Technology

Ever since the pandemic, curbside pickup has been the norm at our house for groceries.

We use Kroger, not Walmart, but I had a recent experience relevant to share.

I was out running an errand and my spouse asked me to go grab a couple items from Kroger since it was nearby.

I hadn’t been inside the store in like a year, so I was surprised to see gates at the door that opened and closed upon approach and walking away.

Also, while shopping, at some point suddenly the wheels on the cart locked up, causing me to bang the ever loving shit out of my shins on the cart frame. That’s when I got to learn about the new “anti-theft” wheel lock tech being used on all carts now.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I wanted to flip the goddamn cart over and kick the absolute shit out of it… but I knew that wouldn’t help.

…But if I read a story about someone going and drilling holes in every single one of those cart wheels, or setting fire to them all, or breaking the gates, I would laugh.

I imagine as soon as someone gets something worse than bruised shins and brings a lawsuit against these stupid companies, we will see these stupid things go away… but until then, I’m not fucking stepping foot inside any store that has that bullshit.

Remember everyone. If you see someone shoplifting from Walmart, no you didn't.

Maybe they should keep some non-self check registers open then. I was a grocery store cashier in high school and college and I got $20/hour for doing it (adjusted for inflation). Right now if I see a store only has self-check open I will walk out, what I want to do is start tracking my time then mailing in a 1099 and an invoice for my time.

I'd never think to harass the poor employee who has nothing to do with the store managenent's decisions...

However, when I'm pissed or tired I'll sometimes be rough or sloppy with the machine, and I get pissed if they have too few manned checkouts for how crowded a store is. Banging items against the scanner glass, tap selections on the touch screen forcefully with my ring etc.

To keep the self-checkout machines company, I'll act like a machine too. If I unsuccessfully attempt to scan something, after 5 tries I "timeout" and move onto the next item.

It's gone further here.. we have shops with scanners so you scan the goods as you go around.. in theory speeding up checkout but..

1. 25% of the time you end up selected for 'random check' so an employee has to come and rescan everything anyway
2. If there are any 'restricted' items a like painkillers, a different employee has to come over and allow them.

Given the chronic understaffing meaning you're basically in a queue for attention, it frequently takes longer to get through the 'rapid' checkouts than it would if I simply queued up and got someone else to do it. But as far as the supermarket thinks they're winning as they pay fewer people.

It's funny, my local Walmart ditched the weight checking part of the self checkout so it's quick and easy, yet every time I go at least one person has managed to fuck up badly enough to need to call help over

Meanwhile I'm getting a decent discount on my purchase, which is nice

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.

In Sweden we usually have a self-checkout alternative where you acquire a wireless scanner when walking in, scanning when picking from shelves and put it directly in shopping bags.

At checkout, you just pay and walk out. There is random controls, where an employee will check like 5 randomly chosen things from the bags. This is seldom though, like once every three/four months or something.

Makes for very quick checkout.

I'm cool with checking myself out I actually prefer to but the anti theft nonsense is to much. Nearly everyone triggers it and last time I had to wait an extra five minutes for an employee to clear it and then they had to count 20+ small items all because I waved my arms over the machine fixing the cuff of my shirt.... I don't blame the employees that's their job

LET ME AT LEAST MUTE IT

Of course. Sometimes it doesn't work. Often times it's an honest mistake that a cashier themselves may have made. And now WalMart is treating you, a paying customer like a criminal.

All the retail shops that were built 20+ years ago have a ton of un-peopled check-out stands. My local grocery store. My bank branches. The hardware store.

Companies have reduced their staffing to two or three checkers and a self-checkout line.

We're doing the work for them. They're hoarding the profits. It's a mess.

My local BofA branch has twelve or thirteen checker stations and I've never seen more than two people at the counter. I don't know when the branch was built, but it was clearly at a time when the semblance of customer service existed. Now, long lines and poor service are normalized and the idea that you'd shop around for a better experience is non-existent.

Is this an American thing? We had these things in Europe for years, and I never heard of anyone having problems.

Older people still prefer regular checkout, scary computers and that sort of deal.

Not at walmart, but one of our supermarkets in town has two self-checkouts. I tried them a few times, and they were so f-ed up that I gave up on them. One time, the machine did not accept any cash, but was stuck in the menu choice "pay by cash" without a "back" button. So I took my stuff to the normal checkout, which had the problem that my steaks had already been scanned. Solution: leave a bag of 20+ Euro meat at the checkout, and get a new one from the butchers shop.

The last few times I've walked into a Walmart, the place has been a disaster.

Shelves empty and in disarray, no evidence that they ever did carry the product I was after, the building in an increasing state of disrepair.

I'm done with this company.

Seems like i have a complete different experience of self checkout here in Germany. But why? Are our devices newer?

One time I went to wal-mart and at self-checkout there was a security guy (with a bulletproof vest...) with the employee. I don't know if he was there to look intimidating to potential thieves or to protect the employee from violent customers, but I did not like the feeling of him watching me scanning my items. Am I a customer or a potential profit-loss theft for wal-mart? I fucking hate that company...