The user interfaces on these are typically poor. I’ve begun talking back to them. When it tells me, “Please scan your Stop ‘n’ Shop card.” after scanning it. I tell it, “I just did you idiot.”. I’m of the opinion that the folks who design these things should be chained to them and made to use them afterward.
Why would anyone smoke a vape without any nicotine or THC? It can’t be for the flavor. Every vape I’ve ever tried has been barely tolerable in that regard.
How can you be charged for possession of something that isn’t there? I know a vape ‘could’ have THC, and that trunk ‘maybe’ has a murder victim in it, but I don’t feel like checking so your getting a murder charge too lady!
Don’t give them ideas
Depends on whether they try to use item weights to detect whether people are stealing stuff.
If not: it’s often faster, and I get to arrange stuff in my bags in ways that make sense. Except when it randomly decides my bananas require managerial approval and an ID check, or something.
If so: odds are decent I’m gonna be stuck for minutes trying to get someone’s attention because the scanner forgot I told it I was putting down my own bag, or decided that greeting card wasn’t heavy enough to register, or whatever.
Online shopping satisfies all those needs, except “touching”, but there’s no avoiding that anyway And, no going out. I do both, but I prefer instore for produce.
They are a prime example of why it’s necessary to keep testing with people completely inexperienced with the interfaces.
Each chain expects shoppers to be expert in their system, each chain uses a different system, and if I only visit a particular chain months apart, it’s hard to remember the quirks. Especially when you bring your own bags, like in Ontario, which has banned one-use plastic bags. Plus I think some machines have trimmed bagging platforms so that they can cram in more machines.
We already do that, really. We get the bulk of our groceries from a employee owned local chain via online order and pickup, but save a few things for in person from the grocery store near our home. (Mostly because it actually does have better produce.)
In either store, we’ve been going there for at least two decades, so know a lot of the employees fairly well. If I’m by myself I will usually take the self checks unless one of “our” employees are working and doesn’t already have a long line. It’s not too bad on my anxiety if I do that, but I much prefer going with my partner.
… also, never to resign — make them fire us instead, and then sue to get it reversed
My favorite bad UI in self-scanning, back in the days when it was new, was after I’d shoved in my debit card and the display said, “enter your PIN.” Back then, how many people knew what a PIN was? Of course, everyone has perforce learned now.
(Oooh, I just figured out that the word “perforce” can almost always be used in UI critique.)
CBD, most likely.
I was about to complain that I don’t have a co-op near my new house.
Then I looked it up and it’s closer then where I used to live. Guess I’ll take the bike there soon.
(I like my social history, and the co-op have been one of the good guys)
The thing about a human interaction is that the other party can sense your mood
Like when I buy unlabeled fruits and vegetables, I shouldn’t have to press “OK” to a “Did you know that you can scan your vegetables now” prompt. It’s just more friction…
It’s obvious that they’re there to save labor costs.“Now we can employ one person to run the store. BWA HA HA HA”
On the other hand, the local Aldi is run by two people without self checkout… The lines are always very long
Self checkout: only if I am buying a few (<10) items. I am super aware of Walmarts scanning (and scammy) behavior.
Why do more to be hassled more?
It makes no sense.
granted my experiences are international not US but I rarely have a problem with self scanning machines. Occasionally there will be an item that won’t scan, but there is staff nearby who quickly deal with that.
In my local supermarket in Sydney, there is about 15 checkouts and 40 self checkouts and is much faster to use the self checkout.
Here in Tokyo, it’s the opposite, my local supermarket has no self checkouts at all, but does have the cart based scanners so that you can scan as you shop and then just pay at the checkout.
Yeah, AI busts me too. It can’t tell if you’re buying two of something even though you scan two of something. It just sees the same object in your hand twice. So dumb.
I’m super surprised that the self checkouts don’t make you watch a few ads and upsell products. (Note: I don’t think any of the traditional chain grocery stores have tried to upsell anything in the last 20 years. But Kohls and Target are absolutely terrible pushing their credit cards sign ups. )
I think what I get most is the “would you like to donate to X thing?” Or buy something at the register for some cause. I hate having to sound sincere and say maybe next time. There isn’t a next time.
Apparently gas pump advertisements are common. I don’t drive, so I’ve avoided them so far.
Here’s why you should never use the self checkout kiosks at the grocery store:
That’s six to ten full time jobs that Kroger has “outsourced” to their customers at ZERO EXPENSE. Were you paid even minimum fucking wage to scan your shit? No you were not, and no employees were either.
I AM NOT A FUCKING SCAB and I refuse to participate in this dehumanizing capitalist bullshit, no matter how long I have to wait in line for the two to three actual human cashiers employed by this horrible monopoly grocery I am forced to use!
(Also I always have booze so somebody has to come over to scan my drivers license anyway)