Self Scan at grocery stores

[johnhughthom]

Here in Belfast we have segregated scanners. The left hand side is for the prods, a band walks in front of you as you come toward it and there is an arcade game beside it where you can stop Catholic children walking to school. The right hand side is for Catholics, and it doesn't actually scan until you spend 5 minutes complaining about centuries of oppression. The middle aisle is for foreigners and takes you to a taxi rank so you can head to the airport.

[Strike For The South]

Self scanners will be gone in 10 years. Much more trouble than they are worth

/grocery nerd

- What supermarkets have these self-scanning things? Any in the South?

Most larger chains do, and they are nationwide

- If you forget to pay something, is there an alarm that goes off? Alarm for cheap goods also, or just expensive high-risk goods?

There is a centeral computer with an employee there which shows him/her all the information. The employee has all of the self scans in front of there person to combat theft

- If you leg it, will you make it to the door before security does?

Depends on the layout. Most likely not as any store worth a damn has its doors right behind the checkout.

[Major Robert Dump]

Yes, they have scales. The weight of total bagged items has to match the weight of scanned stuff. It tells you when to remove a bag.

Albertsons/homeland is getting rid of them, they say to promote more customer-employee interaction, but we all know the real reason is because people cannot figure them out and they are easy to abuse. Basically, if you have any items that require weighing like produce or requires an ID like booze, the whole process becomes a time sink. People who go through those things to buy beer and produce are holding the rest of us up.

[naut]

Self-scanning = Unexpected item in loading zone = *RAGE*

[TheLastDays]

None of the stores in our country have them, I'd like to experience these things firsthand. It always amuses me to see people who try to figure out devices like this

[Major Robert Dump]

Here in Belfast we have segregated scanners. The left hand side is for the prods, a band walks in front of you as you come toward it and there is an arcade game beside it where you can stop Catholic children walking to school. The right hand side is for Catholics, and it doesn't actually scan until you spend 5 minutes complaining about centuries of oppression. The middle aisle is for foreigners and takes you to a taxi rank so you can head to the airport.

thank you for this, BTW

[drone]

The ones at my nearest grocery store work pretty well. You scan the item and place it on a conveyor belt, the belt moves the item through a scale, then to the bagging area. The usual problems are (as always) produce and booze. And sometimes idiots put round things on the belt wrong and it just rolls and rolls and never gets to the scale. Always good for a laugh. A few years back Home Depot put in some self-checkout aisles. The first system was a disaster, the scales never worked right. They quickly jettisoned those and got a better system in place. If you don't have anything weird they work pretty well, but if you are buying things like loose hardware, lumber, and garden wares just head for the manned aisles.

Which is the main issue. If you are just getting some milk, eggs, and bread, head for the self-scan. If you are purchasing the ingredients for the entire Feast of San Gennaro, get the pro to check out your stuff.

[Reenk Roink]

From what I've seen, the customers at home improvement shops like Lowe's are much more intelligent about what they bring to the self scan items. I was bracing myself for some guy to try and scan a commode or dishwasher, but they keep it to spray paint and do it quickly.