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Comment by kevin_thibedeau | Hacker News Reader

I'd just like them to observe Walton's imposed limit of no more than two customers in line. I'm getting really fed up with retailers that won't staff their registers. And no, self checkout is a slap in the face where you exit the store as a presumed criminal after providing free labor. It's like they want me to buy from Amazon.

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The store I regularly go to has eighteen or twenty registers, and I've never seen more than three staffed. This issue has persisted for years.

Biggest reason I don't go grocery shopping at Walmart. Doing a full cart through a tiny self-checkout area is a PITA.

Self-checkout? Best invention of the 2000's

Sorta. Took them a while to turn it off criminal mode. Wasn’t long ago you had to bag an item before you could scan the next. But I have more than 1 hand. Sometimes multiple people.

French ones still run in criminal mode.

They’re in criminal mode in the US depending on the store location. 2 Safeway’s about a 10 minute drive from each other have opposite policies, also the more poor the area the less likely to have self checkout at all

The checkout situation alone has made it so I haven’t gone to my local Safeway in almost two years except to use the DMV registration machine. The self checkout is almost unusable, and ever since the private equity buyout years ago I’ve never seen more than two normal registers open at once.

Private equity is synonymous with “customers and employees will suffer” in my mind.

I get really miffed at how our system of economics seems set up to destroy rather than promote the common good.

I’ve walked out of more than one Safeway because the self checkout refused to let me proceed and nobody was helping. Those machines are so shitty, they’ve gotten better but I still try not to use them.

What is criminal mode?

I think they mean when the machine is set to a strict weight measurement tolerance (or similar) so that for nearly every item it complains about putting things into or taking them out of the bag. You often have to call the checkout area minder over to fix it. It makes the process take much longer than it should.

That and when you can’t pick up multiple packages of something, scan them and then bag them all at once. You have to complete each individual process before starting the next.

Painful for small items or when you have a helper.

The machines weigh stuff? I don't understand that. Here in Switzerland you just scan the barcode of every item and place it in a bag, done. What is there to weigh?

Also recently I started using what I guess is the Swiss (Coop) equivalent of Scan and Go: I scan with my phone in the aisles, but stuff in my bag directly in the aisles as well, and when I leave the list of items I've taken is transmitted to a classic self checkout machine and I just have to pay. I wish I could avoid the machine entirely and pay from my phone, I assume it will exist one day.

The big bagging area will be one big scale. It's not that big of a deal when programmed correctly. You can place your own bags on it too (but there's usually a button you have to press so it tares it correctly).

The scanning area will have it owns weight sensor for unweighed fruits and vegetables. This scale is usually calibrated/verified by a government body because it relates to pricing. In Europe, it's common to bag and weigh your produce in the produce section, but in N. America, it's integrated with the checkout process.

I live near a Walmart "flagship" store and they are/were testing out a system where you scan items are you pick them and then can bag them in your cart, with a special aisle for exit. I suspect the cart also goes over a scale and they determine if it matches correctly.

I guess the Walmarts near me are different. I just scan stuff and I can either bag it on the platform or put it straight into my cart. The portable barcode scanner means I don't need to take the 50lb bag of dog food out of the cart either. There's no special aisle to exit, you just leave the regular way.

The special aisle is for this system where you scan items as you take them off the shelf.

Checkout-as-you-go instead of filling your cart and checking out at the end.

Now that would be cool. I can't wait until they have it around here.

Oh the anxiety of having kids and those. Every single bump set it off and required someone to come over.

More then a few carts got left half unloaded.

I’ve had a large person on the other side leaning on it and set it off…

It’s great when you want to buy a few things. It’s terrible if you have a cart full of things.

it depends for me it is almost universally better unless something has a security device on it. on the other hand i worked as a cashier and latter lead cashier (i trained all the new cashiers on how to use the register) for years while in collage. So I can get through my cart much faster than most whoever is working the check out just because i know whats coming and what should be bagged together optimally. and then also the lack of forced social interaction makes me far happier.

This is how I view it. There's a Publix just down the street from my work, and I always use self-checkout there, but when we're shopping for home (full cart), we don't even consider it an option. I don't think Publix checks your cart or anything, so it's not about that. Last time we went shopping, there wasn't a bagger, and we didn't mind, so that's not it either. I think it's just that it's a lot quicker for them to scan your items, and you don't have to pay extra attention to make sure you've scanned everything.

Related, Publix is one of the South's top selling points. It's easily the best grocery store I've used. Up until I moved to Florida and experienced Publix, all grocery stores felt more or less the same.

Safeway has this problem.

Safeway has managed to piss off every singe one of their employees.

My local Safeway couldn't find help for years.

Since the epidemic, that is changing. They are hiring people who don't care much about conditions, or pay, and I know I'm suspose to say that's great.

Those people will get tired of being treated terribly in the future though.

I bet Safeway is lobbying the state right now to allow booze sales through self-checkout. The only people I see in line waiting five deep is liquor sales.

Free labor - not with the portable scanner type of self-checkout. You put stuff directly in your bag instead of the cart, so no extra effort is necessary. Although tbh, even the scale-type machines are quicker to use than waiting in line. They do perform randomized checks, but very rarely and only 3 items ie 1-2 minutes total delay.

Plus with contactless payment my shopping is an essentially frictionless walk through the store building.

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