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Some Walmart employees say customers are getting hostile at self-checkout — and they blame anti-theft tech
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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I don't understand people that get upset and hostile at employees in these situations. When I go through self checkout I go in with expectations already set that it's very likely that at some point during the checkout process the machine is going to trigger an alarm and an employee will need to come over and override the alarm. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does my first reaction isn't to get all pissy and throw things at the cashier.
If you have no patience for this sort of thing, then go through the regular checkout. See if it takes longer going that route.
The store has chosen to save money by pushing work onto customers via a buggy robot overlord.
Employees are the only person you can complain to.
Just more billionaires making things shitty for everyone.
I could justify it if even a fraction of a percent of the savings were actually passed on, or hell, even distributed to the few employees they still have. But no, it lines the fat cats pockets.
That's the worst part. It has gotten so miserable for both employees and customers and none of the profits made from these changes has gone back to those most affected by them.
Yeah I do agree that complaining to employees is useless, but it's also a really frustrating situation and it's not like you can get the CEO on the phone to complain. I wouldn't personally complain at an employee, but I do get how someone might in the midst of such frustration.
As a consumer, what’s your other option?
Pretty much nothing, hence why I said I get it 🤷🏼♂️
What regular checkout? Around here they are all closed down and only self checkout is available.
Take all your shit to customer service and check out there.
It’s an asshole move everyone should use until they stop understaffing checkout.
What customer service? That shit's closed too.
I think a lot of it has to do with that last part of your comment. The amount of times I've gone to the grocery store to find there's no register open other than the self checks or that there's 1-2 open at a huge grocery store with a 6-8 people in line for them and no self check line... People are being forced into self checking when they don't want to. These people are obviously going to be more easily upset by issues with the self check machines. Walmart in my limited experience (try to never buy anything there if I can avoid it) is the worst offender I've seen.
I would LOVE to go through a regular check out! If only we still actually had more than 2 open in a full supermarket. It's not about time taken, though, it's about the sheer level of inconvenience that it's become. It's an active pain in the ass to have to do the job that used to be done by employees, with shitty machines that yell at you every few minutes, while actively being recorded and treated like a criminal, and have to go through another checkpoint where they're going to once again actively treat you like a criminal and look through your receipt. Or I can spend like, 30 minutes in line at one of the two open cashiers.