I get really mad at the lack of service and good manners in stores today.If I say "thank you" to a cashier I don't want to hear "no problem" or even "you're welcome". I want to hear "Thank YOU!" It burns me to the point that I opt for the self-checkout line, but that chokes me too. It seems to me that if I'm doing the work of the cashier, I should be entitled to some recompense. Every store here in NY now has these "valued customer" cards, which is really just a way of tracking our spending (yes, we get the specials without clipping coupons, but why do I have to still show receipts for the free turkey at Thanksgiving?!!). Well, track me, and send a check once a month. It should reflect how long I spent checking out and bagging and pay me at minimum wage.
-- Rm Brz, Mar 01 2006

Consider yourself lucky. In supermarkets in every other country I have been in supermarkets in, you bag your own shopping.
-- calum, Mar 01 2006


You go through life worrying about the *wrong* polite response from people who get paid minimum wage to bag your groceries, and you think your grocery store's the one with the problem? I'd get that attitude looked at by a professional before a stroke takes you out.
-- ping, Mar 01 2006


The point is: why should I do the work of paid employees? Politeness aside, the self-bagging and self checking has been implemented to save the stores money. I just don't think we should all blindly accept it.
-- Rm Brz, Mar 01 2006


Lynne Truss, in her book "Talk to the Hand", has a rant about this very thing. She says she continually asks herself "Why am *I* the one doing this?" I tried the same question over a week or so in January and nearly went insane.
-- egbert, Mar 01 2006


I *want* to bag my own shopping. I want veggies together and cat food tins and frozen stuff in another bag and certainly not fresh meat with cooked and lord, who put the strawberries under all that stuff?

hey, wish we we saw ping more often!
-- po, Mar 01 2006


I have this personal saying I use when people are criticising low paid, menial workers. Being a [insert low paid menial job description] is like being a checkout operator; if you're clever enough to be a good one, you're clever enough to get a better job.
-- egbert, Mar 01 2006


and...
-- po, Mar 01 2006


...and so you shouldn't be surprised when low paid menial workers turn out to have insufficient intelligence or empathy to do a good job. Something to do with the peanut/monkey correlation factor.
-- egbert, Mar 01 2006


<throws peanut at egbert> oh, look how he jumps - how cute!
-- po, Mar 01 2006


I have my own incentive program for checking myself out- I just "accidently" pass items through the bar-code reader with a thumb over the UCP, it will know if you put it in the bag without scanning it because the part with the bag senses weight changes. So you have to put the unscanned item in the bag with a scanned item *simultaneously*. You can save just about as much as you think is fair. Wrong? Yes..definitely. But if you really want me to do it myself don't bitch about how I do it.
-- Pac-man, Mar 01 2006


//Lynne Truss, in her book "Talk to the Hand", has a rant about this very thing. She says she continually asks herself "Why am *I* the one doing this?" // Frankly, I'd be quite chuffed if Lynne Truss thought that to herself about writing ranty books. And then decided to stop.
-- spinglespangle, Mar 02 2006


I scan and bag simultaneously at Waitrose, and never have to speak to a soul in the supermarket, much less thank them.
My incentive is that I get around the shop quicker than if I had to wait for someone to bag it for me (which I've never seen in the UK, except when they need a job for the trainees) , and my shopping is ready to load into the car straight from the trolley.
-- coprocephalous, Mar 02 2006


Why do *I* have to think of an anno to this? Why can't someone else do it for me? Lazy bloody 'bakers.
-- wagster, Mar 02 2006


I don't know about you guys, but in this area, people almost expect for someone else to bag their groceries. And I actually feel bad when I see a customer bag their own. I hate grocery shopping, and I'm sure that person would rather be at home than bagging groceries... maybe we should come up with a system where all the customer has to do is leave their grocery list at the store and then their called when someone else is finished picking up and checking out their items, so all they have to do is pay.
-- Newo Ikkin, Aug 23 2006


[Pac-man], I was under the impression that there was an expected weight associated with the bar code so you couldn't hold $50 worth of steak above a can of soup & have it read the soup's bar code.

[Newo Ikkan] They used to have this thing called pea pod here, where you shop online & then had your groceries delivered. It must have been too expensive, as I don't think it exists anymore.
-- Zimmy, Aug 23 2006


Indeed, just avoid the supermarkets all together. I shop from Tesco Online for regular stuff and an organic supplier online for meat, veg and fruit. Problem solved. No bagging, no car, no checkouts...paradise.
-- colinwheeler, May 15 2007


I've noticed that, even in places where they offer help packing, they never offer any help in paying for it.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 15 2007


//[Zimmy] I was under the impression that there was an expected weight associated with the bar code so you couldn't hold $50 worth of steak above a can of soup & have it read the soup's bar code.//

If you try to scan a pez dispenser and bag (steal) a lawn mower, the machine would probably notice the weight mismatch. Likewise if you scan a diamond ring but try to bag a 40# tub of cat litter.

On the other hand, if you scan a lawn mower, I doubt the system would be able to tell--at least by weight--that you also threw in a diamond ring. On the other hand, those self-checkout stands have quite a few cameras at them. You may get lucky most of the time, but if you pull your scam long enough you're likely to get caught.
-- supercat, May 18 2007


I suspect it comes downto simple economics: goods will be stolen, but the difference between theft via self-checkout and theft via manned checkout is less than the cost of an operator. That surprises me - am I overly negative?
-- david_scothern, May 19 2007



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