Should there be an IQ requirement for self scan registers?

[QueBert]

LOL....that's some funny shit right there.

According to what I read a few months ago Target employs about 400k people, where Walmart employs over 1.5 million. Which company do you think is better for the US economy?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I have noticed that Walmart self serve registers generally suck. I notice what the OP stated many times. Strangely enough, the ones at Kroger tend to be just fine (even the stores with 8 or more). I tend to think it's the fact that Kroger has an employee with a wireless module that monitors the registers traveling among the registers resetting errors and helping out far more than the Walmart employees do.

I was at a Kroger that had no restrictions on the number of items you could scan. There were 2 ladies with carts full of stuff. Each one would pick an item up, look it over for 10 seconds or so, and then scan it. It was incredibly irritating and it was probably going to take each of them 10 to 15 minutes to scan their goods. I wanted to shoot myself.

 

[Engineer]

According to what I read a few months ago Target employs about 400k people, where Walmart employs over 1.5 million. Which company do you think is better for the US economy?

If you buy less from Target and more from Walmart, Target will simply lay off employees and Walmart will hire more (or install more self service checkouts in effect, laying off people).

30 years ago, GM was the biggest employer in the US with over 500,000 people making stuff. Now, it's Walmart with 1.4 million (1 million in the US) people selling cheap, Chinese made stuff.

There will be a reason that the current generation will be the first in a century in the US to live a lower standard of living than their parents. Just remember, the people laid off from making stuff in the US, to give you a lower price from those made in China, aren't making their former amounts of money. Therefore, they cannot buy the shit you sell or make. There is a reason that incomes have not risen in the last decade (after inflation). Global wage arbitrage FTMFL.

 

[Exterous]

I find the scanners to be amusing at Home Depot. 7pm, and the *ONLY* registers open are the self scan registers, and I'll have something like 2 pieces of plywood, a bunch of 2x4's, and assorted other items. Try waving a 4x8 sheet of plywood above the scanner so it gets the UPC. Then, of course, "please place item on stand" Sure, I'll be happy to. Ka-chunk.

Funny you should mention HD. I was there today and, for some reason, the gang boxes I was trying to stack on the stand kept resulting in a 'Remove unknown items' message. I finally gave up and started stacking everything on the ground.

 

[Engineer]

I was at a Kroger that had no restrictions on the number of items you could scan. There were 2 ladies with carts full of stuff. Each one would pick an item up, look it over for 10 seconds or so, and then scan it. It was incredibly irritating and it was probably going to take each of them 10 to 15 minutes to scan their goods. I wanted to shoot myself.

Generally, Kroger has both types of self checkouts. 15 item limits for the smaller ones and no limit on the larger lanes (has a much larger "Merry -go - round" with about 8 containers of bags and a much larger scale. Not sure if other Kroger stores have both or not.

 

[QueBert]

If you buy less from Target and more from Walmart, Target will simply lay off employees and Walmart will hire more (or install more self service checkouts in effect, laying off people).

30 years ago, GM was the biggest employer in the US with over 500,000 people making stuff. Now, it's Walmart with 1.4 million (1 million in the US) people selling cheap, Chinese made stuff.

There will be a reason that the current generation will be the first in a century in the US to live a lower standard of living than their parents. Just remember, the people laid off from making stuff in the US, to give you a lower price from those made in China, aren't making their former amounts of money. Therefore, they cannot buy the shit you sell or make. There is a reason that incomes have not risen in the last decade (after inflation). Global wage arbitrage FTMFL.

And what's this high quality American made stuff that Target sells? Oh that's right they don't. I bought a little sock dresser at target last year and it was... made in China. Target might have higher quality stuff, but it costs more and everything I've seen there was made in China.

 

[Engineer]

And what's this high quality American made stuff that Target sells? Oh that's right they don't. I bought a little sock dresser at target last year and it was... made in China. Target might have higher quality stuff, but it costs more and everything I've seen there was made in China.

I didn't say that Target was any better. I just stated that Walmart is no better for the economy than Target, that is all. You were the one that said that.

 

[ShawnD1]

There will be a reason that the current generation will be the first in a century in the US to live a lower standard of living than their parents. Just remember, the people laid off from making stuff in the US, to give you a lower price from those made in China, aren't making their former amounts of money. Therefore, they cannot buy the shit you sell or make. There is a reason that incomes have not risen in the last decade (after inflation). Global wage arbitrage FTMFL.

Do you remember what things were like 20-30 years ago? Shit was unbelievably expensive, and it gets worse as you go farther back. Much of our standard of living is a direct result of having cheap goods.

Generally, Kroger has both types of self checkouts. 15 item limits for the smaller ones and no limit on the larger lanes (has a much larger "Merry -go - round" with about 8 containers of bags and a much larger scale.

I think the scale is the only limiting factor. Self checkout things always seem to fuck up if I put 4 gallons of milk in the bag area.

 

[Engineer]

Do you remember what things were like 20-30 years ago? Shit was unbelievably expensive, and it gets worse as you go farther back. Much of our standard of living is a direct result of having cheap goods.



I think the scale is the only limiting factor. Self checkout things always seem to fuck up if I put 4 gallons of milk in the bag area.

I have placed up to 10 cartons of diet soda (not to mention a few two liter bottles) on the scales and nothing bad happens. I wonder if people realize that there are two scales for the larger order areas. The one where the bags are and the flat one for items like gallons of milk, etc.



I don't remember things being more expensive 20-30 years ago. We don't have many of the things we have today so it's hard to compare. However, it's a statistical fact that wages have been nearly flat for 30 years (and are negative for the last 10) after inflation. That's not by accident.


By the way, I'm backing away from this argument and want to apologize to the OP for getting into it in the first place....shouldn't have strayed from the self checkout theme of this thread. My apologies.

 

[ShawnD1]

I have placed up to 10 cartons of diet soda (not to mention a few two liter bottles) on the scales and nothing bad happens. I wonder if people realize that there are two scales for the larger order areas. The one where the bags are and the flat one for items like gallons of milk, etc.

The checkout things near me have a scale for items that are charged per weight and a scale in the bag area. I've never had a problem with the scale used for vegetables, but the scale under the bag area seems to hate me.

I don't remember things being more expensive 20-30 years ago.

A lot of things were the same price they are now, but that was back when wages were a lot lower. I pay $25 for jeans today, but that's what they cost 15 years ago. Everything technology related is a lot cheaper. Music on vinyl records was crazy expensive.

 

[Engineer]

The checkout things near me have a scale for items that are charged per weight and a scale in the bag area. I've never had a problem with the scale used for vegetables, but the scale under the bag area seems to hate me.


.

I wasn't even talking about the small scale at the scanner. There are scales under the bagging merry-go-round and then there is a large, flat scale for the items that don't fit there nicely or that you cannot bag at all (although now there's the option to not bag at all by simply touching the "don't bag this item" at the checkout. I didn't even know that they were there until the checkout attendant showed them to me and what they were for.

By the way, I was at Meijer a few months ago and noticed that they had a self checkout with a belt. You checked yourself out as a floating bagger went around bagging for the self checkout lanes. That was a little different that I've seen before. Saw the same thing at Albertson's in Idaho.

 

[McWatt]

Smart people don't give a shit about how the store looks or who's in it shopping. I go to Walmart and I save a ton of money over any other store. Not all people who shop there are strsight out of the trailer park Jr High drop outs. Some of us shop at the cheapest store. I like to put money in the bank, not give it away to a company.

Saving money is something smart people do right? I guess shopping at Target to buy the exact same shit and paying up to 2 times as much overall would somehow make me smarter than shopping at Walmart. Even though I'm dropping way more cash in the process.

Is that how it works??

It's only the cheapest store in the short term. When you spend a dollar in Walmart, almost all of it goes directly to China. The money that goes to China is out of your ecosystem forever. When you go anywhere else, less of your money goes to China, meaning more of it can cycle through the economy and go back to paying you.

Also, shopping at Walmart leads to higher taxes. Walmart's break rooms are filled with pamphlets telling employees how to sign up for federal aid programs for the impoverished. They keep the employee portion of their expenses down by counting on employees to get food stamps and welfare subsidized by you! Every dollar you spend at Walmart increases the amount of taxes you'll pay to support Walmart's employees through social programs.

Check out Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. I doubt they'll have it in the Walmart DVD section, but they have it at Netflix. You might be surprised at how directly you shoot yourself in the foot by saving some money in the very short term.

 

[ShawnD1]

Also, shopping at Walmart leads to higher taxes. Walmart's break rooms are filled with pamphlets telling employees how to sign up for federal aid programs for the impoverished. They keep the employee portion of their expenses down by counting on employees to get food stamps and welfare subsidized by you! Every dollar you spend at Walmart increases the amount of taxes you'll pay to support Walmart's employees through social programs.

Um do you realize this is a good thing? Walmart understands that it's a shitty employer. It's on the same level as McDonalds or working as a prostitute. They know this, so they try to help their employees understand what programs the government has to help people just like them. That's very nice of Walmart to go out of their way and do this.

 

[Engineer]

Um do you realize this is a good thing? Walmart understands that it's a shitty employer. It's on the same level as McDonalds or working as a prostitute. They know this, so they try to help their employees understand what programs the government has to help people just like them. That's very nice of Walmart to go out of their way and do this.

They don't do it to be nice, they do it in hopes that their employees will jump on the government tit and not ask for more (from Walmart) in terms of pay, benefits and insurances.

 

[ShawnD1]

They don't do it to be nice, they do it in hopes that their employees will jump on the government tit and not ask for more (from Walmart) in terms of pay, benefits and insurances.

McDonalds seem to do just fine without helping its employees in any way. Walmart goes above and beyond by helping people apply for medicaid, government assisted housing, and other shit that McDonalds doesn't help with. Given that so many other companies pay minimum wage and do not help with these things, I think it's fair to say Walmart does it just to be nice.

If people have a problem with Walmart's low wages, take it up with your local government and their minimum wage laws. This is not Walmart's problem.

The other alternative would be to get free healthcare for everyone so people stop demanding it from Walmart. In Canada, Walmart is a pretty decent place to work since everyone already has free medical care. With a hardcore Walmart discount on prescription drugs, that's a pretty awesome place to work if you're retired.

 

[NinjaTech]

The problem with the rant was the OP not using his IQ enough. Look at those two lines in that quote:
1) There was a cashier, open, doing nothing.
2) The conclusion is that Walmart needs to hire more cashiers.

No, no, no. The real answer for that situation was to use the open cashier. The "14 items" is just a courtesy sign. It isn't a law, it isn't even a Walmart policy. When all registers are full, it is courteous to let people with few items get out faster. But, when the employee is standing there doing nothing, you are supposed to go to it, no matter what your item count may be.

No, I'm pretty sure "14 items ONLY" is not just a suggestion. Also, I wouldn't want to be the asshat in front of the guy with only 5 items. Not to mention, the possibility of some redneck named Billy Joe with a 4th grade education saying, "Errr ...I'm perty sir you miscounted werd you like me to help yer count dem dare i'tems?".

 

[CZroe]

I could barely contain my laughter last year when I saw what appeared to be Mormons on a mission trip or something at a San Diego Walmart and the last one was attempting to scan a gallon of milk. The label is a little patch and is the only place the UPC could possibly be, but the guy obviously didn't know what a UPC was and seemed to think that it was supposed to "just know." He waved it over and then puzzlingly studied the label before pointing the bottom at it and trying again. He studied it some more and then tried to scan the cap. I wanted to help but I would not have been able to contain my laughter. This went on for more than two minutes before one of the others who had already figured it out came back to help him. I think he still doesn't know what a UPC is. Maybe he's from the future and he thinks it's all supposed to be done with RFID? I'm just assuming that they were Mormon because they were all dressed in dress clothes with name tags and the girl had a long skirt even though that isn't normally professional business attire these days. They probably came from one of those isolated compounds (SD has some big temple or something). They all looked to be around 22 years old.

 

[AMCRambler]

The thing I hate most about self checkout lines is the jerk behind you is always in some all-fired kind of hurry. It doesn't matter if I scan my items at the speed of light, pay and then dash to the bagging area to start bagging. They'll always start scanning and winging their shit down the belt. Then they stop and give you the stink eye like it's your fault you're still trying to bag the stuff.

They'll stare at you to make sure you don't steal their crap too. You know what? If you don't want your crap stolen wait till I'm friggin' done bagging.

 

[0roo0roo]

I find the scanners to be amusing at Home Depot. 7pm, and the *ONLY* registers open are the self scan registers, and I'll have something like 2 pieces of plywood, a bunch of 2x4's, and assorted other items. Try waving a 4x8 sheet of plywood above the scanner so it gets the UPC. Then, of course, "please place item on stand" Sure, I'll be happy to. Ka-chunk.

Really? i find them to work great when traffic is low, even if i have big items, normally theres a dude manning the stations and you just call him over, he'll scan the items in with his portable hand scanner and sent it right over to the self service register for checkout.

but yea, its sad watching how slow or clueless some people are..just staring blankly at the touch screen.

about as bad..old ladies at the atm.

 

[CZroe]

Really? i find them to work great when traffic is low, even if i have big items, normally theres a dude manning the stations and you just call him over, he'll scan the items in with his portable hand scanner and sent it right over to the self service register for checkout.

but yea, its sad watching how slow or clueless some people are..just staring blankly at the touch screen.

about as bad..old ladies at the atm.

Just try buying a bag of three nylon washers or a single bolt or wooden dowel rod. It's the small items that are trouble.

 

[NoCreativity]

They should have a training session 1-2 times per month. Only when you have completed it should you be able to use the express check out self scanners.

And a cell phone signal blocker. They need to block cell phone signals from the self check outs. Almost nothing worse than being held up by some stupid twat who is more focused on talking than checking out. Usually they end up scanning every side but the one with the bar code wondering why it's not working, and do it for every single item.

Kroger is best, followed by home depot. Meijer tends to have the most Walmart-like customers but have a ton of checkouts so it's usually not a problem.