• johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Remember that multibillion dollar corporations are pushing you to self checkout because they are too cheap to pay someone minimum wage to work a register. The boomers are right.

    • Allonzee@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Alternatively, self-checkout is a great way to shoplift from big corporations destroying civilization and the habitability of the planet.

      Doo Doo Doo… Doo! 🌠

        • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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          6 days ago

          You wear shoes to go grocery shopping, right? Do this once, then keep the bags next to your shoes so you remember to reuse them maybe a half dozen times.

          Boom now you’re saving the environment and money.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      We should strive to automate as many jobs as possible. Not try to keep tedious jobs from disappearing.

      Those multibillion dollar corporations will have to keep adapting to the world, one way or another. They should be able to handle an automated world, Or we might need to bring out the torches and pitchforks.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      some people don’t want it wait for a million years for the person in front of them with 600 items to get through.

      Some solutions are not just about solving one thing or a personal attack.

      • blindbunny
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        6 days ago

        Tell that to people that could have had jobs as a cashier that those machines have taken away.

        May the hammer of Enoch do it’s work.

        • vithigar@lemmy.ca
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          6 days ago

          Doing less work has been the primary motivating factor behind basically all of human progress. The problem is that the savings is lining shareholder pockets instead of reducing employee workload.

        • Demdaru@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          I will, no problem. Luddites have no place today, thank you.

          Heck, cashiers are still wprking where I live. One of them just gets assigned to 6 or 8 self checkouts instead of normal register.

              • blindbunny
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                6 days ago

                Just learn to code right bro. You dumb ass libs always assume everyone is as skilled as you and every job you don’t want to do is lesser. Some people like being cashiers.

                Get back at me when you learn some labor theory and intersectionalize more.

                • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  6 days ago

                  Just learn to code right bro

                  Lol, no, don’t put words in my mouth, dickhead

                  You dumb ass libs

                  Swing and a miss

                  assume everyone is as skilled as you

                  Even BIGGER miss. I’m an asshole and assume most people are far less skilled than me, and am regularly proven right

                  and every job you don’t want to do is lesser

                  Your words, not mine, I don’t consider cashier’s to be lesser to me in any way unless they, as an individual, give me reason to

                  Some people like being cashiers

                  Yeah, you’ll notice you said “some” and not “most”, so what’s your point, exactly?

                  Get back at me when you learn some labor theory and intersectionalize more.

                  Get back at me when you learn how to discuss what was said and not prop up a shitty strawman

              • Slovene@feddit.nl
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                5 days ago

                There is no automation getting rid of a shit job. The customers now have the privilege to do that job for themselves.

                • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  5 days ago

                  Pick one: it’s losing people their jobs, or it’s not

                  Quite prefer doing it myself, none of my local stores have any of the issues listed elsewhere on the thread. Must suck for them but that’s not a reason to not progress

      • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Like you’re not waiting for the person in front of you in self-checkout to fumble their way through scanning those items? Who do you think is faster at it, the boomer in front of you in line or someone who does it all day? You’re just buying into the bullshit narrative you’re being fed.

        • samus12345@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Self-checkout has almost always been faster for me. No bullshit narrative, just actual experience.

          • blindbunny
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            6 days ago

            When’s the last time someone checked you out?

            • samus12345@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              Don’t remember. All I know is that the average time I’ve spent waiting for when doing self-check is shorter than the average time waiting when not.

              • blindbunny
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                6 days ago

                Next time your feeling social or not it a rush have someone check you out. Hell you can even do it if there’s a cute bean working.

    • cows_are_underrated@feddit.org
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      6 days ago

      That’s one of The reasons I don’t use the self checkout. Also since I want to pay with cash and can’t do that at the self checkout.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I don’t know if the letter is real, but this was my parents. They refused to use the self-checkout because they didn’t work there and it might take away jobs. Meanwhile, they’re the same people who complained that pretty much any basic customer facing job shouldn’t pay a living wage.

    They exist.

      • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        When “I don’t think this job deserves a living wage” meets “no one wants to work!!11!1!1!”

        There are still business owners in my city whining about a lack of workers. The jobs they’re offering? Part-time with constantly changing but always horrible hours, no compensation besides the minimum wage. Yeah I guess everyone is just lazy?

  • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I have mixed opinions on self checkout… but the best is when I go to buy beer, and only beer. Someone that works there has to ID me and plug my birthday into the computer anyway so it’s like shrodingers self check out.

    On a more serious note, I enjoy not having to make small talk with the cashier but also would rather not be watched like I’m a thief when I ring out my stuff.

    Also, it’s kinda nice to eat all organic fruits and vegetables and only pay the prices for the GMO versions.

      • candybrie@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        In case it’s someone who looks plausibly old enough but who “borrowed” Mom’s ID. I doubt they have facial recognition to match ID to face on those cheap POSs.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Surely you can find human connection than just at a checkout. We don’t have to inconvenience everyone and refit everything in our world just so someone can have a conversation with someone else. I mean we still have public areas other than a shopping place that’s meant to stand around and have convos that doesn’t plug up everyone else’s time.

    • lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Haha like the ONLY good thing about self checkout is the potential for stealing. As for the small talk thing: the most I’ve ever had to say to a cashier was “hello” and “thank you”. I can handle that.

    • moseschrute@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Did shrodinger also buy beer at self checkout? Maybe all that drinking made him forget if the cat was dead or alive

  • collapse_already
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    6 days ago

    I hate the self checkout at my local Kroger because it works like fucking dog shit. Always playing a patronizing voice telling me to put the item in the bagging area even though it already is. Always has an inadequate amount of space in the bagging area.

    If the purge happens everyone is going to be looting and murdering. I’ll be the person burning down Kroger.

    • Aneb@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I went to self checkout at Costco cause I was borrowing my sister’s card and didn’t want the cashier to check it, unrelated but self checkout does gave uses

      • candybrie@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        My experience with self checkout at Costco is very much that they still do 80% of the work if you have more than 2 things. Like they’re flipping things and scanning them in my cart and I’m just handling pushing buttons and paying on the touch screen. It’s kinda bizarre but not bad imo.

        The real trick is they don’t have the weight sensor and cameras that flip out over every move. Like damn I told you I was putting 3 bags in the bagging area; they are not unexpected items.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Never understood why people struggle with the bagging area thing. You’re doing something wrong. Here’s a hint: Every item in the store is weighed, and the bagging area has a scale on it that measures that weight. If you accidentally put more or less weight into the bagging area, it’ll complain.

      Scan, immediately bag within 3 seconds, and don’t let anything touch the bagging area, not even your hands. Utilize the “skip bagging” button for items that take more than 3 seconds to bag (but don’t hit "skip bagging more than 3/4 times or it’ll complain). Immediately remove any excess weight (such as your arm or a bag) after bagging. I promise you’ll almost never have another an issue again.

      • collapse_already
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        5 days ago

        I know how to bag groceries, you fucking condescending asshole. The Walmart and Home Depot self check work every time for me. Kroger has defective ones. Maybe their scales suck. Maybe they need different values for their timers. I am not going to debug it for them unless they pay my software consulting fees which seems highly unlikely because they’ve broken for more than five years.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        Dude sometimes those scales are stupid sensitive and even straight up busted.

        My grocery store keeps empty paper bags in a pile on the scale so they are part of the tare weight. Doesn’t matter. I’ve taken a bag off the pile, opened it, and placed it back on the scale…and needed to get an employee to re-tare it so I could start scanning. This was before even scanning.

        My grocery store also has cameras on top, too, watching you from above. At each register. And if they think that you put something in the bag without scanning it, it’ll call over an attendant. To review the tape with you, like getting the refs to review a play.

        Plus having kids that can’t stand still. Bound to touch the scale at some point. And they love to do self checkout.

        BJs has it right…they are a wholesale club like Costco. I think they are regional. They have scales but I don’t think they even use them. In fact, I don’t even have to unload my cart. I try to load my cart so barcodes are all facing up (as much as I can) so I just rapid fire zap-zap-zap. It’s very satisfying.

      • esc27@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Sometimes they are just broken. Bad scales, sensors, etc. Kroger’s converyor style checkouts are especially bad.

  • POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com
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    6 days ago

    I only use checkouts with people. The Malwart near me refuses to open any registers other than self checkout. There are always ladies at the front wanting to check receipts. So, I just abandon my purchase a lot.

    If they can’t hire people to open a single register than they can hire someone to put back the items in the cart.

    Arguments:

    “But POTOOOOOOOO you are being an asshole!”

    I helped build POS machines. I know how often they are inaccurate and if they think you made an error stores are quicker to trust the POS machine more than the person.

    The POS machines at self check outs have a ton of cameras and most want you to pay with a credit card. Some machines won’t flag you for shop lifting until after the fact. Then they will be able to cross reference the credit card that paid for it.

    “You’re being paranoid”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/walmart-shoplifting-lawsuit.html

    TL;DR: Don’t use self checkouts.

    • lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I can’t even begin to understand the “you are being an asshole” argument. Am I an asshole because I protect jobs? Am I an asshole because I don’t want to pad the earnings of a multi-billion dollar corporation at the expense of workers? No, dude, I am 100% with you. I have abandoned my purchases as well, and I actively avoid stores that push self checkout.

      • POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com
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        6 days ago

        I’ve stated similar things on Reddit. Someone flipped out at me for creating food waste and staffing issues for making them put away things.

        I don’t buy food at malwort if I can help it.

      • Redex@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Protecting jobs is the stupidest possible reason to be anti self checkout. I don’t care much about the other points but that one I find really stupid. I guess we should also remove all automation from manufacturing and use hammers and nails to build cars as well. Let’s also destroy all calculators since we can just go back to people crunching out numbers on paper.

        Look at all these poor women that lost their jobs because of big calculator.

        • lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Self checkout is not automated, you fool. you are doing the work for the company. It is not a new technological solution. A human is still working the till.

          • Redex@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            The thing is you’re distributing that time onto a lot of people. Instead of a person having to sit at the register 24/7 now people spend 1 minute longer at the store because they have to scan stuff themselves, which is negligible. In fact, you’re (or at least I am) almost always faster at shopping because now you don’t need to wait for a register to open up. Now you have an entire human being that’s free to do something else.

            Another important fact is that for me at least the difference between when a cashier checks out goods for me and when I do it is maybe 30%, which again doesn’t count the fact that you don’t have to wait for a free cash register or the wait is much shorter most of the time.

            Another thing it helps with is when you have a grandma fidling with her coins trying to find exact change for 5 minutes blocking everyone behind her. You can just go to a different self checkout instead of waiting for the single open till to free up.

            • lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              You may be faster at the till than I am. I admit I lack practice. You make a good point about waiting in line behind slow customers, though. One of the biggest advantages of the self checkout is the single queue. Having six lineups for six checkouts never made sense.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I stepped into a Fred Meyer the other day and was fucking horrified by the amount of cameras and face recognition around the self checkout section. It’s dystopian. I just left and went to a different store.

    • A7thStone@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I was in a malwart for the first time in over a decade last week. There wasn’t a single register open like you said. I also walked out without purchasing anything. Maybe I’ll try in another ten years.

      • POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com
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        6 days ago

        I’ve asked them to open one and the employees have stated “no use self checkout” absolutely insane.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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        6 days ago

        Don’t do that, it’s not effective feedback. Ask for a manager, explain to them that you’re dropping your shit where you stand and going to the grocery store down the street, and why. Should be a brief conversation, and if multiple people do that then it’s more likely to trickle up to corporate.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      6 days ago

      What, charging for access to something that has minimized their front labor needs? Are they going to still stay with just one cashier open a time even during rush periods?

      And for some reason they now restrict to only a few of the many self checkout registers at a time. Like they have ten counters, and I get sometimes one may be not working…but they only have three open at a time with a long line forming for self checkout. I’m not sure what the goal is there.

  • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 days ago

    The fear of employment replacement through automation hinders creativity which would actually provide safer, better and more meaningful employment.

    If people (workers, consumers, neighbours) would own or have a foot in their workplaces (i.e. cooperatives), they would care more about that.

          • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            6 days ago

            Yeah, surveillance steals value from consumers.

            Self-checkout seems better to me, because it decreases monotonous and forced public interaction (thus somewhat automated anyway): Beep. Beep. Beep. Do you want loyalty points? That’s 21.46€. Do you want the receipt? Goodbye! Beep. Beep. Beep…

            It uses less space.

            It is parallel instead of serial.

            The work is not much more than putting groceries on a checkout lane anyway, except for unlabelled fruits and vegetables.

            Self-checkout allows for smaller stores and coops, for example in villages or as kiosk.

            • redisdead@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              Oh no, you had to answer two yes/no questions

              The worst inconvenience in the world.

              Parallel vs serial: there’s usually more than one check out lane open so idk what you waffling about.

              Less space is not a convenience for me so idgaf

              My local coop has regular check out lanes and it’s in a small town so idk what you waffling about.

    • redisdead@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Because in reality these businesses don’t offer better, more meaningful employment for the people they replace by making the customers work.

      It’s just more people in the unemployment fodder.

      My local coop refuses to add self-checkout lanes and this is why I shop there even though it’s more expensive than the alternatives.

      Fuck corporate greed.

  • Kowowow@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    Burn all the self checkouts, what do I get out of this lazy " automation " I’m not touching one till I get a discount for don’t someone else’s job

    PS let me smash those stupid one way gates at the entrance with a hammer

    • zoostation@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      You transport yourself to the store, walk around the store, pick the items up off the shelf, take them around the store, take them with you to checkout, take them to your car, bring them into your house, and put them away. But moving the item 36 inches from your basket to your bag is something you’re too enfeebled or important to do yourself?

      • Kowowow@lemmy.ca
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        Sorry man but what do get out of that extra effort how ever small it is, “oh no I’m going to wait a bit longer while I’m on my phone”, maybe it’s because in from a small town and such things are pretty recent but they just feels like there’s dishonest about them

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      They’re way, way, way faster for me and funny enough at the same time I have peace of mind in that the person next in line isn’t breathing down my neck while I’m putting stuff in my backpack.

      • blattrules@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        These things are so they don’t have to pay people to check out your groceries anymore. There’s not much convenience in them when you’re buying produce and have to go through multiple pages to find the item you’re scanning in or god forbid the barcode doesn’t read or put something in the bagging area too quickly and then you have to stand there looking stupid while an employee comes over to help you because the machine encountered an error and won’t let you continue scanning your stuff.

          • blattrules@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            Sometimes that’s all they have open (Home Depot) so you do have to go to them. If these companies can save a buck by having you ring yourself up, they will.

  • RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    The major supermarket chain where I live has a “shop and go” system. You get a battery powered barcode scanner that you take round and scan items before you put them in your trolley, then hand it over to an operator at the end. They can download the list of items to the till, then you pay and leave.

    They have a “random spot check” system where sometimes they pick a few random items out of your trolley and check that they are on the list. I’m imagining that some people get away with theft, but it’s probably not a lot more than people who are going to steal normally anyway

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      I’ve tried those a few times, what trips me up is that they don’t do well (or I don’t know how to) with -30% and the nightly -60% stuff. That stuff is vital to me