Does your grocery store do this?

[lifesaver]

(Obviously I cant sleep if I am up at this time typing about grocery stores).

I just got back from our HEB (l texas and mexico grocery chain). I dig HEB; great prices, good quality on store brands, discounts on gas at the store gas station ( $0.25 off for buying a certain brand of TP) and tuition reimbursement for student employes.

Anyway,they just redid and expanded the store by my house, tore it down and doubled the size (its also 24 hours), and they added USCAN checkouts. I FUC**NG LOVE IT. First time I used it tonight. You go to the station, scan your own stuff, select produce by photo on the video touch screen (if any), bag it as you go, select payment form on the screen, (check, credit card, cash), insert cash into the bill acceptor (like a vending machine) and out comes your change and reciept. You are done and out the door. You never have to deal with a checker EVER. So you dont have to bitch about how slow they are going. if its not going fast enough, its your fault. If I am in a particularly bad mood, I enjoy the fact that my ENTIRE shopping experience can be done without ANY human interaction. TOO COOL. (Of course they have regular check outs too, and for you cheaters out there they have an auditor who randomly stops customers and compares their purchases with items in their bags.)

Aint technology GRAND?

[FuturePhD]

The first time I've seen USCAN was when I lived in New Orleans about 2 years ago. Now, in TN, we have it everywhere, at all the major grocery stores. The way they check for dishonesty here is that everything that you scan has a weight, you lay it on a platform as you're bagging it, and if the weight doesn't match up, it tells you to scan it again. For instance if you have two boxes of cereal and you scan only one, and put both of them in your bag, it'll detect that you have more than one box. Hey, I am a broke college student, you know I had to at least TRY. The only thing I don't like about it is the little old people who take an hour and a half to scan a pint of milk and a loaf of bread because they don't understand how to use the machine, and then some sales associate has to come and do it for them, I'm like, what's the point in that? Just get in the regular friggin line.

[aggieAXO]

OMG, Lifesaver, my mother LOOOOOOVES HEB. Everytime she comes up it is HEB this and HEB that (I use Randalls here in Austin-she HATES randalls). She was telling me about the new expansion (she lives near UTSA) and was soooo excited. I have nothing against HEB although I am not fond of their Hill Country Fair products-that is all she will buy. Randalls is closer to my house but everytime she comes up she goes grocery shopping for me (I am spoiled), she will travel to the ends of the earth to go to HEB-she is obsessed-it is not healthy.

PS I can't sleep either

Originally posted by lifesaver
(Obviously I cant sleep if I am up at this time typing about grocery stores).

I just got back from our HEB (l texas and mexico grocery chain). I dig HEB; great prices, good quality on store brands, discounts on gas at the store gas station ( $0.25 off for buying a certain brand of TP) and tuition reimbursement for student employes.

Anyway,they just redid and expanded the store by my house, tore it down and doubled the size (its also 24 hours), and they added USCAN checkouts. I FUC**NG LOVE IT. First time I used it tonight. You go to the station, scan your own stuff, select produce by photo on the video touch screen (if any), bag it as you go, select payment form on the screen, (check, credit card, cash), insert cash into the bill acceptor (like a vending machine) and out comes your change and reciept. You are done and out the door. You never have to deal with a checker EVER. So you dont have to bitch about how slow they are going. if its not going fast enough, its your fault. If I am in a particularly bad mood, I enjoy the fact that my ENTIRE shopping experience can be done without ANY human interaction. TOO COOL. (Of course they have regular check outs too, and for you cheaters out there they have an auditor who randomly stops customers and compares their purchases with items in their bags.)

Aint technology GRAND?

[juniorgrrl]

They put self-checkouts in the Winn Dixie near my house a year or two ago. I loved them, but 99% of the general populous is too stupid to use them

There are 2 at the WD near LSU but they're NEVER EVER open.

Marketing research shows that it actually takes LONGER for people to scan themselves, but because they are doing it themself, they percieve it as faster. Pretty interesting.

[Sue_XO]

Stop and Shop here in Connecticut has it- I love it too!!! But they just made it so you can only do 12 items or less.

[AlphaGam1019]

Self-Checkouts are great- I only have a few blahs about it.

Occationally, something in the system screws up so you actually have to WAIT for a warm bodied employee to come and FIX your problem (system will say "Please wait for assistance" or something similar)

The system will say "please remove item from bag" or something equally annoying EVEN if you scanned the item :P

And of course, there are people in front of you who are newbies that don't know how to work the self check out.

[dzrose93]

We've had the self-checkout lanes for a while here in Atlanta and I like them to a certain extent. However, it sucks when you're trying to get out of the store quickly and you have a bottle of wine or a 12-pack of beer to deal with.

You're in a hurry and the regular cashier lines are long so you go to the self-checkout aisle, but you still have to drag out your ID and walk it over to the cashier supervising the SC line. It's been my experience that most of these people are hanging out with their buddies 99.9% of the time, so you have to stand there for five minutes waiting to show your ID until Suzy gets finished telling Janey how much she's in love with the new bag boy.

Another problem with the SC is when the items don't want to scan for one reason or another, or you have a few large items that just won't fit onto the bagging table. If you move them off the table, you screw up the whole process because you've upset the little scale that's built into the machine, and then you have to go interrupt Janey again to get her to fix the problem.

As long as I'm buying small, non-alcoholic items, though, the system works great, and I move in and out of the store easily and quickly.

[valkyrie]

I don't get it. I haven't seen any self-checkouts around here, but I wouldn't use it anyway. Are they going to pay me for doing the work, or give me a discount on what I'm buying? If not, I don't want to be bothered with it. When I go to the store, they employees are usually courteous, and, because they have experience, they are much more efficient than I would be. I also don't want to see people losing jobs, and I'm sure that the higher-ups would love to save money by firing the employees while not passing the savings along to the customers. I think it's a bad deal.

[AXO Alum]

I have a Master's degree in Self-Checkout (which, by the way falls somewhere under that ubiquitous Business Degree )

I love some self-checkout -- you get in, and out, and on your way with no muss-no fuss -- at least most of the time. I, of course follow all the rules though...for those of you that are novices, please observe the following rules:

1 - DON'T start the process (ie, touching the screen and stuff) until you are ready to scan -- this means, have your annoying little savings card out and ready.

2 - Be familiar with your items -- don't spend 1/2 hour searching the box for the bar code. If its produce, know what the heck you bought so you don't ask the impatient lady behind you (who happens to be me a lot of the time) -- what is this? I think its parsley, but I don't remember!

3 - Scan it and bag it. Don't stand around waiting for the screen to process it so you can look at it and say "Man, that's perty cool"

4 - If you do have a problem, and the supervisor isn't there, just start punching buttons -- these things have fabulous alarm noises!

5 - Observe the rules of 20 items or less. Don't come in there with your shopping cart more packed than Willie the homeless man on 9th street. That little weigh station thingy will only hold so much.

Of course the supervisors can sometimes be real jerks. Once I had my hand resting on the scale thing -- and I didn't even have anything to weigh -- geez -- you would have thought that I was trying to scan somebody's baby or something! (By the way....babies do not scan well -- I prefer to try to scan stuff I bought from other stores, but keep in my purse for just such instances!)

[Steeltrap]

We have USCAN in Ralphs markets here in LoCal (Orange County/San Diego), but I don't use them terribly often. I still actually prefer to deal with a human being.

[curiouss]

Hey you underagers!

We have self checkouts in my area too, since last summer. It just occured to me last night, that checkers aren't always watching what you're doing.
Get your partner in crime to distract a checker, while you swipe the alcohol, or vice versa.

[dzrose93]

Originally posted by valkyrie
I don't get it. I haven't seen any self-checkouts around here, but I wouldn't use it anyway. Are they going to pay me for doing the work, or give me a discount on what I'm buying? If not, I don't want to be bothered with it. When I go to the store, they employees are usually courteous, and, because they have experience, they are much more efficient than I would be. I also don't want to see people losing jobs, and I'm sure that the higher-ups would love to save money by firing the employees while not passing the savings along to the customers. I think it's a bad deal.

You make some very good points, valkyrie. My mom feels the exact same way. She'd rather stand in a 20 minute line in a traditional cashier aisle with one apple than use the self-checkout lanes!

[valkyrie]

Thanks, dzrose93! Besides, standing in line gives me the chance to read the magazines that I'm never going to buy, like Seventeen.

[juniorgrrl]

The self checkout at the Winn Dixie near my house didn't even card for alcohol. Before they put in the auto pay system, you would have to take your reciept to the self-pay cashier. Well, all it would do is print CHECK ID on the reciept. HA! Like they ever did that. Too bad I didn't figure that out until I was 21

[aephi alum]

The local Kmart had a self-checkout line last time I was there. I refused to use it. (a) it puts someone out of a job, and (b) they don't give the customer a discount or any other incentive. Not so nice....

Too bad they didn't have self-checkout in Massachusetts