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Comment by xigoi | Hacker News Reader

I use self-checkouts whenever possible because most cashiers don't like the job and probably want to interact with as few people as possible, so I'm hopefully making their life a little bit better. Also, I can check that the prices are correct instead of being socially pressured into paying and leaving as fast as possible.

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For me it’s because I love hearing “unscanned item in the bagging area” fifty times before the machine locks me out and an employee has to help me after all.

>I use self-checkouts whenever possible because most cashiers don't like the job and probably want to interact with as few people as possible

I don't know if that's really the case. When I worked retail I mostly really liked chatting with customers.

I seem to have seen the opposite recently, possibly because the cost of living has gone up significantly faster than the wages for low-end jobs.

I too worked retail and dreaded having another interaction of forced/fake pleasantries, pretending to give a damn about what the customer wanted. Give me a digitized interaction or give me death.

I worked retail many years ago. I found the required fake cheer rather horrid. I was good at it, and every now and then I'd have an interesting chat. But I prioritized moving people through _fast_, because they didn't come to chat with me, they came to buy their stuff.

It might depend on the store. I used to get stuck behind cashiers and customers who obviously knew each other and would get into long conversations while I stood there waiting.

My experience is entirely opposite. I much prefer to go to cashier, because they're easily 2-5x as fast as me, which isn't surprising because they literally scan barcodes for a living. On top of me-being-non-specialist penalty, self-checkout machines also slow down the scanning process, as you need to wait up to few seconds for the scale to stabilize.

Now, neither self-checkout nor human register display some discounts, because they're using the same system, and the system applies those discounts at the end. But here's a thing: I can ask about promotions and prices while the cashier is scanning. Also, if I realize after paying that something is wrong, I can immediately dispute it with the cashier, instead of waiting for the employee to maybe come in the next 5 minutes (they're probably on the other side of the store, busy unloading some boxes).

As for the pressure, I personally feel much more pressure coming from an unyielding machine than from a human.

I agree, going to a cashier can be way faster, especially if you pack items the same time that the cashier scans. The cashiers also have memorised codes for fruits etc, so you don't have to use the search function on a kiosk.

I have to add that I have basically always had poor experiences using the garbage web-app menus that restaurants use. It is also much slower to get an overview on menu items on a small phone screen.

The scale experience with these things is so bad that many stores have just given up and disabled them altogether, accepting the additional risk of theft. One of the fancy grocery stores near me does not and it is infuriating to try and use, but apparently they can't meet the high standard of customer service set by Walmart.

The main way they have of encouraging you to use self-checkout is just having way too few cashiers.

> because most cashiers don't like the job and probably want to interact with as few people as possible

I think you're right about some people. But it's true of any job. Some people are pleasant in that job and some people are the opposite. Just because you don't scan boxes of diapers for 8 hours doesn't mean you're immune from this behavior.

I think it's just a matter of treatment, frankly. Many cashier-like workers are treated like garbage. Imagine instead if the grocery store cashier had a pleasant or even funny conversation with everyone in their line over the day - I think it would measurably improve their mood.

Dude, they like the job a whole lot more than no income at all. Which is the direction you're cooperating with pushing things by using self checkout lanes.

From what I've heard, being a cashier is only a part of the job, and usually the less pleasant one. People are still needed to unload groceries, monitor the self-checkouts, etc.

Comrade, I use self-checkout to undermine Accenture business case for firing checkers and to fight back against unpricipled capitalist dogs' greedflation.

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