People who don't bag their own groceries are the most irredeemable scoundrels

Costco's with a self-checkout lane

Damn it, I wish Costco would try to crack the Sam's Club dominance in Tupelo. But that's another thread.

Favorite ILX post about baggers: people who've been on TV whom you've pwned

I like the idea of self-scanning machines but I feel like they have a lot of issues and the alram goes off and you have to wait for the person to come help and it's embarrassing because people are behind you etc. Ok, maybe it's just me. :(

hahahaha poor ted danson!

thats Sam Malone

WE NEED A PRICE CHECK ON THESE TAMPONS!!

ERICA, HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO SCAN THE YOGURT! HURRY IT UP!!!!

EXACTLY :-(

NO, I'M SERIOUS! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ENTER A QUANTITY ON THE LIMES, NOT WEIGH THEM! GODDAMMIT JUST LET ME DO IT!

Are you having a panic attack yet?

OMG you're one of them!

nearly!

I'm pretty self-sufficient when it comes to DIY technology, and I don't think I've ever once done a self-checkout that went smoothly.

My problem with self checkouts is that they are too SLOW. I've worked in shops. I know how to scan things. Move it along, machiney!

No, I'd be shocked if they weren't trained to be friendly. "find an item in their cart and comment on it!" etc

I'm guessing that doesn't include the checkout girl holding up a butternut squash and saying "now, what are you supposed to do with these? I see them go by and I've no idea what they are. Are they fruit?"

http://i.imgur.com/7otRw.png

http://fooeyusa.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/mr_mom_1.jpg?w=490

omg mr mom

That was (weirdly) my absolutely favorite movie when I was a really kid. Like, i used to make my mom (not a mr.) let me watch it every day for a while.

i get my wife tampons all the time....i dont see what the big deal is.

It was my favorite movie too. North to drop off, south to pick up, moron!!
yeah as an adult now, I don't get why he was so embarrassed.

TJ reminds me of an upscale Aldi. Similar bare bones layout. My local Aldi has this 70s supermarket thing going on that I find endearing.

― oo girl, run that game (u s steel), Tuesday, 29 March 2011 11:29 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

FYI TJ is owned by Aldi

Woah - I fucked that sentence up. oops.

Anyway the self-scanners at the store by my old job were the worst. They always seemed to think you hadn't put the items in the bags correctly or were trying to steal something. Then it would take the person like 10 minutes to get to me from all the way across the store all while the line was growing and WMC was breathing done my neck and harassing me. Awful.

North to drop off, south to pick up, moron!!

hahaha omg

MY WOOBIE!!!

And, yeah, nothing wrong with a guy buying tampons or having a price check run on some such thing though I'd probably laugh if that ever happened irl because it would seem so cliche like what happened when the golden girls all tried to buy condoms.

line was growing and WMC was breathing done my neck and harassing me. Awful.

Just wave your tampons at him and glare. He'll back right off. The married ones know the score.

id be more embarassed for a price check on hemmorhoid cream or enemas.

buying butt cream is what self-checkout lines were invented for

they dont have those at CVS.

They actually do at many CVSs.

Embarrassment at the checkout line

not at mine.

The thing that bugs me about Trader Joe's friendly cashiers is that it's so obv a corporate-ordered faux friendliness. I like spontaneous, genuine friendliness, I really do.

I suspect that it's a combination of hiring gregarious people and training them to be friendly and outgoing. As a long-time customer service worker I don't care whether another service worker loves me to shreds and REALLY wants to chat or if they're doing their job. It's their job to be welcoming, and I for one appreciate it. Their eagerness and friendliness is done well - they don't seem to have scripts like a Chili's waiter or something.

people that still write checks for groceries are the real irredeemable scoundrels imho

Just wave your tampons at him and glare. He'll back right off. The married ones know the score.

― trishyb, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 11:59 AM (1 hour ago)

hahaha, yes, pwned

My local supermarket still has the sweepy divider but they never use it, they just stare you down while you pack and the person behind you huffs.

I am used to the Aldi/Lidl way now there are plenty of both across Britisherland, but my first trip to a German Aldi was confusing as I didn't realise you had to pick up a bag before the checkout if you wanted one and pay for it, and my German was almost non-existent so it took a few goes to determine that that was what I was being told

so if anyone reading this was held up one morning by a clueless English woman buying armfuls of Ritter Sport minis in an Aldi-Süd in the student quarter of Duisburg, I am very sorry

Is the Aldi way the same as ours, in that

1) Scan as fast as possible, all items.
2) Payment card takes ages to go through

actually, it's Lidl. carry on.

Dunno if it was fact or urban myth, but when I was at uni everyone said that the checkout staff at Aldi had to memorise the prices of everything in the store because Aldi were too tight to buy scanners. Actually this is patently bullshit. I never got around to going in Aldi because my boyfriend bought a bunch of microwave meals and some wine from there, and the plastic boxes melted all over the meals and the wine was like blackcurrant squash :(

I have vague memories of Aldi and/or Lidl not having scanners and everything being typed in by hand from memory. I think they've got scanners now though, I don't really pay attention, I'm too busy stressing about how I'm going to get everything over the shelf to pack it and will they have any boxes or will i have to spent 5p per extra carrier bag.

The memorising of prices definitely *was* the case until they introduced scanners into stores. IIRC the checkout staff got paid a lot better than their equivalents in regular supermarkets because of this. Now that they have modern scanner technology I doubt this is still true.

2) Payment card takes ages to go through

Weirdly, the Lidl round the corner from me has just about the fastest card machine I've ever used. Processes that business in the blink of an eye.

On topic, for as long as I can remember I've always done my own bagging. Although we've recently started doing the "big shop" online after a few too many dispiriting supermarket visits, so it's one of Ocado's order pickers who pack my bags now - their colour-coded system for Fridge / Cupboards / Freezer is brilliant.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

anyway i've never really seen this "bag your own groceries" business in American supermarkets like Albertsons or Ralphs or whatever. there's a little station at the end of the lane for bagging, but 99% of the time it's got a guy in it. i wouldn't want to get all up in that guy's station, it would seem presumptuous.

IIRC the checkout staff got paid a lot better than their equivalents in regular supermarkets because of this. Now that they have modern scanner technology I doubt this is still true.

Their staff are still amazingly quick though.

Yeah, they're so quick in Lidl that one has no choice but to put stuff straight back into the trolley and then bag it over to one side so that the queue can flow.

Something that impresses me with Lidl etc is also that they manage to run the stores with a real skeleton crew; the one I go to has about six staff in total.

It's also the only supermarket I know where people don't actually mind queuing!

Also, they do still pay well.

First time I was in a Dutch grocery store (not to be confused with the sexual act "Dutch Grocery Store"), I noticed the cashiers were sitting on stools (because why not? It's a shitty job, and there's no reason for them to be standing), and not only do they not provide bags, but you have to bag your own shit. I was down with this, but wish I'd known it before I had to walk four blocks carrying an armful of bagless groceries.

Do you also pay for your own bags? We have to: five cents per plastic bag.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

Christ, I haven't noticed whether the checkers notice this or not, but I am totally obsessive about buying exactly such things as the onions that cost $1.49 vs. $1.99. This might push me over the edge into total self-checkout territory.

Which would be doing the checkers at my local Giant a service, apparently, based on this thread.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

I don't ever really look at the prices of produce (I'm bad at money :() so I haven't noticed that from a price perspective BUT I'm sometimes baffled by what the people at the checkout don't know. Like, I've been asked what a zucchini is before.

I went through a similar thing with Jicama once, but you've got me beat.

Yeah well those are sorta ~exotic~ (and delicious - my dad makes a salad with Jicama which is out of this world) so they're excused but it's the reg veg confusion that happens every once in a while that's sorta mind-blowing.

OTOH you could be hassling the local Asian grocer with what's that veg queries... So used to shopping on a grad student's income and buying loss leaders or BOGOF specials that I've become really good at adding up my basket to avoid being overcharged. Also my mom's 11th Commandment is 'thou shalt not buy anything in a supermarket that's not on special'. The only place I wait in a trusting way for my total is the local butcher.