I don't use self checkouts because like others, I prefer that a human has a job. I'm an awesome sacker, but rarely do it anymore.

The two grocery stores that I shop at, Safeway being one of them, both put in self-checkout lanes. They wound up taking out half of them and putting back regular checkouts,

Costco doesn't have self-checkouts and they have even added a bagger at each lane. We used to have to do our own bagging but not anymore. They are just so friendly and helpful there.

I like to use them at Sam's Club, but at Walmart, I hate the tiny platform shelf that they want you to put your items on before you scan them. Then you scan and sometimes if you don't get it into the bag fast enough, it starts nagging at you. I could live without that.

They just did a major remodel of our almost new Walmart to put in a self-checkout section. No one uses it! I hate them. Plus, there are so many checkouts with cashiers that I never wait in line more than 5 minutes.

I like the self checkout. I was ready to strangle a lady today and I am usually mind mannered and tolerant. They opened a 10 item or less register and we were first in line to it. Before we could get there she came rushing in from behind another register with a full cart. More than one of us told her it was 10 or less but it made no difference. Cart was full of closeout stuff. She put her 2 ga of milk back because it was going to run her over, then she had wrapping paper with no upc, tried to buy special oranges for same as cheap etc. I was steaming because they had the manager there 4 times. Finally they get her finished up with her discounted candy and such and she paid with a state card. OMG I was livid. She kept saying she knew everyone was aggravated at her and I finally agreed and asked why when she knew she didn't change lanes. The cashier was just po'd, but of course they can't say anything to a customer. Whew, I feel better now that I vented ! LOL
I have been a cashier and it is a tough job for many reason. The worst for me was people running into me to let me know they were there. I had bruises all the time. Moron's.

I have never used the self-check out, and actually I thought they were meant for those customers with a few things who just wanted to get through the line faster.

I mostly shop at Kroger and I usually have more than enough items for the Express lane, which is 15. I have often noticed the Express lane checkers will be watching and if their lane is empty, they will take the next customer, regardless.

I have often let someone go ahead of me if they have one or two items, but if I had a cart full and was in line at a self-check, sorry, jasdip, but I would not let someone go ahead. There are usually short lines at all the Express lanes, or as I mentioned, no one in that lane. My time is as valuable to me as the next person's is to them. And, yes, I am really a nice, polite person!! :))

Sue

I don't use self checkouts because guess what....I don't work there! If I'm going to check out and bag my own groceries I either need a paycheck or a discount!.....lol.

A couple of years ago I was at a local supermarket, getting just 5 or 6 things I needed late at night on the way home from somewhere. I went to the slightly-closer store rather than my usual one at the other end of the same shopping center.

After finding the items I wanted, I got to the checkout and there were no normal checkout lines open. A manager was standing there directing customers to the self checkout lines. I told the manager, "I never work as a checkout clerk for minimum wage when I was young, and I'm not going to do so now for free." I then left the basket of items I had picked up right in front of the manager, and walked out of the store.

Jasdip,

As per the second part of your post, if I am in line (checker line, almost never use the self checkouts) with a full cart of groceries and someone comes up behind me with one item, I usually offer to let them go on ahead of me.
I always get a smile and a grateful 'thank you' out of it, and it makes me feel good that I've saved that person a wait.
I do manage to try to do my 'big' shopping visits at times when there are not a lot of people in the store, often in the early morning, so there are generally enough checkers and not too many lines.

jasdip I feel and understand your frustration!! I am sorry for it, and support your sharing a REAL emotion!! It is ok, no one should feel compelled to be Pollyanna 24/7!!
I use the self check often. It is certainly not without it's challenges. Last week I had a quick run to the grocery store. One gal at the check outs--three full carts in line. My cart was not FULL but also not 10 or less. I chose the self check out. What KILLED me was the coupons. Once you scan them you have to hit "don't care to bag this item" after four coupons and hitting that button the machine put me on HOLD for help. I stood there for several minutes waiting for the one gal on the job to rescue me. Blessedly a gal just coming to work waved her magic code and rescued me!! Perhaps you could suggest this to your local store "A minimum 10" lane that is also self serve. It does sound like a good idea.

I've never used a self check-out lane and our local Wal Mart was the only store in our small town that had one. After putting a couple in several years ago they took them out. Guess that too many people didn't understand them or preferred a cashier to check them out.

Joyfulguy, my hubby did the same thing. He went to the express lane with 8 items and a woman in front of him had a full cart. Hubby counted out loud each item. Of course all he got were dirty looks from her. And to top it off, she had a whole fistful of coupons for the clerk to go through....some were outdated....and then she paid with her welfare card. Hubby was not a happy camper by then. The poor clerk just shook her head and rolled her eyes.

I like self check when I have few produce items. It's always faster than even the express lanes.

I didn't realize that so many of you don't like the self checkouts.
A few years ago Walmart tried them, then took them out, and now have 6 tills in an area and customers wind around to the next available till.
They also have regular tills, but of course, Walmart being Walmart only has a few tills open at any time, and there are always lineups.

We did our grocery shopping in the morning yesterday and all of the stores were busy.

When I see someone with one or 2 items and we have quite a few in a cart, I offer to have them go ahead of me. They often say it's okay that they don't mind waiting, but boy I sure would have liked someone to let me go ahead of them yesterday with my one item. If it wasn't on sale, and I wanted the romaine I would have put it back and left.

Anyway hubby likes the self checkout, I think he likes the mechanics of it. :-)

I've also seen it recommended that it's often quicker to go to a longer lineup than several people with a few items. With a long lineup, their bill is rung up and debited, charged, etc and then you're up next. With several people with a few items, it often takes longer with each person using debit. I myself have noticed that.

I like self-checkout, but I usually use it when I only have a few items. A few times I've brought a fuller cart through if all the others are open for other people. I usually don't though as it takes longer. My favorite is Trader Joe's where they unload the whole cart for me!

I have in the past had cashiers wave me over as they open a new lane, regardless of how many items I have or the limit on the lane, only to have someone with a few items come behind me and give me a sour look. If I haven't started unloading, I will let them ahead but if I have, they are out of luck because I was doing what the cashier directed. Maybe that's what's happening in some of these scenarios.

I'm also a little confused about the posts where people cite state/welfare cards as an additional source of anger. Why does that matter? What's the difference between a rude person who uses those vs. a rude person who pays in cash? I find people often feel justified shaming poor people who are using "their" tax money to survive.

When I used a busy military commissary we finally got a remodel and I liked their system. One long line and we "peeled off" to the next available cashier. It looked like a long wait but it wasn't.

If I have to check out and bag my paid for groceries, I want at least a 5% discount. Sorry, but let someone else have the job or hire the handicapped for this.

I will use the self checkouts. I was a cashier in a grocery store for yrs, and I am often quicker and a better bagger than who ever they hired to do the job for me. I usually will not use them if I have a full cart and I always offer to let someone with one or two items go in front of me.. When my grandmother passed, I
inherited her patience and kindness..Why let others actions ruin a great day for me??

I'm really surprised that several of you consider self-checking to be "work." It certainly doesn't require much in the way of skill. To me, it's more pleasant to do something productive than stand passively on line.

Seniorgal, I wish more stores would use that method. My bank uses it, and it works very well.

I mostly like the self checkouts. The Walmart near us recently installed them and it's much faster now to get checked out. I hate the ones at one of our grocery stores because you barely get the item scanned before it's going, "Please place the item in the bag". I don't use them if I have a full cart, but I rarely do. It is irritating when people have a full cart and take forever at the self checkouts. It's especially bad if they don't really know how to use it or if they do something wrong and have to get a clerk involved to fix it. One couple we were behind recently was obviously Christmas shopping and had not one, but two full carts that they were checking out. They kept messing up too.

I'm fine with using a regular checkout when the lines are insanely long or when people don't get in the express line with a full cart. I've always thought that the stores should let the clerks tell people to get in another line if they were so obviously over the limit for the express line. It would make them angry, but it makes other customers angry to wait behind these inconsiderate people.

I would prefer to use a regular checkout and that people have these jobs. A lot of stores, though, don't want to hire enough cashiers to avoid long lines and wait times for customers. So if there are lines at all the regular checkouts (there usually are in my area) I use the self.

I went to the grocery store recently with a friend. We both only had a few items and got in a regular line together. All the regular lines had multiple people in them and after waiting for a few minutes, I told her I was going to the self checkout. I scanned and bagged my items, paid and was ready to go before she even got to the cashier.

bob, it may be different in your area than in mine, but here retail clerks working for chain grocery stores (though not Walmart's) are unionized and receive high salary and benefits. I had such a job while in college and the pay was several multiples of what any of my friends earned. In addition, full benefits need to be provided to employees working over some minimum amount (it may be 25 or 30 hours a week) and that's why these days stores have more part-time and fewer full time union employees. If the pay and benefit provisions weren't so extravagant, there would be more jobs.

When I have fewer than, say, ten items, I find the self-checkouts more convenient and pleasant than the regular process. Those who don't like them are free to not use them and instead wait in line to deal with cashiers who often have very indifferent attitudes towards their jobs and the customers they encounter.

I prefer to go to a cashier (like to keep someone in a job and also like interacting with the cashiers) but when I was driving a lot (and using a lot of fuel) I would go through the self checkout especially with a full cart.
Reason? Our major grocery chains here offer a discount on fuel purchases on groceries totalling over $30. If you go through the cashier's line s/he has to process your entire cart load as one transaction. However, if you go through the self checkout, you can end a transaction as soon as you hit that magic $30 and start another, and end up with multiple fuel discount coupons.

I worked for Walmart about 3 years when they started asking for the receipts at the exit door. I told the manager, when I quit this job and someone ask for my receipt I will tell them NO! If I am searched or held in the store I will sue and charge them with kidnapping. Even a shop lifter gets to leave the store before he is stopped and now they were stopping honest people. I stood in line to pay for my stuff the cashier took my money, stapled and closed the bag and I will not stand in line to get out of the store.

Just a few years ago one of our Walmarts started doing that. I asked the person at the door, "what will you do if I say no?" He said "call the manager who will hold you until the police come." Unbelievable. This store even closed all of the exit door except for on single door and force people to stand in line.

"Why do people with a full grocery cart use the self-checkout, when they are alone?? "
Why?
Because they are allowed to use self-checkouts too.

Unless there is a limit posted, fair game for all.

I prefer to check my own groceries. I am faster than a lot of checkers. The main reason I do it, is I like my items bagged with like items. Even if I put them on the conveyor to be checked by the checker, and put the cold items together and the canned things together, etc., they usually don't get bagged that way. When I get home, I have to search for things and I have found that 9 times out of 10 when I go to the big HEB supermarket, which I do like, I end up missing something. I live too far away to go back. Also, Walmart used to be notorious for overcharging for some things. Like, if grapes are 1.49 a pound, they would ring up 2.49. I know you can watch while the checkers are doing it, but I am usually still putting items on the conveyor. I have made them stop and I tell them...you wouldn't want me stealing from you, but this is stealing from a lot of people and if you add up how many people are buying grapes and it is ringing up so much over the price listed, that is a lot of money!!

What I don't like is standing behind someone letting their child check or a man....because usually men can't figure out what they are doing and it takes forever. Ditto on letting the child check. I will always go to self check when I can and I am in and out in no time at all.

It doesn't surprise me that self checkouts have closed at many Walmarts. Present company excluded....have you SEEN the people who shop there????
You couldn't PAY me to go to a Walmart.

I'd never thought of using a self checkout as taking a job from someone, but I sure do now. I don't use them much, mostly because the store I frequent usually have quick checkers, and I rarely have to stand in line long, and they are much quicker at the check out and bagging process than I am, so it works out, timewise as pretty even, even with a line. I also heard that young men check quicker. At my store, I can tell who is slow and who is quick. And, the young men usually ARE faster.

Present company excluded....have you SEEN the people who shop there????
You couldn't PAY me to go to a Walmart.

That's the wackiest generalization I've heard in a long time. Since you never go to Walmart, Jean, how do you know what Walmart shoppers look like?

I hope your opinion isn't based on one of those stupid "people of Walmart" websites.

I shop there almost every week (as do a number of my friends), and I can tell you the people look no different from those who shop at the two supermarkets in town.

It's not just the people...tho my niece shops there and is floored by the people she sees all the time. Must be the area. Anyway, it's not just the people.

Definitely the area Jean. Our Walmarts are large, bright and clean, as are the people who shop there.

As a matter of fact, I got my eyeglasses at Walmart recently. A professional, very friendly and knowledgeable optician. I've recommended that Walmart to other people who are looking for reasonable frames and prescription.

I guess I should be more appreciative of where we live here in NW Arkansas. Our Wal Marts are clean, friendly, well-organized and we run into people we know, so I guess I'd have to say, our Wal Marts are a nice cross-section of our area. 95% of the time, the people say excuse me or thank you if you move out of their way or hand them something they can't reach. It's hard to complain about that.

Maybe it's because they are there because they want to be there, they aren't being forced to shop there. ;)

I live in Target-land (SoCal) so I prefer to shop there. We have acquired a few Walmarts in recent years and I have gone a few times. They sometimes have more merchandise (and cheaper prices) than Target, but I don't feel they are maintained nearly as well. The floors are worn and dirty, the shelves are often empty, messy or with items scattered everywhere. It just seems like there aren't enough employees, which doesn't surprise me given the politics and policies of Walmart.

But it's entirely regional. I used to live by one in Florida that was very nice and clean.

The only clientele difference I've ever noticed is mostly age. Walmart had more senior shoppers and Target tends to have more young families. But I only shop in the daytime during the week so I'm sure that factors in, as most people other than retired or SAHM's are at work.

When a store starts giving me a discount for using self-checkout, I might consider using it. Otherwise, I want to keep those peopled employed who work the registers.

Although I'm no apologist for Walmart, raking in billions and billions they could well afford better for their employees. But I often find myself there when I feel the yen to get out of the house and get some exercise by pushing a cart up and down aisles. Like this AM with the "feels like" temp at minus 35o because I wanted to try the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, get a couple of boxes of Kleenex+Lotion, and a plastic tote bin for some homeless Christmas things. WM often has what I need/want/impulse buy and the store is large, bright, and clean. Someone or something must have gotten to them as I've seen fewer and fewer gaps on the shelves.

Our Target is a nice store too, but I don't frequent it enough to get the layout and I'm forever backtracking.

Being retired, I can shop whenever I choose and the clientele does often seem to be toward the senior category whenever I'm there. But in reality it's a mix of likely the unemployed, those who telecommute, SAHMs, the retired, shift workers, etc. And they all look pretty normal to me. No stretched to the limit flesh colored yoga pants, Elvis wannabes...

When I need groceries and other items I go to Walmart. I can usually save at least $15. on a hundred dollar purchase. I see friends and neighbors there so I guess we are all "those" kind of people.

We go to Walmart all the time and I see the same people I see any other places I go around here, would never be able to tell if you were in a Walmart or anyplace else if all you could see is the people. They are the newest and well kept stores. I have absolutely never seen the "people of Walmart" kinds of things at any store I have been in anywhere I have ever visited. Many of those are totally staged, people go around 2am when no one is around and set up for the picture, just recently saw some where the girl was totally naked, no question it was staged.

I love the Walmart neighborhood market which is strictly a grocery store with pharmacy, I shopped there all the time when I lived in Dallas, they put a new one in right down the street. Would love to see one here.

If you don't go to a place how can you possibly judge the place or the people there?

It's kind of fashionable to dump on Walmart. I mean, why buy some of the cheap Chinese stuff there when you can buy the same cheap Chinese stuff at a high end store at a much higher price. No matter where one is on the economic spectrum, a "bargain", perceived or real, is something everyone probably enjoys.

I can give a concrete example. Was in the market for a silicone head spatula - $1 at Walmart. Saw the exact item at Kohl's for $7.95. Only difference being the Kohl's model had a decorative sticker imbedded in the silicone. Pretty pricey sticker!

I think people are the same all over. I go to Walmart and was shocked and offended by the generalization. After all, why exclude present company? If you think less of me for shopping there just say so.

My Walmart is very nice. And I'm very nice, ordinarily, except when someone is trying to dis me.

I hate self checkouts. I work retail. I ring through customers quite often during the day. I'm not a cashier, but will be when they need extra help up front. I get paid to be a cashier. I get paid very well to do my job. When i go to a store, I want to go through a cashier. Why? Because she/he needs that job. And I don't get paid to be a cashier in someone elses store. I went to Target here in Calgary last week. They have two mall entrances, one upstairs and one downstairs. There were six cash registers on both floors. And four self checkout cash registers. And NO CASHIERS! Only one staff member who gets paid to stand there and watch customers ring their own stuff up! I was so mad! Normally, I would put my stuff down and walk out because, as I said, I don't get paid to work at Target. But I seriously needed what I was buying. But because of that, I highly doubt I will shop at that location again. The Target near my home has ZERO self checkouts. I think it's because they think this is a high crime area and we'll rob them blind. LOL But they almost always have at least 3 people running cash registers at my local store.

Same here, Lucille. If someone has a philosophical difference/problem about the way Walmart runs its business, that's one thing. It's something else again to dismiss WM's patrons as somehow a part of the great unwashed.

It is a shame that a large percentage of hardworking WM employees are on the edge, require assistance and find themselves giving back to WM a goodly chunk of their dollars to feed and clothe themselves and a family.

holey Hannah.

Geez people, it was a freaking joke, and I generalized, only because of what my niece has seen....AND taken pictures of at her local WallyWorld.

I should have had a paragraph separation between my first comment, and the comment about not being able to pay me to go to Walmart. One really absolutely has nothing to do with the other.

I then followed up with a comment about the original subject of the post. Got any comments on that, or do you just want to defend why you support such a place as Walmart?

I think you are absolutely right, Jean. If your niece is the type of person who shops at Walmart, I definitely don't want to shop there!

I think it's shameful that she goes there and takes pictures of people she wants to mock, and then shares with you so that you can use that "knowledge" to insult a whole lot of people. Adding an exclusionary preface before your comment doesn't magically make it okay.

This thread got ugly in a hurry.

I, too, feel insulted. I shop Wal-Mart about once a month and am a respectable, normal person. Four out of five of my immediate family members hold college degrees and earn mid-to-upper middle class incomes. Sure, I've seen the Wal-Mart People pictures. But we're not all like that.

Generalizations about the intelligence and/or socioeconomic background of Wal-Mart clientele can be very unfair.

I never use self check out. I feel I'm doing someone out of a job. I always use a cashier.

Hi Debby, I've never seen a retail store that only had the self-checkouts opened.

I've never equated self-checkouts with fewer jobs as a number of people mentioned, because there are always cashiers working. I know that our grocery stores hire part-timers who work 4 hour shifts, a few days a week. Even the long-time unionized workers got their hours cut back and that's at the largest chain supermarket. As in any other industry and retail, part time workers are hired vs full-time as it saves a bundle on benefits.

We do both......go to the self-serve if they aren't busy, and go to the cashiers.

You can shoot a cannon through any of our Targets. It wasn't 3 months later when they first came here that they were cutting back the staff hours (a friend of mine's son worked there). They just aren't getting the Canadian business as they do in the US. We've been in Target twice. There's nothing there to entice us to buy anything.

Duluth said exactly what I say when people gripe and b*tch about Walmart here, saying that they sell garbage from China. Don't blame Walmart, blame the manufacturers. You can buy the same toaster in Walmart for $10 or at BBB or Sears for much more money. Heck I'm trying to find a decent vegetable peeler and bought one at BBB for $6. I was livid when I saw the exact same one at our grocery store for $3. Either way it doesn't work worth a hoot.

" Don't blame Walmart, blame the manufacturers".

No, don't blame Walmart, blame customers, who over the past 20 years have become more concerned with price than quality and so procurement shifted mostly to China (with varying results). That's also part of why the US has lost so many manufacturing jobs, price-driven buying decisions.

Here's what I've experienced - in some upscale towns and areas, Walmarts are unwelcome. Zoning changes, building permits, etc., all get bogged down as residents express their NIMBY complaints and local politicians listen.

When Walmart encounters this, they shift their expansion efforts to sites in nearby lower socio-economic areas, where they are welcomed because the poorer areas need the added sales tax revenue they get. When people from better parts go to Walmarts in less affluent areas, they encounter people of lower socio-economic classes (and often of different races). This is a different fellow-customer cross section from what they see in their own neighborhoods. I've experienced this myself. I wouldn't say it bothers me, but let's just say that a poor single mother in a store with 4 kids has a different way of speaking to and disciplining her children than a mom in an aerobics or yoga outfit who has just exited her Land Rover with Biff Junior and Little Trish.

I'm a tad floored here; hope you weren't scarred by your shopping experience in an establishment with the lower economic classes and people of, quelle horreur, different races.

Snidely, our 2 neighbouring towns/city blocked Walmart from entering for years. They eventually lost and Walmart went in. They are beautiful large clean stores. They have expanded into Superstores because of the business they're doing.

We've had Walmarts for 20 years. The original one is getting run down but they're building Superstores. They're always nice and clean and bright and people of all income shop there. They're in new business developments and are busy.

I don't make a point of shopping WM just because the one near to us is an "Express WM" and they never have what is advertised in the flyer. I've gone in a number of times just to get something as simply as half and half that's advertised and they're excuse is always that they didn't ship enough. They did finally tell me that because they're an Express WM, they don't always honour the flyer. Why do I get it delivered then, if I can't buy it there. Stupid.

The clothing, I never buy.........They used to sell Penman jeans and tshirts and long sleeved shirts. Wonderful clothes! Last forever.
The George crap is just crap. You can see through the material, it's so thin.

I don't know why the stores around here remodel to include 30 check outs and then usually a couple of lanes of self check-outs, when they only ever have 4 checkouts open and a ha-yuge line at the self checkouts. I don't believe these have item limits here.

At our regular grocery store we have bought bins to avoid needing bags or bringing our own shopping bags. I would want to unload my items, place my empty bins on the checkout area, then check my items and load them directly into the bins. No can do! The loading platform is about the size of a letter size paper. And you can't put anything on the loading platform other than a bag because the bins are too heavy and cause issues. So I have to check each item one by one, put it on the platform, and finish paying etc. Then I have to load each item one by one into the bins in the cart. Frustrating and inefficient.

I would rather they pay more cashiers and open up more lanes.

Also, they have the double lanes so they can get people through faster. We load our own groceries. They always start with the main belt first, then move to the second. But then I am trapped behind the first person as they load their stuff, and mine is sitting way over on the second belt unattended until I can get through.

There is not enough room to get past, and they won't make the lanes bigger because that takes away from retail space.

And my last rant is PRICE MATCHING. I get it. I really do. But it takes soooooo looooong and usually I am actually quite patient to wait. I wish they had special lanes for THAT.

Dances.

duluth, you did a good job misunderstanding what I said. I was describing why people may experience a different population of shoppers at Walmart and one reason why their stores have the reputation they have.

As far as diversity is concerned, duluth, I'll bet I have substantially more of it percentage-wise on my street and among my circles of friends and colleagues than you have in your entire state (if indeed you're from Minnesota). And I always have, it's not different or unusual for me.

I love the self serve checkouts when I have just a few items. I use them at the grocery store and at Home Depot. So much quicker than standing in line. However, the self serves have become so popular around here that there are lines to use them - so not much time saving on some days versus using a regular checkout lane.