I hope stores don't go away.

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I tend to only use the self-checkout machines if I only have a few items that will fit in one bag, so I don't think it's a multi-bag too many items issue for me.

What happened the other day, for example, is I had a about four small items. As I ran each one over the sensor and then placed it in the bag, I put it in to let the weight sensor acknowledge it, then I rearranged it not to be sliding around. Each time I did this the machine began to say there was a problem, then corrected itself. Then it finally stuck on "problem" and the guy came over and said it's probably because I'm moving things around in the bag.

The trouble is, you can't always place something in exactly the spot it's going to stay. The items were floppy and kept falling over each other even when I tried to add them in a way that would make them stay put. If I don't rearrange them there and then, I always have to stop next to the door, in the way of everyone, being pushed past as there are no pther spaces to go into a corner and do anything, and do a rearrangement of the contents before walking home. It's really annoying.

I understand why people like stores/shops....but I sometimes wish they didn't exist.

One of my problems with the self-checkouts is there's sometimes age restrictions of the things I buy like over-the-counter medications. For example some places ask for my ID when buying cough syrup & I'm 34 & look it or older.

It's odd we've been talking about issues with self-checkout stations, because oh boy do I have a story today!

I just got back from Poundland and using their self-checkout stations. So there's a little shelf on the left where you put your items before running them through, then in the middle you have your sensor, then on the right you have your other little shelf which is your own individual bagging station, with store bags on a rack at the rear of this shelf, right?

So I put my own bag on the bagging shelf and start checking my items across the sensor and I've got three of them in my bag.

This man comes right up to stand RIGHT next to me, leans RIGHT over my bag of items I've rung up, and reaches to get a bag from the the rack behind my bag of stuff I've rung up. And he's holding an OPEN can of Coca Cola in one hand and reaches both hands to the bags, tipping his cola onto my bagging station!!

I'm like "Woah woah!" And the store assistant is rushing over saying "Those are 5p!!" because apparently he was being checked through by her at the manned station but is now trying to STEAL a bag for his stuff without paying the 5p.

And he pulls away from the bags and tips MORE of his cola on my bagging station and it splashes inside my bag and onto my items I've just rung up, leaving brown globules of cola all over my stuff.

I protest at the guy and he just grins and goes "sorry!" still waving the open can around near me, with it sloshing out. And still standing right next to me.

FFS get away from my immediate vicinity and MY ITEMS while I'm ringing my things through! Where is people's plains, simple, basic etiquette these days? Seriously where?

Nobody cares about giving anyone even a small bubble of personal space, even when they are at a checkout register/station.

I had to wipe everything down -- and this is cola he was drinking from, therefore saliva backwash cola!

And when I got home I had to wash everything.

Thank god my bag-for-life is a plastic one and not one of those nice hessian or linen ones that would have stained. And thank god I was buying offices supplies made of plastic, wipe-able stuff.

But still what a damn nerve. I'm sick of people.

That's the thing -- I actually do like stores and I like to go to them and buy my things. But the only thing I don't like about stores and going shopping is .......people.

I doubt grocery stores will disappear in our life times. I think too many people simply prefer to pick their own food, particularly fresh greens and things like that.
But I think it's likely that we will indeed see a decline in other stores, which is fine by me to be honest, I far prefer online shopping for most things.

I quite like looking around stores, provided that they aren't too busy and I'm not being pestered by shop assistants. I wouldn't miss W.H. Smith and Boots though.

Oh, I have this same exact fear. With everyone becoming more and more reliant on online shopping, it seems possible to me that supermarkets and specialty stores such as IKEA and Best Buy could cease to exist physically. I also fear that movie theaters and movie rental shops will stop existing, as everyone is becoming more comfortable with simply streaming and torrenting all the films they want to watch.
It probably won't ever happen, though.

Re: I hope stores don't go away.
Guess it is also true that stores hope I don't go away.

I'm in a major, major city, yet there are now no longer ANY movie rental stores within miles of me in my part of the city, these days. I would have to travel several miles into another borough of my city to find one.

The last one nearest me closed a few years ago -- that type of store really is falling by the wayside because of streaming rentals.

I feel like "rude deserves rude."

First off, he shouldn't have been leaning over MY station grabbing a bag for free while tipping cola over my stuff. That assholey behavior doesn't earn him me trying to be nice about things.

It's all very nice to be "nice" but sometimes it's just no longer appropriate.

I spend most of my younger years bending over backward to never be horrible to anyone even if they were horrible to me, or did something and didn't care or laughed about it like this guy.

In those younger years of my life I used to be all smiley and meek and no problem and everything's okay ---- until I realized that I was building up anger of YEARS like a giant ball of chewing gum that was just growing and growing.

It took deaths and divorce and therapy for me to get in touch with how sometimes in life something is NOT OKAY.

And when something is not okay, it IS okay to lose your s**t if you want to.

I think we should give "nice" energy to those people or situations were the person is as freaked out as we are and very apologetic.

But when someone is being an ass an laughing about it, and then does it again, I have no problem in telling that person WHAT THE f**k?

That doesn't make you a horrible person, that just makes you real and human. I'd rather be real and human than the way I used to be, swallowing every bit of anger just to be "nice" but destroying myself inside.

This guy splashed staining cola all over the stuff I was buying and just gave a goofy grin, a meaningless "haha sorry" and a laugh.

If it had been someone who kept a straight face and actually apologized sincerely and tried to help me clean it up, I would have been less furious. But it wasn't so that guy gets my "gloves off" reaction.

There are no movie rental stores around in my area anymore. We just have Redbox kiosks over here now.