Do you prefer to use self checkout?

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If I wanted to hand over my hard-earned wages to a cold and impersonal machine, I would contact a governmental bureaucrat.

As it is, I deal deal direct with people, or ask my wife to order something on-line.

I prefer cashiers, especially the young good looking ones. Over here Safeway has the best looking workers. Of course they also have the highest prices. I would use self checkout if I only got a couple items. Unfortunately here's always a line up at them. Seems most people here must be introverts.

I don't really have any problems with using the machines, and the only times I have to interact with the attendant is if I'm buying alcohol or some other restricted item, and usually they just look at my I.D. and let me continue checking out without a word. I don't feel bad for using self checkouts either since I have a reason (intense social anxiety) to avoid interacting with cashiers.

Absolutely, at the very least no one's entitled to shame you and having a few available as an option isn't a bad thing, it's only really an issue when they entirely replace cashiers and if they do that's not the fault of people who like them, that's the fault of the company that made the decision.

Am not THAT nonsocial. Use self checkout when I have like five or fewer things, and regular check out with more things. What I imagine everyone does.

And because Ive worked in retail AND in inventory and know what bar codes are.

I have social anxiety / mutism / RBF, but I go to cashiers.
I say hello and thank you, but that's about it.
I'm sure they think I'm weird or cold, but at this point of my life I don't care.

At my local supermarket there's this cashier that I avoid because she seems very abrupt and rude. The last time I went to her till and she asked me if I have a clubcard, I just said that I do and rummaged in my purse, and she yelled "pardon?! !" at me like I had said something rude or bad. I looked up at her, taken aback by her abruptness, and said, "I said I do" and handed her the clubcard. I felt embarrassed because the people in the queue might have actually thought I had said something nasty or rude or something judging by the tone she'd used, when I hadn't. I bet she's a b***h to have as a co-worker.

Self-checkout all the way. I'll even take a full cart thru. There really isn't a good reason for me to not prefer them. Cashiers require small talk, & they don't scan products that much faster than I can myself. Frequently there aren't bag packers anymore, so I'm bagging my own groceries anyway. (And when there are bag packers, they don't seem to understand "paper bags" & aren't well trained in how to pack anyway. It's much less frustrating to avoid them.)

Things I can't change about the checkout process: other people's lack of readiness to actually checkout. I walk up with payment method & store card (or code) ready. Buying alcohol? ID is out & ready. When I used to write checks, I'd write the check in line & only need to add the numbers at the register. I don't have the patience to deal with fumblers.

The worst part of u-scans is that some stores limit the number of items one should put thru them, but there isn't any sign saying there's a limit. So at payment, the machines require an employee to come bypass it.

Oh! Another good point: self-checkouts tend to not have belts where god-knows-what has left a puddle. I don't want my groceries or purchases is someone else's meat juice because they can't be arsed to notice or care.

I do. Less small talk to deal with.

I prefer the machines. The ones I use seem less glitchier now.

I do have a problem with the small amount of time it gives me to put the thing in the bag before it starts telling me off.
I also have a problem with interfaces these days, so that if I go to a supermarket I seldom frequent I will probably get confused by their different machine and stand there scratching my head while trying not to lose my cool with it.

frequently the self checkouts require employee intervention.

last week, i was trying to purchase a couple items from a store i frequently frequent. three times the cashier had to come over.

Yes. I am usually shopping after work and by that time my tolerance for interacting appropriately has long since passed.

There are some very annoying people who use self checkouts sometimes. Last time I went to Walmart and grabbed a loaf of bread. A dude got a whole cart full of stuff, including very heavy things like several cases of bottled water. He didn't bother to lift anything up to scan them, just walked to the self checkout machine and pushed the call button. A clerk came and hand scanned everything in his cart. In the mean time three other people pushed the call button and were waiting for assistance. I don't think anyone with more than 30 items should use the self checkout.

Depends on the circumstances.

Politically I'd prefer not to use the machines - don't want the supermarket owners to sack the cashiers.

I can feel rushed by the cashiers, but that doesn't scare me much. They send my groceries down the conveyor belt a little faster than I can put them into my bag, they seem quite understanding when it takes me a little while to break away from that to deal with paying, but I still feel a tad rushed.

My usual supermarket has the machines too close together so it can be pretty awkward and uncomfortable unless there aren't many customers. I don't like being forced to be that close to strangers, especially since the pandemic started.

If I have to pay cash then I'm slow to count out the right value of coins, so I usually just pay in notes and after a few shopping trips I've accumulated a lot of loose change. So these days I nearly always use a debit card. I've found the machines a great help for getting rid of the mountain of coins. They accept a lot more of them than the "legal tender" limits, though it's a bit of a brainer trying to predict the total cost of the shopping and which coins to put in the slot for the best result, and I feel slightly anxious in case an assistant sees me and stops me doing it. The supermarket has a machine that will exchange notes for coins but there's a charge for using it, so my instinct is to avoid the charge by using the checkout machine instead.

Checkout machines used to be worse than they are now. They used to keep saying "unexpected item in bagging area" when there was nothing wrong. They used to reject some of the coins I put into them. They still say "do you wish to continue?" if you delay your activity for a few seconds. They used to ask "do you have a loyalty card?" - so did the cashiers, who would also then say "would you like one?" That always annoyed me, but they've toned it down a bit and I'm more used to it so it doesn't make me angry any more.

Apart from the aforementioned specifics, I've no big problem dealing with the cashiers, and it's a little bit of "social interaction" for me, which can be quite nice when I've been alone for a long time. I used to get annoyed when they first started making the cashiers greet the customers and smile etc., because it looked like what it was - false and contrived - but these days the dishonesty is less apparent, so maybe they've trained them better and they sound more like they mean it. Customers who do their transactions without saying so much as "thank you" to the cashier have always struck me as rude. If I had to serve the public I'd feel pretty miserable if I never got a friendly word of appreciation from any of them.

I often prefer interacting with robots to interacting with people, but it depends on the robot and the person. Back in the days when you had to ask the shopkeeper for the item you wanted, they'd sometimes say they didn't have it, then they'd ask what I wanted it for, and often I'd want it for some eccentric project or other, so I'd feel embarrassed about trying to explain. It was a particular problem when the shopkeeper was an expert because the uses to which I put things are often unconventional and the expert would think I didn't know what I was doing. So robots and self-service were a welcome alternative, as long as the robot was programmed right. But robots aren't always programmed right, and they get rigid and draconian even though they're in the wrong.

The concept of self-checkout, sure. The reality, as implemented locally by supermarkets which try to shove as many customers as possible onto them (and only credit-card-only payment) is somewhat different.

Taking some of the local examples:

- the non-conveyorbelt self-checkouts are crammed shoulder to shoulder. There's no room for a trolley. The limited number which take cash tend to be switched off or 'closed for repair' a large proportion of the time, as part of the make-everyone-use-cards-so-their-purchases-can-be-tracked policies. The recorded voices are annoying. The response times on the screens are slow. You can't skip ahead the way you can with a cashier. If something goes wrong with the transaction you don't have someone immediately there to fix it. If the machine takes your money and doesn't register it, or registers it wrong, you'll have a hell of a time trying to prove it or getting it back.

For the conveyor-belt options - you can't leave large items in the trolley and have the cashier punch them in for you. Like the one-person checkouts, the ones which can take cash are rare, when there's absolutely no reason they couldn't all be cash-capable. And similarly, the interfaces are slow and clunky and irritating and if anything goes wrong there's no cashier there to apply common sense.

Plus, at least on the installations I've seen, you're recorded on camera at the auto-checkouts, without asking for permission. And national local retail chains have already been probed due to recording customer biometrics and using face recognition without warning or permission.

Eh, personally I don't have much of an issue going to an actual cashier, I think I've been able to perform well in public in that regard. I just begin to worry about potentially having an awkward situation of I forget something or do something in a strange way, or that I wish that I can let everyone else go ahead of me so that I don't feel like I'm taking too long and inconveniencing their busy day.

Interacting with the Cashier by itself isn't a biggie to me, and just goes like this:

*puts stuff on counter/conveyor belt, and internally arguing in my mind between getting or not getting candy or some raspberry tea because #TreatYoSelf or saving money*

Cashier: "Hi, did you find everything you were looking for today?"

Me: Yup.

Cashier: "Cash or Card?"

*either shove my hand in my wallet for the right bills and count the cash to myself if I haven't already pulled out the assumed amount by then and grab a handful of coins from my pocket to count out if necessary, or opt for card with potentially pulling out my library card on accident because I wasn't paying my full attention*

Cashier: "Do you want a bag?"

*remembers that it's $0.10 for each bags because the California Govt's big greedy*

Me: "No thank you."

*Awkwardly try to find a way to carry everything in my hands, under my chin, between my arm and torso, etc. if I don't have a cart, and regret my decision*

Me: "Thank you, have a good day!"

*walk to the car and place everything on the hood and roof to open the door, forgetting that I locked it on my way in (Trying to train myself out of locking them in the car or leaving the car unlocked.) Shove my hand in my pocket to fish out my keys and have to also take out my wallet, pocket knife, receipt etc. because the key-ring got tangled with everything, and then finally unlock the car and leave.*