Self checkout arrives at the grocery store!

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Self checkout arrives at the grocery store!

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Last night I went to my preferred grocery store for my shopping. On the way in I noticed a new thing.  At first I thought they'd replaced all the checkouts, then I saw it was just a few checkouts were brand new.  I noticed the racks of bags on a lazy susan.  Free bags?  Wha?  This place has charged for bags for so long it seems normal.  Then I realized there weren't any clerks.  There was just a central assistant at a station, and these were all self checkouts!  I got excited!  I love self checkout.  It's delightfully anti-social and you don't have to deal with morons, just your own beloved familiar idiocy.  I reconnoitered, asking the assistant if it could do the things I planned to do that day.  It appeared as though the mess could hold a full load.  The racks of bags on the turntable totaled 8 racks and there was another shelf-scale with room for another four bags, so that was a reasonable size.  This wasn't just an express lane.  He assured me that it had the facility for produce and subtotalling the bill.  I went off to shop with more than the usual interest.

They had a coupon for $30 off if you spend $250 so I was planning a fairly big load.  I don't use a calculator anymore.  I had to guess at the amount in the basket and wasn't too worried about going over since there was enough in the bank for it anyway.  I stocked up on turkey and other frozen protiens and some rechargeable batteries.  Not a lot of high priced goods, plus the list and the usual freshies.  My shopping basket was properly full, but not overly so.  There were no cartons of pop, for instance. 

 I arrived at the self checkout and found an open station without having to wait.  I eagerly began to scan bar codes.  The watermelon prompted a request from the machine to hand it to an assistant. The assistant and his assistant were fully engaged and it looked like every station was calling for him.  I put it aside, hit the back button, and carried on.  After awhile the machine started accusing me of theft.  Oh she was polite about it.  She didn't say "hey, you're stealing."  No, what she said was "please remove the last item from the bag and scan it before placing it in the bag."  Okay, well, but I did scan it.  So I took said item out of the bags and before I could scan it, she said "please place the item back in the bag."  This went on for some time then suddenly quit of it's own accord.  I continued to shop.  

After awhile I had 8 bags partially filled and one bag on the spare shelf and she started complaining about taking things out of the bags and putting them back.  By now the crowd had thinned and an assistant was able to come over and start overriding the machine.  I was struggling now to complete things.  It was hard enough now that I was into the produce and had to sometimes click through a range of pictures to find the item in a list when no code was available.  It was kind of fun except she kept interrupting me (the computer voice was female) to exhort me to remove and replace items in bags.  The attendant told me that this was because it wasn't really up to this much material and the scale was having trouble handling the bulk.  By now I had 3 spare bags on the shelf and one in the middle of the racks with partial bags in each unweildy rack.  The racks were not built to fit the reuseable bags I use.  I sensed the ordinary person would be angry by now but the whole thing was just too novel and gadgety to get angry about the nuisance.  The attendant pretty much had to stand by and keep voiding as the crazy computer struggled to read whether it was 80.5 pounds or 80.25 pounds.  Yes I made up that weight amount.  The machine does not give you the value of your total weight.

One disappointment I suffered was not being able to subtotal the bill. There is a running subtotal on the screen but it will not come through on your bill.  I have kept a record of expenses for years and I separate the groceries according to category.  I have the clerk hit the subtotal between categories and then I can simply subtract one from the last to get the amounts for each category to be entered into the household budget.    The self checkout won't do that.  

I have been thinking this morning that I can solve two problems with the self checkout with one solution.  Ring through and pay after each category.  So first I ring through all the stuff that's food for the humans.  Pay and load it into an empty section on the cart.  Then ring through and pay for the pet food items (the rabbits get lots of fresh greens).  Again unload them from the tables onto the cart.  Next the junk food, then the household products like flowers, cleaning supplies, etc.  I categorize things like clothing, toiletries, gifts, and so forth.  It's a habit learned in budget counselling years ago.  It helps me figure out where all the money is going, although it doesn't help me constrain myself yet.

So the self checkout has arrived.  Will it take jobs?  Definitely.  Will it cut costs for the consumer?  Doubtfully.  Is it faster and more fun for me?  YES!  Is it a good thing?  No. But like giant supermarkets, big box chains, and empty city centers, it's here and it will grow and we will guiltily enjoy it till the day comes that we discover the true cost of cheap and easy.

No pics, sorry, I didn't think of writing this till today.