I went to self checkout for a reason!

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I remember when self checkout became a thing. Must have been 10 years ago give or take. I loved it, and still do. The one thing that I hate though is when some friendly, well intentioned cashier overseeing the checkouts comes over and strikes up a conversation. I am basically doing their job for them so I don't have to talk to them, yet they are here anyways, blabbing. Or I look funny, so now they are obviously looking into my cart and person to see if I'm a thief. Then the door greeter says bye. Last night I was at Wal-Mart and I just didn't have it in me to even look at these people. Yes, I know it's rude. But leave me alone. You're rude for bothering me! I suppose this is a bit of a rant. But can anyone relate? Maybe I should tell the cashier at my regular store that I have autism and don't want to talk. I don't necessarily want to be perceived as an a**hole, but I didn't go to the store to talk either. I needed food, or whatever!

I don't use them for a couple of reasons. The first being that I don't know how to use them and it takes me a long time and a large effort to do new stuff. It took me a few years before I was able to use "Chip & Pin" cards and instead used a cashpoint to withdraw money before entering the shop. The second is that I feel I'm helping keep people in employment.

I do get what you mean though. I like a short, polite conversation with the cashier but sometimes they can be very over-familiar and it seems to be that young men are the worst for this. The other day, the young male cashier was getting all chatty and using slang, like I was his friend or something. I had real trouble understanding what he was talking about several times. For instance, he said something like "Are you looking forward to the damage?". I looked at him quizzically and he just repeated himself. I asked what he was talking about and apparently he was asking if I was looking forward to paying for my goods! Why the hell would he ask that and why use those words!

Another irritant is when they ask scripted questions like "Do you need some bags" when they can see I have several bags. I know they have to ask these stupid questions, but it's still annoying. I love to pack quickly enough so that I can hand them my points-card/club-card before they can ask for it

Things are different in the UK, cashiers don't really come up to you and start a conversation, unless you know one. They might just say hello if they are the friendly type.

I try to avoid self-service machines if the supermarket is too crowded, because I feel I have to hurry and that people are looking at me. I never get anything done properly if I feel there are people watching me or if I feel rushed.

I have a weird electromagnetism such that machines will sometimes break down
or act weirdly in my presence.
Therefore, I have never used the self-checkout in my life.
I wouldn't want anyone to be mad at me if something happens to the machine.

Whenever possible, I always choose self-checkout. In my experience, I've only ever had to talk to someone when something won't scan, or I've accidentally scanned something twice. Every time this has happened, I've had a pleasant—albeit not exactly fun—exchange with the person.

What I don't like is when these people just stare into your face, and won't look away. I had that happen to me once and it made me uncomfortable to the point where I had difficulty bagging my groceries. Couldn't help but wonder if the cashier thought I looked like the type to steal. Probably that's just paranoid thinking though as I have a 'baby face' and look quite innocent, something which is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing in that it makes me appear to not be the type to do 'bad' things, allowing me to quite easily gain people's trust; a curse in that it doesn't make me look very intimidating, making me easy prey.

Cashiers and "greeters" are trained to say "hi/have a nice day" and ask "how are you?". If they don't, then they get b1tched at by their supervisor for not being friendly enough and possibly fired.

I love self checkouts too and don't like it when they're not avaliable (in this day and age too...) or members only (here's looking at you, Waitrose...). I get embarrassed buying certain products, even benign ones, in the presence of a cashier.

It has been proven that greeters at store entrances reduce theft.

The idea is if people have made a connection with that person and know they acknowledged their presence (and this is why they are trained to make eye contact), people are less likely to steal.

This is the same reason they often have in-store advertising featuring people staring out at you.

It's the feeling of being watched that makes you more likely to behave.

^^Ha! I haven't thought about this in forever. When I worked at a grocery store we were required to greet people by name if possible. The cashiers would just read it off the person's card or check. I would creep people out because once I heard a person's name I would never forget it. I would greet them a year later in the parking lot and scare the sh!T out of them.

I love self-checkout. You'd be amazed how much discomfort this takes off me. For some reason, the stupid pointless scripted encounters at checkouts just make me weird out.
Only time it freaked me out was when overzealous checkout clerk crept up behind me and snagged the basket away the moment I had taken the last item out. I don't like people coming too close, especially if I wasn't expecting it. I usually take the basket and place it back on the stack at the door - wasn't like I was going to leave it there.
I don't like store greeters, either. If I see one ahead, and others are entering also, I will time it so we all enter in a group, and I am furthest away from said greeter, so I don't get "hello, how are you?"
Yar. I have increasing difficulty with human environments.

I certainly prefer the self check outs, one less required interaction.

Ahhh!
This thread completely jinxed me. Normally have no problems with self-checkout, then today I basically had this scenario :

It literally said "please place item in bagging area" when there was a 25L bag of soil sitting in the "bagging area."
I tried to salvage it before anyone noticed but a staff guy with a tag had to come and swipe at it. Tempting fate I tried again - same thing. And it was something more embarrassing, of course, than a bag of soil.