it depends on how much i’m buying and what i’m buying. If it’s going to require an ID check for alcohol, then i just go to a checker because they are going to do that anyway. if i am getting a handful of things, i’ll self-check because it’s faster.
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The credit card network and banks skim anywhere from 2.75%-4% here in America. But a cash transaction costs the retailer anywhere from 3%-6% or more. Cash is usually the most expensive form of payment to the retailers.
What? Why is that? Because the cash has to be protected during the entire time it’s in the store, from the moment it arrives in the store to the moment it’s picked up by an armored car service. Every morning the cashiers have to pick up their change fund from the office and put it in the tills. Tills are the small tamper resistant armored boxes attached to the registers, and can cost from $300 to over $1000 each; they can easily add $20/year apiece for maintenance. During the day the cashier pops the till open to accept cash from customers and make change; cameras are mounted at cash registers to keep an eye on the till to make sure it’s not cheated or robbed. At the end of each day the cashier has to carry the money to the store office where a sales auditor will count it. A second auditor might need to be present for the counting, doubling the expense. They may use an (expensive finicky) cash counting machine to do it quickly, or they may take the time to count it all by hand; neither way is cheap. They have to reconcile the cash they counted to the cash the register software computed it should have; discrepancies (which are frequent) are followed up by a manual process. However its done, there are more cameras recording the process. Once counted the cash is then deposited in a safe on site, which can cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. Then every week or so they have to pay an armored car service to come collect the cash from the safe and drive it to the bank. On top of the audits and security cameras and alarm systems and armored cars they still have to pay an insurance premium against the risk of being robbed.
It also doesn’t scale well. The bigger the store, the bigger the sack of cash, which turns into a higher risk of theft, and the more expensive protections are needed.
Every bit of handling cash costs extra money, making the nearly useless usury Visa charges for a simple electronic transaction a bargain by comparison.
It’s an industry that long ago embraced enshittification as a standard operating procedure.
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if there was only cash as payment on the planet, we would not have billionaires. prove me wrong 
about the rest; honestly, I dont give a flying fuck. money is evil. its made up bs.
e/
I dont know what to say? yes? was that the point?
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#1 - I always have wine.
#2 - I often have coupons
#3 - It’s like 5 cashier jobs eliminated
#4 - I DON’T FUCKING WORK HERE
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Yes! The fastest way to reach customer service is usually to key the number for the sales department. They pick up very quickly, then you get them to transfer you.
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I agree… sometimes.
The other month I had a case where multiple self checkouts all decided that I had added extra items by simply tapping the “buy” button, and wouldn’t let me actually pay. Humans don’t usually have that sort of glitch.
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Millionaires and billionaires have been screwing all of us over long before the invention of consumer credit. Carnegie, Rockefeller, Hunt, Hill, all of them made their fortunes taking gold or dollars in payment. And they were evil enough to gift our language with a name for them: “robber barons”.
Prior to electronic digits counting money and ruling the world directly, we had banks that were used by the aristocracy: kings, dukes, earls, barons, marques, emperors, pharoes, popes, priests, tzars, chiefs, commissars, governors, or whatever you want to call them, they have always made lives miserable for the vassals and peasantry who had to serve them.
We aren’t living in a special time where billionaires have invented new ways to create poverty and suffering. Taking money from the poor has always been their specialty. We just have better reporting.
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Self checkout is a huge accessibility boon for me because social interaction and noise are really draining for me (and I have major fatigue issues) so I can keep my earplugs in and just load stuff out of my little grocery cart and then back into it to push home, without having to bag most of it.
Ideally, there’s a mix of options so everyone can have their preference.
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I mean, in terms of being “made up bs” so are all units of measurement: meters, kilograms, etc. but they sure are useful.
Money itself isn’t evil, imo, anymore than a yardstick is evil. It’s just been used in very evil ways by evil people.
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Yes and no. Some stores might have them by default, but in my experience i see this less and less. When you see them is when it’s crazy busy, so someone will jump in to quickly bag for you so that they can get you out the door faster. Once things die down they’ll leave to do other stuff in the store.
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One small benefit is the increased privacy with purchases. I know my small town teens are far more likely to buy things like condoms from a self-checkout at the single pharmacy in town, rather than from their classmate or a parent of a classmate at the till.
And I’d much rather kids bought condoms than not, since the sex is going to happen. I keep a stock under the bathroom sink, but I pointedly don’t track it closely and they might run out.
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One person to handle 12 stations at my grocer. Not much.
Obviously the headline is inaccurate. Many people prefer them as do I.
My grocer does not allow self-checkout of tobacco and alcohol so the drinkers and smokers need not be disturbed by having to follow the law when using self-check.
At my grocery store one line feeds 10 check out stations. We breeze through.
It eliminate the stress of picking which checker’s line to stand in and getting burned by getting in the line behind:
- The choosy smoker who must have a particular brand and box which must be fetched. The person paying by personal check.
- The person whose credit or debit doesn’t work.
- The person who argues with the checker.
- The person with a demon child.
- The drugged out and smashed.
- The person who forgot something and holds up the line while some staff goes to fetch it.
- The couponer whose coupon doesn’t work for the particular item they bought.
counterpoint
Was this already in BB? I couldn’t find it.
ETA - I conflated the linked site with John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” network. They are different, and both different from a religious radio chain.
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Everyone hates Hyperbole!
Except me.
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I know I saw it somewhere around here, but also can’t find it.
Great call back 
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I like the self checkout at Home Depot and Lowe’s because I don’t want someone touching all my stuff.
That being said those two stores by me have very nice attendants that help and are very freindly. I can chat if I want or I can quickly leave.
My wife does all the grocery shopping at Meijer in Michigan, she loves the shop and scan.
She scans the items with her phone as she puts them in the cart while she’s shopping.
At check out her phone connects to the register and pays automatically. Occasionally they randomly spot check your cart by taking a few items and check them against the receipt.
She packs her bags as she goes.
Easier to unload at home.
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That’s why the Shop & Scan registers are just sitting there without much of a shelf to put anything on!
Basically, it’s to set your purse down to pull out your phone. That explains a lot, thank you!
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Self checkout is rapidly expanding in Japan, where population decline is making staffing a lot more difficult in rural areas. There are also no baggers here, so you have to bag your own items anyway.
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I love self checkout. Shorter lines, no interruptions or small talk, bagging my own groceries so I’m sure everything is secure and efficiently packed (I usually walk and put everything in one reusable bag, or sometimes no bags at all) and being able to get out of the store and on with my life quickly. The only problems I’ve run into are incredibly slow people who seem like they’ve never even heard of self checkout technology and are confused by the mysterious red glow and disembodied voice (presumably they’re the “everyone” in the headline) and scanning something sometimes bringing up a non-specific error that requires an actual human to come wave their card over the scanner (said human is never anywhere to be found). But the mystery errors are rare and even with half the scanners occupied by slow pokes, it’s always much faster than standing in line at a normal checkout was.
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