Do-it-yourself checkout could make grocery baggers a thing of the past

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05116/494268.stm

Brennan Conley has spent five years bagging groceries and knows not to put the bread on the bottom and to use the cans of peaches to deftly craft a stable bag of groceries capable of standing on its own.

The 20-year-old took fifth place in an annual statewide competition for best baggers last year, and is one of hundreds of Giant Eagle employees limbering up for the another test of speed and skill set for this evening at the O'Hara grocer's Monroeville store.

Yet as the baggers from three states gather, one can not help but wonder if they are members of an endangered species destined to go the way of the once-common gas station guys who pumped the gas and squeegeed every customer's car windows.

<snip>

The technology has spread beyond the grocery. Wal-Mart has self-checkout stations in 1,325 of its 3,159 stores, and Home Depot began installing self checkout in 2003. More than 1,000 of its 1,900-plus locations offered the services at do-it-yourself lanes at the start of this year.

"We're surprised at how fast it's taking hold," said Dan Hopping, a retail consultant for IBM Corp.'s Retail Store Solutions Division in Raleigh, N.C.

UNless you're just going to the store for a quart of beer or something, do-it-yourself checkout blows goat. Worse than pumping your own gas.

It gets the job done, but it isn't nearly as enjoyable.

for disabled people either, especially those of us who have lost at least mobility on our feet.

Also, it usually takes people two to three times as long to checkout their items theirselves due to not being able to operate the POS terminal and (at least at the BJs Warehouses in my area) the interminable length it takes the stupid recording to go through its' routine (which can't be bypassed, of course).

and they'd carry your grocieries out to your car

I also remember full service gas stations

I'm only 24!

I've tried them a few times, and regretted it every time.

I've never had a problem, and I'm often quicker than the usual cashier.

"only with humans" is my motto

Since people lose jobs because of this device and, on a more selfish note, I get NO DISCOUNT for doing THE WORK, I absolutely refuse to use the self-scanners. When I spend $400 in a store, I do expect the store to provide service to me and employment to baggers.

...I much prefer the self-checkout. I generally shop after work, and don't feel like chatting much....I bag better and check faster. Okay, I did work in a grocery store during college.

It beats standing in line. I would rather do it myself rather than get stuck in a long line of shoppers, especially those with baskets full of groceries and I only have a few items.

is due to the fact they've eliminated the service personnel that used to make things move quicker. Personnel that were built in to the price of the groceries. This is a highly developed tactic. Inconvenience people enough, and you get them to do work that they are already paying someone else to do.

The self checkouts also get the public more comfortable with having their mug video archived for every purpose imaginable, as they have big plans to video you from the moment you leave your private domain. This is another baby step on the road to slave hell.

maybe... unless you make a mistake doing the checkout
:evilgrin:

I have to do it myself. I hear MickeyD's is trying out an automated system too, so if I order a Fish and het a chesseburger, I can't blame anyone. Just what jobs will be left when they're done outsourcing everything that can't be automated?

Where I grew up, you bagged your own groceries anyway; I didn't realize until I came to California that you have to elbow the bagger out of your way if you want your stuff bagged the way you want. Or you get to stand there giving orders to the bagger like a shrew. And I have had only positive experiences with self-checkouts at Home Despot, etc. Those particular machines haven't screwed up in front of me yet...

I like it if I am in a hurry (only need 10 things or less at grocery store).

But, as far as bagging goes:

I hate having a bagger. I appreciate that it gives someone a job, I just don't like someone being forced to do something I can do myself. I feel like I am wasting their time.

ON EDIT: although, when I do have a bagger and a ton of groceries, I definately appreciate it.

Like someone else who posted here, I load the belt with my stuff in order and I want it packed a certain way. I'm also not fond of someone else's hands all over my food. By now the folks at my local Safeway know me, but I'm sure they thought "What a bitch" when I first moved to the neighborhood.

I also talked to a friend of a friend who manages a Harris Teeter. At his particular store, they only have baggers doing Saturday afternoon, and on days right before Xmas, etc., and these "baggers" are stock room and parking lot workers, not specifically baggers. Plus, he said they wouldn't have more lanes open if they didn't have a U-Scan -- just one. wWhereas, with the U-Scan, he can have six lanes open with one employee.

This is in a non-union state. I grew up in NJ where the baggers were unionized, so it would be different there.

I've managed a chain bookstore, so I know where he's coming from -- Corporate cuts selling costs to the bone, so in the case of his store, it's actually helping the customer.

grocery baggers are few and far between. 9 times out of 10 either one of my sons or I wind up bagging the groceries because there is no one else. When I happen to get a bagger most of the time I wish he had stayed away. My bread winds up flattened, they put leaky meat packages in with things like sugar and flour and cleaning products in the same bags as groceries.

As for self-check-outs...we just got one at Albertsons but I rarely go there because they are too pricey. Last time I was there I used the self-checkout lane and didn't have any problems. Whatever get's me out of the store the quickest works for me!

she's a single woman with few groceries when she finishes. And she's a teacher so, she doesn't have a lot of time for shopping during the week. The auto check out saves her a lot of time because there's never any lines for them.

For a big grocery load, I let the baggers do their job!

But, I bring my own tote bags. I hate the wastefulness of baggers putting only one item in a bag! I tell the baggers to pack 'em full!

they are great for a few items but I truly resent it when I have to scan a huge basket of items. And I have watched the less mobile of us really struggle with the scanners - I'll offer to help if it seems to be really bad (fine line here - don't want to seem too anxious to get the line moving).

Another thing that disappears is simple human contact for the many very lonely folk in this world.

1.) I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE self-checkout.

2.) 90% of the time I HAVE to bag my own groceries (they don't have enough baggers), or just wait while the cashier rings everything up, takes my money, THEN bags it herself,. I'd rather just get it done. I've gotten very good at it!

Great Depression II

just baggers who will be out of work. The stores around here employ lots of baggers who have Downs Syndrome, some other physical disability, or senior citizens. Where will they go to find work?

I refuse to use the self-check out register. I hope the idea dies a quick death.

He/she is at a little desk in the front, and checks ID, gives cc slips to sign, helps, etc.

start to finish. There is a person available for assistance, but they are usually covering numerous do-it-yourself lanes.

I saw many clerks at my store loose jobs to these machines. And if I am going to pay high food prices in Northern Cal, I want to be paying a clerk who has health benefits and a decent wage with union protections.

that they got rid of them. I know lots of people who love them because it is easier to misuse coupons when you are scanning them yourself.....there are whole sites devoted to this one thing: how to misuse a coupon and commit fraud on a store.

At a lot of my stores they now will not let the customer scan their own coupon. I also find that they overly read a coupon and dissect it at u-scan so I always go to a regular lane.

I've never seen a separate bagger at any Safeway, Giant, or other grocery store I've been to.

That said, I'm going to use whatever gets me through the store quicker. If I can get through self service in 2 minutes vs. standing in line for 10, oh well.

I have a system when i put food on the belt, in the order of where it
goes in the kitchen.... all refrigerated foods together, to stay cold in
what can be some time before seeing another fridge.... and things like
that. Bagger's always were a luxury.

As for the cashier, i'm not so sure. Unless the RFID tags start to work
in these situations, i demand simplicity. The best would be if my cart
had bags on it when i started shopping, and i bagged as i shopped... and
simply rolled the trolley through a multiple RFID scanner that could
scan and log the entire contents in 1 pass of the cart. Then there
would be no time unloading and re-loading.

Perhaps we should accept some technological evolution as an improvement
over the old ways. Some of y'all are starting to sound like amish...
i mean really, a lawnmower is an improvement over a sythe... and i don't
see many folks out there cutting grass with the old knife... even though
it IS a better workout, not noisy and does not consume petrol.

We're too far down the path of modern economics to be so silly to
preseve the baggers of this world. Simply rather, we need to make sure
that the job they "do" get in replacement pays a fair wage.

Fair wages!!! yes.. Silly job preservation... no.

slowing the whole thing down.

Some people use it in a way that seems to make time slooooooow down as they methodically go through every step in the most agonizing way possible.

Not necessarily slow but glitches always happen where you have to wait for the store operator.

the machine but the people who can't figure out how to use the damn thing.

Sometimes I get stalled by the machine. I hope people behind me don't think it's me because it's not.

how do we do this again? Now I know I did it a minute ago, but how? Oh wait, the computer thingy is saying something. What's that? Hm, produce number? What do you figure THAT is?"

I think I was that idiot!

but not for my weekly groceries. THey're much quicker.

And yet, the idea of more jobs disappearing bothers me.

This will cause a massive loss of jobs, many of them unionized and most with health benefits. I don't know anyone who would rather scan it themselves than have a competent clerk do it. The only reason people accept this at all is that the stores give you the choice of standing in a horrendously long checkout line, for a chance to be checked out by a terribly overworked and hassled clerk. They've taken all the service out as usual and given us a false choice that takes away jobs that are needed.

Now they are getting rid of cashiers. Scan, bag, and pay for yourself. I walked out of Home Depo when the ONE cashier line was almost to the back of the store. There were THREE people on the self serve line. Sorry, I will not scan, bag, and pay for myself $200 worth of stuff.

They are part-timers, retired, college kids, etc., and are not paid any benefits, and around here are not unionized. I'm not for people losing their jobs, but I don't think U-Scans are the problem.

but only when I have a few items that are all barcoded.

Buying produce requires a human checker.

In the Home Depot, I never use it when buying lumber because of the damn "item in the bag" sensor, and lumber is generally the only reason I'm in home Depot.

and not just lining the robber-barons' pockets.

We don't have self-checkout in grocery stores, but we do in the library, and I use it because the librarians are overworked. However, about half the time there's a problem -- book won't scan, usually -- and I have to go to the librarian anyway.

The world is moving toward being a place where we never have to involuntarily make contact with another human being. Sad.

when I'm buying a small handful of items, especially if there is something of a...ummmm...personal nature included as part of the purchase! :D

In just a few more years, every product on the market will come with an embedded RFID tag. When that happens you won't even have to SCAN your items...your entire cart will automatically be scanned when you roll up to the checkout counter.

That said, I rarely use self-checkout machines. It's not that I want to protect anyones job, but that I really don't like wasting time bagging. It's like changing the oil on my car...I could grab a wrench and change my own oil in 15 minutes but I'd rather not bother. It's easier to pay someone else to do it, and I don't have to worry about papercuts or dirty fingers.

Union jobs for families are at stake. I think a minute or two of my time (if even that) is a small price to pay to make sure people in my community have jobs.

The more people who use self-checkout, the less checkers.

The same thing happened with EZ Pass, also, now if you don't have an EZ Pass scanner you often have to wait 5 minutes for the one or two full service toll booths open. Before EZ Pass, all booths were open and people had good, union jobs with benefits.

for those not using the I-PASS electronic scan system. Sure, they'll always have to have some actual booths available to those passing through the area or whatnot, but they're clearly trying to speed the transition to "skeleton crew staff" as quickly as possible.

I do not immediately schlep my stuff into the house, and I want certain things bagged together.. I know how my car "corners", so I know just how the bags must be packed, to keep them from tipping, and sending my stuff all over the trunk or seat of my car..

I do not use the "self-check out" lines, but I usually take extra bags and re-bag my stuff, or I ask them to not even bag it.. I will do it in the parking lot:)

It isn't going to make things cheaper in the long run, only cut down on more jobs. Look what they did to the gas stations. Is your gas any cheaper?

shopping with kids. I sat in a Home Depot self-serve line. I had two items and there were only two cashiers with looonnng lines. The self-serve was short, but there was a father there with a boy who kept touching the bag or the scale or grabbing the items. It was terrible.

I have no intention of putting minimum wage people out of a job by doing it myself.

I'd rather deal with an actual human being who has a JOB.

My fantasy is that if enough people don't use these mechanized checkouts, they will go away. I'm dreaming, right? :+

I will not check out my own groceries.

have a turn style type bagging system they use. They scan a few items, place them in a bag, scan a few more, place them in the next bag, then turn the bag holder so the consumer can put them in their cart.

As the consumer, you have a choice of watching what is scanned to make sure everything is correct, then having 10 or how ever many bags waiting on a turn style to load into your cart, or you can grab the bags and put them in as they come around.

I am never in that big of a hurry. If I'm shopping in your store, you owe me the courtesy of having a human being on hand. I find the automated lines offensive and insulting. Fuck 'em.

We are going to have to confront the fact that those jobs are probably gone. However, why has no one suggested the obvious, namely that with all this improvement in productivity and automation, many of us are working longer hours than ever. This is seriously stupid. The answer is dividing the work up, and putting it on a solid base of guaranteed national income.