A new way to checkout...

G

greenfreak

New Member
So how many of you have seen the do-it-yourself checkouts at the supermarket? It's a computer that you scan your own stuff on, it rolls it down the conveyor belt, and you swipe your card for payment or feed it cash when you're done. Ever try one? Keep this in mind when you do:

I decided since we didn't have much groceries today that we would use it.

Everything was fine, even weighing the fruit was ok, until we got to the beer. We had a 6 pack of Corona and because it requires proof, we had to wait for someone from the store to come over and help us. I stood there for a minute or so, not even knowing who was supposed to come over and help, when this woman comes over.

I show her my ID, she scans some kind of manager's card or something and it asks for my birthdate. She should have put in 08071972 but entered it wrong and the whole thing just froze. You couldn't press any buttons, it didn't do anything. She tried rebooting it again and again, nothing worked. (at this point, Rusty and I were remarking that it was probably running Microsoft CE and looked for the CTRL ALT DELETE keys)

Finally she gave up and just rang up the total at another station. All told, it took us over 20 minutes to get out of there. I would actually be willing to try it again, but not when I'm buying any alcohol!
 
They have a couple of those at one of the stores I gp to occasionally, but it YELLS out each item as it scans it. That was annoying enough to send me scurrying to a real live cashier.
 
i've never seen one of those, i don't think it will take longer for companies to implement those systems here.
 
we don't have those here but I used them in Maryland and Virginia .. it was hella phreaky :D
 
Weve had those in my area for about 18 months now. They beep really loud, but dont call out the item name. It screams out only 'DO YOU HAVE A FREQUENT SHOPPERS CARD? SCAN IT NOW!' "DO YOU QUALIFY FOR A SENIOR CITIZENS DISCOUNT?" "SCAN THE ITEM AND THEN PLACE IT IN THE BAG!"

I think its turned up for 80 year olds with hearing issues as well as the one flunky at the master register to be able to keep better tabs at whats going on.

Our local Home Depot has self check as well.
 
Our local Winn-Dixie has self-scanners, but it gives you a receipt to take to a real live cashier. I use them sometimes, but I don't like having to bag my own stuff, so I usually let them scan it. The scanners don't call out each item, just the price. When you weigh veggies or fruit, though, it says something like:

"Weigh your... bananas."
Move your... bananas... to the belt."

I always get a kick out of that one. :banana2:
 
I much prefer to bag my own groceries. I'm faster and I can get outta there with only 5 or 6 bags, as opposed to each item in it's own private bag. I just hate it when they put a gallon of milk in a bag. :bash: Sometimes I even have to scrap with the baggers to let me do it.....
 
ROFLMAO! Those things sound VERY ammusing. I hope they get them here soon.
 
Q said:
I much prefer to bag my own groceries. I'm faster and I can get outta there with only 5 or 6 bags, as opposed to each item in it's own private bag. I just hate it when they put a gallon of milk in a bag. :bash: Sometimes I even have to scrap with the baggers to let me do it.....
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I'm usually dealing with a couple of small children when I'm there, so it's just easier for me to let the pros do it. My daughter would want to "help" and my son would be trying to do a swan dive out of the cart. :rolleyes:
 
Ardsgaine said:
I'm usually dealing with a couple of small children when I'm there, so it's just easier for me to let the pros do it. My daughter would want to "help" and my son would be trying to do a swan dive out of the cart. :rolleyes:
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Ah....I see. I once made the mistake of thinking it would be fun to go to Petsmart with all 3 dogs. The big one peed on the very first display he encountered. He was obviously "holding it" for a couple of days. The little one did do a swan dive out of the cart, with his leash, and zeroed right in on a lady and her little dog...who promptly took off running, followed by my bionic small dog, me, the cart containing the terrified middle dog and the 80 pound sheepdog. It took me several aisles to persuade the lady to stop running long enough to let me capture her assailant. We didn't bother to do any shopping after that. :eek3:
 
LOL you guys are funny, I didn't even think about the volume of the thing, but you're right. Good thing it doesn't shout out the name of the purchases. Could you imagine buying those 'embarrassing' products?

"MONISTAT-SEVEN...FIVE NINETY NINE"
"TAMPAX TAMPONS...TEN NINETY NINE"
"ECONOMY PACK CONDOMS...TWELVE NINETY NINE"

:laugh:
 
ROFLMAO! I've only seen them at the K-mart around here, but it could be other places, I don't shop often. I used the one at K-mart quick for one item, a new wallet. It was a great time saver, the four self checkouts were all empty while everyone else was in line. I guess the dumb customers don't just go to my Walgreens, they're all over the neighborhood.
 
We've had self-scan in the UK for well over a year now. It's pretty cool; the carts have scanners built into them and you just scan everything as you go along. Then when you have finished, you swipe your card and bugger off.

They do random checks sometimes to keep people "honest", but the system itself is very accurate and not as embarassing as the one you mention.

"ITEM 6893-TY63 - ONE EXTRA LARGE TUBE OF ANUSOL - $6.79"[/siz]

*runs out of shop with hands over face*
 
Q said:
Ardsgaine said:
I'm usually dealing with a couple of small children when I'm there, so it's just easier for me to let the pros do it. My daughter would want to "help" and my son would be trying to do a swan dive out of the cart. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Ah....I see. I once made the mistake of thinking it would be fun to go to Petsmart with all 3 dogs. The big one peed on the very first display he encountered. He was obviously "holding it" for a couple of days. The little one did do a swan dive out of the cart, with his leash, and zeroed right in on a lady and her little dog...who promptly took off running, followed by my bionic small dog, me, the cart containing the terrified middle dog and the 80 pound sheepdog. It took me several aisles to persuade the lady to stop running long enough to let me capture her assailant. We didn't bother to do any shopping after that. :eek3:
Click to expand...

ROFLMAO! I can picture this and it makes me laugh. I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time though. Swan dive out of the cart sounds like something my dog would do too.
 
I always use a self check out when I can. It's fun to scan stuff. Ahh, the little pleasures in life.

One time, I was in line at the grocery store where Ardsgaine lives. It's important to note that this area is very rural (mostly dirt roads, only one stop light in town) and not exactly a brain trust if you catch my meaning.

My brother and I were behind a lady who was having a very difficult time with the concept of this "new fangled contraption."

She'd scan an item and forget to put in on the belt in time, or lay it in a way that the aux scanners wouldn't pick it up, so the register would remove the item and reverse the conveyor belt for her to scan it again.

The best part was when she got to the bottle of bleach in her cart. She scanned it and got the bleach to the belt on time, but saw there was a coupon on the label. She grabs the bottle (thus causing the system to kick everything back) and snatches off the label (tearing the bar code in half).

Now she has to rescan the bleach and can't. I decided it was time for me to move on when I saw her trying to hold the two halves of label together for it to scan. :D

 
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