariate calculus

d)    Whenever you need the self checkout monitor, he/she is always nowhere to be found. Dear self checkout monitor – THIS IS YOUR ONLY JOB, standing around! You don’t have to ring up items, do price checks, or bag groceries, you just stand and wait to help customers press buttons if they need it. But when said customers need help, where are you?!

Self Checkout Stands at Grocery Stores: Ideally supposed to speed up the process, when arguably it slows the process down AND I end up bagging my own groceries. Why don’t I just drive the semi-truck to go pick up the food while I’m at it? Self-service = companies that are lazy and too cheap to pay people proper wages.

Let’s start a petition to bring back real grocery store clerks, and get rid of self checkout stands and incompetent stander-arounders. Who’s with me?!