this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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I always notice people are super cocky about this kind of thing. Yet self-checkouts are so fucking terrible it basically everyone runs into problems at them eventually. So just tempting fate from everyone in this thread really.
I don't know how you can go wrong. You scan the thing, set it down, repeat. Press pay, scan your card, done.
"Unexpected item in bagging area" was a common misery for everyone in London in 2012. Don't know if it's improved there since.
In NL they now do 'random checks' of 10 items, which is basically 'you having to unpack all your shopping' and pack again so they can check if you stole.
The concept of self checkout is ridiculous, making you an unpaid employee and then blaming you for mistakes. It tries to solve the owner's stinginess for not hiring more staff. It's not there to help you, it's there to suppress employees.
I love self checkout. It allows me to avoid most of social interactions and physical proximity with strangers, making the experience just that much less uncomfortable.
You're right that it's being used against the employees, everything that possibly can will in this system, that doesn't make it inherently bad.
It should be an option, together with a well paid, well treated (let them sit ffs) workforce.
I'm not the most social person myself, but I can still comfortably stand 2m away from a cashier, say "Hi", "Card", "Thanks, bye". That's all the interaction that is needed, and it's still a lot more relaxed than having some poor dude ask me to unpack all my shopping to check if I accidentally forgot to scan a yoghurt. So no, thanks I'll boycott self checkout as long as possible.
Unless you get booze, need to use cash, or it's an item the machine wants to weigh. Or worse, expects the weight to be different than it is.
At least most places seem to have turned off the weight thing (or it got 'smart' enough to not care so much).
Where I shop, if you go too fast it confuses the machine and calls an attendant over to clear it while a video of what I was doing plays. Which is bs.
Oh here's one now.
It's not you that goes wrong, it's the scanner
Eh, I love them. If there's a line, I'll go for the human, but if a self-checkout is available and I don't have a ton of produce, I'll take it every time.