So, I was just out shopping at the local co-op grocery store, and I noticed that they’ve decided that they no longer care about customer service. How do I know this, you ask? I know this because they now have those new self-checkout machines. And, in addition to that, they have one cashier working. Maybe that was to ‘encourage’ people to use these new checkout machines that they probably spent a whole lot of money on.
They work fine for something like an express lane, where you may have only one bag of items, and you’re happy to use the plastic bags they seem to be so willing to give away at these self-checkout machines. Go two rows over where there’s someone serving you and those bags suddenly cost 5 cents each, but go to the self-checkout and they’re free. go figure.
But, if you’re like me and tend to do a lot of grocery shopping at once, there’s no way you’re fitting it all into one bag. I go to the grocery store for a jug of milk and come home with 50 dollars worth of groceries. It’s because I have these things at home…what do you call them? Oh yeah – kids! Kids really like to eat, and eat, and eat and eat and eat. So there’s no way I’m every going in a grocery store and coming out with just one bag of stuff.
And, if you’re like me and bring your own cloth bags, you’re really screwed, people. See, if you push the start button on the screen and then put your cloth bag on that little itty bitty tiny bagging space, it senses the weight of the bag and starts screaming at you. So what you have to do is press start, scan the first item, then put it in the bag while the bag is on the ground at your feet, THEN put the bag on the little itty bitty tiny bagging space. But only once. See, once you’ve started the transaction, the machine then constantly WANTS to have something on that little itty bitty tiny bagging space. So when your first bag is full, you can’t repeat the same process as last time – oh no – that would make sense. See, call me crazy, but when I scan an item and put it in the bag and see that the bag is full, I think “oh look, the bag’s full. I better remove it so I can scan another item” Nope. You have to think “oh look, my bag will be full in one more item. I better scan this item, then, while holding this item in my hand, I’ll remove the bag and put a new one one and then put the item I’ve already scanned and am holding in my hand into the bag.” yeah, that’s the sensible way to do it! And the best part is that if you do remove the bag and have no weight on the bagging shelf, it doesn’t really tell you anything, it just stops scanning your items. It’s kinda like one of those classic male-female relationship cliches, where the guy says “what’d I do?” and the girls says “if you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you!”
Why do they even have those stupid weight sensors? How stupid do they think the buying public is? “okay, I scanned the item, now what do I do? Oh my god, I’m so confused!” Do they think it’s going to reduce theft? If so, I got some news for you, sunshine. Ain’t gonna happen. Besides, there’s that one clerk hovering around all the self-checkouts like an eagle soaring over a prairie dog colony. If she doesn’t catch a thief, there’s no way some stupid weight sensor in a goofy little bagging tray is going to do it. Really, if they’re worried about theft, they should do it like this: have a great big counter area that I can scan and stack all my crap on. They’ll know how much it all weighs…they know as I’m scanning it through – 400grams of this, a pound of that. Scan it all through and then weigh the whole lot at the end. If it matches, then you’re good to go – round up those dogies and get on out outta there! If not, then a red siren can go off and that hovering clerk can come and slap the cuffs on any would-be thieves.
Yeah, that’s how they need to do it…
