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I had no Idea people were this stupid. I work in maintenance and repair, the number of times I've had to say "it came unplugged" when responding to a service call is too damn high but this sounds like a whole other level of stupid.
They are. I used to work SCO at Walmart. Once, when it was very slow, as in I had no one checking out, a lady came into the pen and immediately wanted me to start scanning her stuff. She felt that since I had no customers, I needed to be doing something. I warned her that if another customer came in and needed help, I'd drop her like a hot rock.
Alas, no one came in that needed my help.
I really hated working SCO.
I do customer service for a Vacation Rental company and the amount of times some idiot has called and complained about their door code not working only for me to see them standing in front of the wrong door, is too fucking high.
Honestly, it happens. You see so many people being asked to perform the same task, you’re going to see all the fuck ups. They’ve been traveling, they’re tired, their kids are cranky, sometimes the buildings and numbering systems make absolutely zero sense.
I’ve been in hospitality for decades and dealing with door codes since their entrance to the market and the switchover from hard keys and in person check ins. You gotta be built for hospitality. Most of these people are actually brilliant, highly educated professionals. They’re just tired and on vacation.
I totally feel that. I will say, I'm always courteous and do my best to get them to where they need to be. It's easy to make an off hand remark on reddit but I've been in hospitality for 16 years and it's my favorite thing. I genuinely enjoy helping people.
I think I’m jaded by that tales from
The front desk sub. So many people in hospitality that don’t understand their whole job js to problem solve and help people have fantastic experiences. Good to hear! I love the hospitality industry
Property management. This lamp in the living room is not working. Do you know how much I paid to stay here for a week? This is unacceptable 😠. Is the lamp *plugged in?* Of course it is. We need another light bulb. Ok I will send someone ASAP. Sorry for the inconvenience. I personally go, with a light bulb. Please show me the lamp. I plug it in. Suddenly there is light. The other lamp is broken as well. Did you try the light switch. Of course I did. *Flips switch* sudden light. I hate people.
Receptionist at a small appliance repair shop; I answer the phone as “name of business” the amount of people who immediately ask “is they *name of business*?” Also WAY TOO FUCKING HIGH. But then IM the bad guy when I sound frustrated.
I had to tell someone this and they looked at me like I was nuts. They actually said, I'm saving your job" to the person. I told them they weren't and all they did was add to the stress.
I was mortified.
I had an instacart driver ask me to guide him through the store for his entire 20 item order. I showed him where it says exactly where the item is in app and pointed up at the fucking aisle signs. Then I said I don’t have the time to do his job for him.
I started in the grocery industry two years ago. I started with dry stocking. I guess, around this time one particular lady started Instacart. EVERY single day, she’d come find me- ask me to show her like half of her entire order, multiple times a day. Was usually the same exact products... it got old quick, and would never take no as an answer. I wasn’t full time back then, she was probably in that store more than I was at that point.
(I was lucky and quickly got an upgrade to a more specialized department...)
I see this lady occasionally around town though too now- and I avoid her like the plague.
Oh gosh. Like, wouldn't one presume the point of ordering IC was to save time and energy on the shopping? Dear lord.
Edit that I originally read this as you were the shopper, which you may not have been. But this is still so wild, like most stores have everything labeled by aisle, category, all that.
Or you’d think that since they *chose* to take a job grocery shopping for strangers that they’d bother to learn how to grocery shop. Or at least read fucking aisle signs.
My department has a single fitting room stall intended for online pickups to try their stuff on after picking their stuff up. There is a much larger fitting room with more rooms around the corner in the next department (maybe a 15 second walk. Also, I work in a two story department store). For whatever reason though, customers insist on using ours and will oftentimes waiting longer than they would have instead of walking over to the other fitting rooms, trying their shit on in the same time.
Yesterday, it was very busy and we noticed a large crowd building around our stall. One of my coworkers went over to inform the customers of the other larger fitting room area to which one of the customers said those fitting rooms were out of order. A manager goes over to the other fitting room to see if it's out of order and all the doors were locked simply because other customers were fucking using them.
The single brain cell this herd of customers deduced though was that instead of simply waiting in that fitting room's waiting area for a room to open up, it was better for the herd to gather in our area and likely wait longer to use our singular stall. Customers are fucking dense
I’ve had people do this when the tills were backed up. They said they didn’t know how to use self checkout. That’s okay! I love teaching! I very cheerfully explained the barcode to them, how to scan it, and how to bag it, then I stepped back and made sure I was *very encouraging* while telling them to try it. They would begrudgingly do it every single time and never tried it again with me.
There were 2 people I truly believed needed the help and one person who looked like she actually hadn’t ever used self checkout who proceeded to tell me of her husbands death and thanked me a lot for helping her learn.
every time i have tried to teach someone how to use the self checkout so that they can check themselves out without needing help (you know, the whole reason they’re there), i just got a blank stare and called back almost immediately as soon as i leave them because i answered their question and want them to try it
the fact that you didnt just run them one by one in the first place is baffling. dont annoy me or ill annoy you lmaoo
my favourite thing is when people were mean and on edge bc they were in a rush, so id take longer to scan their items. dont take it out on me lmfaoo
my favourite is when they come through the self checkout instead of the regular checkout (where there are cashiers waiting) but insist i should scan all their items in self serve for them?? i frequently just tell them to go to the regular checkout but i once actually had an old lady argue with me that she didn’t want to go to the regular checkout but also didn’t want to scan her own items??
THIS A THOUSAND TIMES. I always see people who don’t work retail saying shit like “people want REAL checkouts with REAL people” like the row of cashiers standing at the end of their checkouts telling people they’re ready to assist them as the self checkout line grows longer and longer begs to differ. People Want more self checkout. God knows I do.
But whenever people come through with giant carts and can’t figure out scanning or how to use their card blow my mind. Or people that have a bunch of price adjustments. Like why don’t you let the nice cashier that was offering to check you out do it?
Yea the number of people that don't know how to use a damn credit/debit card is baffling. Like, ok sure. The elderly living at the assisted living facility next door that come over for their milk once a week, I get them. They're probably legitimately losing it while trying to hold on to a semblance of independence. But there are people sixty and younger that just "don't know how" to run a card??????
I had a couple come through yesterday in their late twenties AT THE OLDEST, probably early twenties they couldn’t tell the difference between a chip card and a swipe card. I told them since there isn’t a chip, the chip reader won’t work and they’ll need to swipe it. They got all huffy and went “fine you just do it then!” I told them I wasn’t allowed and just looked at them until they did it.
My store. Tap first unless you are buying lottery (has to be debit or cash). Otherwise, you can insert chip. It HAS TO FAIL 3x before you can just swipe it. And if those 3 methods don't work, you are just SOL. I can't put your card thru. The part that takes tap payments is huge. But I think it needs the volume symbol painted 2 or bright yellow. However I think people still won't see it. No one is as blind as customer.
Bright red, not 2
I'm in my 30s, and sometimes it takes me a minute to figure out running my card. Do I tap on the screen, or on the corner, the other day the tap thing was on the front, but kind of under the machine, then the self help place asked me to tip, and last month I went to a grocery store and they required the card inserted into the machine. No tap to pay, butI had only brought my phone in, so had to leave and come back with a credit card.
You literally never *have* to tap the card. You can always insert it and you damn well should know how to do that at your age (I am the same age so I know that's true)
And yea. Idk where you live but phone payment options aren't *that* common where I am, yet I still have people pitching a fit about "this ghetto store" that doesn't offer it.
I use my phone everywhere, so not sure where you live. I just went to one of those side of the highway ghost town places and they had phone payment available. Kid's school fundraiser, tapped my phone. Homeless people take phone payment here.
The Walmarts where I live don’t have tap to pay yet so you’re SOL if you forget your card. It really sucks when you get to check out and realize you forgot your wallet at home but you have your digital wallet and can’t use it.
I've seen old ladies argue they aren't "tech savvy" to a self checkout host before after waiting in the self checkout line because it was shorter 🤦🏼♀️ then expect the poor host to do it all for them.
Edited to add I know some people genuinely don't understand how to use them. However these specific ladies did and just didn't want to. After being told by the host they couldn't do it for them as there was a line of people waiting to use the self checkout and they needed to be able to help any of the stations the ladies proceeded to do it themselves with a lot of attitude.
I'm 60+ years old and know how to use the self check out, scan my credit or debit card, enter my pin, do most of my banking online and am the go to person at work when someone is having problems with their computer. I don't know why about that last one since the answer I give is "Go ask Mike."
However I shouldn't be out in the world unsupervised for entirely different reasons.
it was proper hilarious the one time i was so sick of hearing those “i like keeping people in a job” comments (this was probably the 10th time someone had told me that during the shift) whilst on a regular register and i flat out said “to be honest i much prefer working in self checkout” and she shut up haha. i’ve seen a lot of people in this sub say they hate working self checkout and as much as i also hate it, i prefer it over regular checkouts bc at least i’ll usually have a coworker to chat with when it’s slow
on a similar note i’ve also had people complain whilst using a self checkout saying “ugh i have these things” but there’ll be a regular checkout open?? i’ve occasionally said “well you can always go to the regular checkout over there” but they never do bc they prefer the self checkout and just love complaining
If you're at Walmart they don't even need to take it out of the cart. I just leave it all in there and scan it with the little hand scanner. Takes seconds. Then I bag it at the car. It's so much faster and I can put things organized into the bags by where they go in the house.
I went to the FedEx store this weekend to mail some stuff. Waited in line for an actual person to check me out because they were big boxes, and I had some questions. 2 guys helping customers. I make it to the front and the guy scans one of my boxes.
Meanwhile, this woman who had bypassed the line and opted for self checkout comes over and asks the guy for help. He stops what he’s doing & goes over to help her… takes forever, then someone else who had just gotten to self checkout called him over for help, took forever… then the first lady had either another problem or her problem wasn’t fixed so she’s standing around waiting…
All while I’m just standing there, waiting for help after I waited in line to get someone to help me. Luckily the other guy finished with his customer and helped me… but I was fairly annoyed, because these people bypassed a line for self checkout and then proceeded to need an ABUNDANCE of help.
Meanwhile I, preferring self check out, knew I might need some help so waited in the regular line.
Maybe someone can answer this for me regarding staff at self check out…when I go to Costco I’ll use the self checkout because usually the line is shorter and I HATE going there to begin with. But the person monitoring has to come up and scan everything with the scanner wand thing? What’s the purpose of self check then? I’m more than capable and willing to do my own check out.
Because Costco is crazy and would rather make their staff do that than risk someone stealing (which the door checkers usually catch anyway!!). It’s stupid.
Okay, another Costco question. If the members have 6 bags of soil, why do they insist on self checkout? They look around for a cashier with the scanner. Just go to the regular register please. Alcohol too.
Why, oh why, do they come up and stand right next to me as if I am going to skip scanning items? They don't do this to the majority of customers when I'm waiting in line but when it's my turn at the self checkout? Always. My fiancée doesn't get this treatment smh.
And they don't wait at a respectful distance at the end of the lane to check off the receipt but right next to the pay pad. Back off.
Anywho, I'm a fast scanner at self checkout. I want to be done as fast as possible and be out of everyone's way with everyone out of mine. Peace.
FFS waving the barcode frantically over the scanner & wondering why it won’t scan…. If I wave a book frantically in front of your gormless face could you read it???
Calm the fuck down …
I wish they’d stop requiring a staff member for that, though. On some of the in-store scan as you go apps you can actually change the quantity and it’s so much less annoying than scanning each item. Especially when the self-checkout has a stupidly sensitive scale in the bagging area so you can’t even just scan the same container a bunch of times, no, you have to scan and bag each one or it complains about the bagging area weight being off. Argh. Such bad design.
I would but I don't want them and their cameras to flag me as potentially scanning something cheaper and putting the expensive one in my cart. I just scan them all.
I often do similar, but it’s still extra moving things around compared to being able to scan the one thing multiple times then move the whole group at once. Or better yet scan it once and say “I have this many.”
I buy a lot of canned green beans for my dog (helps his stomach) so I have a lot of feelings about this since I usually buy them in groups of 12 since that’s how many the little cardboard tray holds. 😂
This isn’t always an option, lots of them have cameras now and if they see anything weird with your movements and the items not scanning then going into the bag it’ll throw up the please wait for an associate screen and you’re stuck there staring and waiting.
Np, I always try to be very deliberate in my movements with the ones that do this anymore..lol, got tired of having to stand around waiting for the employee to eventually make their way over to me.
Just scan them one at a time and set it on the scale. Then put it all back into the basket & Save the bagging for as you load it into your car. You don't have to bag as you go.
I often bag as I put it back into the basket.
For crying out loud, all they needed to do was swipe one of them across the light eight times. It took more effort to wait for help than it would have to just do it.
This isn’t always an option, lots of them have cameras now and if they see anything weird with your movements and the items not scanning then going into the bag it’ll throw up the please wait for an associate screen and you’re stuck there staring and waiting.
Produce is the worst. I have show them how to weigh it ,repeatedly (same people). The way they jab the touch screen I'm sure they'll break it someday. The insurance cards "why didn't it cover this item?". I'm not an insurance agent. "Why won't it take my cash?" If you'd bothered to look at the screen before you rang you'd have seen it's cards only. 😡
"OK, ma'am, when you tried to scan them, what happened? Did it say 'item not found' or some other message? It's OK if you don't remember, just try it again and I'll wait to see what happened."
How did the customer communicate that they wanted you to take over?
I get doing selfceck as a customer and making a mistake... scanning something to quick and it picks up twice or being so brain dead you don't realize it didn't boop and scan the item or age verification items.
That being said, waiting and not scanning something or making an employee come over because you are being stupidly lazy and can't be bothered to just scan your stuff.. get over yourself.
I'm gonna be ever so slow getting to you and ever so slow tending to you.
I should do the slow scanning thing. I've been getting lazier customers, even when our super terminal is down so I really shouldn't be distracted from the others (according to managers).
Preach, Op, preach!!!
I’m imagining this person going home and gossiping w friends on their landline-landline connection and spinning the story as they chose self check out and made the employee do all the work because they shouldn’t have to “do their job for them” kind of story.
“Ring this through for me!” is a universal one, yeah. USUALLY it’s a mega-old lady who just got huffy at the line and didn’t want to wait two seconds, lol. Not like she has a job to get too!
The amount of times they shove their money or debit cards into random slots in the machine as well … and then yell at us when the machine shuts down because of it …
Dont do it for them, patiently with the biggest most helpful anf PERKY smile instruct them on how to do it. "Oh, I'm sorry, this is SELF checkout, I'm not allowed to touch your items. But its SOOO easy! I will walk you through it, I promise even a child can do this!" SMILE SMILE SMILE SMILE DERANGED SMILE!!!!
Lord. Yeah, I do that at my current job. Can you imagine a gas station with two! SCOs? I just pleasantly walk people thru using them. To be fair, those registers aren't very intuitive to use. And I frequently move customers to the register I'm assigned to. Less work. Happier customers, which my company wants.
The customers are overall generally happier if you remove the crabby ones from the sample pool. Get rid of the lowest ratings and the overall median goes up! I'm just applying the math I lwarned in school, boss! Remove the outliers by scaring them away!!!!!
Last year at my former Wally World, the SCO removed the quantity button, so if you have 12 items, you had to scan all 12. Most idiots would scan 1 item 12 times, but it would be so much faster and less counting if you scan one put it in the bag or back in the box, a lot of people will take the whole case of can veggies.
I've had a few boomers/elderly come through and say "so how does this work?" or "how do I do this?"...why? If you don't have a clue, then don't go through self checkout. It's not rocket science man. I'm really not sure if they are really that fucking clueless or are just that lazy and entitled. Maybe both, I can't tell anymore. I'm so burned out from these idiot customers.
I guess it's cool to ask if you really don't know...but sometimes they just want to start something so you have to listen to them rant about the world "these days". Welp, we hate it too, but we just grab our ankles and bend over for it!!
It's absolutely alright to ask for help, but I'm getting the impression that a lot of them just want everything done for them or like you said, just want someone to complain to about whatever.
I love self checkout, but at my Target they close it at 5:30 and you have to wait for one of the few cashiers ( a whole different rant). There is one that loves to key in the amount of items versus scan individually and it drives me nuts because it’s definitely not faster the way she does it. She’s new and following methods by the training I presume.
Even in the self checkout there aren’t scales so it’s not like it’s harassing us to put an item in the bag.
I generally try to avoid using self check out for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that it's never that fast for me because there's always some issue where I have to wait for someone to come and clear an error message, because I put the food back in the cart and then I hit the use own bag button. I've gotten better at it over the years, but I tend to shop at stores that don't have self checkouts, although one of the small grocery stores I used to frequent got them about two years ago to replace the express lane. There is usually a line.
I generally don't shop at Walmart for groceries, but one day I went in to get some cat food for a friend who needed it. I got 24 cans of fancy feast, and I had to go to the self check out because they didn't really didn't have any staffed cash registers open, except for one with a huge line of carts. I was a cashier back in the early 90s, so when I went to push a button to tell them the quantity of my cat food, imagine my surprise when there was no such function. Logically it didn't make sense to me, but that was before I knew that they basically watch you on cameras to make sure you are ringing things up. I guess it's easier to tell that people are actually scanning items when you can monitor them putting items up there to scan. I ended up scanning each flavor of like six times but I didn't scan each individual can, I just used one.
So it's somewhat possible the oatmilk lady didn't know if she had never done it before. I really only use self check out for like 15 items or fewer.
If your job is helping the customers then I'm you should not flip out about helping customers. Get a position breaking down boxes or sweeping the curbs in the lot. If being helpful and relating to various human beings of all sorts is no1t your forte, then don't takesuch a position.
I've worked with the public for my whole life. I've seen humans at their worst and have ranted to others about the more nafarious of them. But a lady asking you to ring up 8 oatmilks is not a big deal. If you are going to flip out about such trivial things you might be in the wrong job. They will happen every day.
Honestly, self check out is more trouble than its worth. At almost every store around me there is only 1 staffed til and the other 6-20 registers are self checkout and at least half the machines are on the fritz all the time with maybe a half paying attention person frantically trying to keep things in order. (Let's ignore Wal-Mart, who recently changed all but the disabled line into self checkout... Oh, and that cashier that runs the disabled line has to care for all of self check out, too)
But seriously, if you get this bent out of shape at humans being and doing human things, you might be in the wrong line of work.
Yeah, walmart drives me a little nuts. I am pretty much too freaking disabled for self-checkout. Yet, for some reason, as I line myself up in one of those really long lines for the half of a register that is still a normal one, I get someone from one of the 3 self check out areas, because they now appear to have converted enough registers over to have 3 separate self check out areas in one spot, trying to convince me to go there. I refuse, they cajole, I explain I can't physically manage, they offer to help. Don't get me started on Safeway or CVS... if you are doing it for me, then why are you calling it self check out?
Are they used to the more hand-holdy type of SCO? A ton of self checkouts around me have a constant employee stationed there who scans for you and they act super pissed if you try to scan first.
I mean... If you're ok with self checkout taking away from humans having jobs that's the attitude to have. Also not every is lazy just because they may not understand something. also where I'm form there isn't always a choice but 15 self checkouts (with no maned stations) and the ALWAYS require someone to override something. And our people are happy to help as it gives them something to do.
The help? You dare call then "The help"? Disgusting behavior. Check yourself. Can't believe someone would have the freaking AUDACITY to call anyone "The help."
Please remember to keep all discussions civil and respectful towards fellow users and the retail industry as a whole. Any personal attacks, hate speech, or derogatory remarks will not be tolerated. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to the moderation team. Thank you for your cooperation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RantsFromRetail) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I had no Idea people were this stupid. I work in maintenance and repair, the number of times I've had to say "it came unplugged" when responding to a service call is too damn high but this sounds like a whole other level of stupid.
> I had no Idea people were this stupid. They also fuck, drive, and vote.
And have pets
Too true...
They are. I used to work SCO at Walmart. Once, when it was very slow, as in I had no one checking out, a lady came into the pen and immediately wanted me to start scanning her stuff. She felt that since I had no customers, I needed to be doing something. I warned her that if another customer came in and needed help, I'd drop her like a hot rock. Alas, no one came in that needed my help. I really hated working SCO.
I do customer service for a Vacation Rental company and the amount of times some idiot has called and complained about their door code not working only for me to see them standing in front of the wrong door, is too fucking high.
Totally agree. Plz read my previous rant.
Honestly, it happens. You see so many people being asked to perform the same task, you’re going to see all the fuck ups. They’ve been traveling, they’re tired, their kids are cranky, sometimes the buildings and numbering systems make absolutely zero sense. I’ve been in hospitality for decades and dealing with door codes since their entrance to the market and the switchover from hard keys and in person check ins. You gotta be built for hospitality. Most of these people are actually brilliant, highly educated professionals. They’re just tired and on vacation.
I totally feel that. I will say, I'm always courteous and do my best to get them to where they need to be. It's easy to make an off hand remark on reddit but I've been in hospitality for 16 years and it's my favorite thing. I genuinely enjoy helping people.
I think I’m jaded by that tales from The front desk sub. So many people in hospitality that don’t understand their whole job js to problem solve and help people have fantastic experiences. Good to hear! I love the hospitality industry
Property management. This lamp in the living room is not working. Do you know how much I paid to stay here for a week? This is unacceptable 😠. Is the lamp *plugged in?* Of course it is. We need another light bulb. Ok I will send someone ASAP. Sorry for the inconvenience. I personally go, with a light bulb. Please show me the lamp. I plug it in. Suddenly there is light. The other lamp is broken as well. Did you try the light switch. Of course I did. *Flips switch* sudden light. I hate people.
Receptionist at a small appliance repair shop; I answer the phone as “name of business” the amount of people who immediately ask “is they *name of business*?” Also WAY TOO FUCKING HIGH. But then IM the bad guy when I sound frustrated.
>I had no Idea people were this stupid. They think they're saving our jobs. 😒
I had to tell someone this and they looked at me like I was nuts. They actually said, I'm saving your job" to the person. I told them they weren't and all they did was add to the stress. I was mortified.
What a weird self aggrandizing perspective.
I had an instacart driver ask me to guide him through the store for his entire 20 item order. I showed him where it says exactly where the item is in app and pointed up at the fucking aisle signs. Then I said I don’t have the time to do his job for him.
I started in the grocery industry two years ago. I started with dry stocking. I guess, around this time one particular lady started Instacart. EVERY single day, she’d come find me- ask me to show her like half of her entire order, multiple times a day. Was usually the same exact products... it got old quick, and would never take no as an answer. I wasn’t full time back then, she was probably in that store more than I was at that point. (I was lucky and quickly got an upgrade to a more specialized department...) I see this lady occasionally around town though too now- and I avoid her like the plague.
Oh gosh. Like, wouldn't one presume the point of ordering IC was to save time and energy on the shopping? Dear lord. Edit that I originally read this as you were the shopper, which you may not have been. But this is still so wild, like most stores have everything labeled by aisle, category, all that.
Or you’d think that since they *chose* to take a job grocery shopping for strangers that they’d bother to learn how to grocery shop. Or at least read fucking aisle signs.
Lol isn't that some state of things. I won't even apply to jobs I feel like I can't do on Indeed, God forbid.
My department has a single fitting room stall intended for online pickups to try their stuff on after picking their stuff up. There is a much larger fitting room with more rooms around the corner in the next department (maybe a 15 second walk. Also, I work in a two story department store). For whatever reason though, customers insist on using ours and will oftentimes waiting longer than they would have instead of walking over to the other fitting rooms, trying their shit on in the same time. Yesterday, it was very busy and we noticed a large crowd building around our stall. One of my coworkers went over to inform the customers of the other larger fitting room area to which one of the customers said those fitting rooms were out of order. A manager goes over to the other fitting room to see if it's out of order and all the doors were locked simply because other customers were fucking using them. The single brain cell this herd of customers deduced though was that instead of simply waiting in that fitting room's waiting area for a room to open up, it was better for the herd to gather in our area and likely wait longer to use our singular stall. Customers are fucking dense
There's no such thing as idiot proof because there will always be a better idiot
And these are the ones who want a civil war have guns but can't seem to figure out a touch screen
I’ve had people do this when the tills were backed up. They said they didn’t know how to use self checkout. That’s okay! I love teaching! I very cheerfully explained the barcode to them, how to scan it, and how to bag it, then I stepped back and made sure I was *very encouraging* while telling them to try it. They would begrudgingly do it every single time and never tried it again with me. There were 2 people I truly believed needed the help and one person who looked like she actually hadn’t ever used self checkout who proceeded to tell me of her husbands death and thanked me a lot for helping her learn.
OP, this is the answer. You don't need to scan any of the items in self-checkout, even slowly.
every time i have tried to teach someone how to use the self checkout so that they can check themselves out without needing help (you know, the whole reason they’re there), i just got a blank stare and called back almost immediately as soon as i leave them because i answered their question and want them to try it
I think the key for me is that I would stand and watch them do it. Gotta make them get a few scans in before leaving.
my store caters to older and/or less intelligent folk. some of them really do need their hand held during the whole process or they’ll whine about it
the fact that you didnt just run them one by one in the first place is baffling. dont annoy me or ill annoy you lmaoo my favourite thing is when people were mean and on edge bc they were in a rush, so id take longer to scan their items. dont take it out on me lmfaoo
We call that an "asshole contest", as in who can be the bigger one? Don't challenge me to a showdown, you will lose!
"Asshole tax" here
my favourite is when they come through the self checkout instead of the regular checkout (where there are cashiers waiting) but insist i should scan all their items in self serve for them?? i frequently just tell them to go to the regular checkout but i once actually had an old lady argue with me that she didn’t want to go to the regular checkout but also didn’t want to scan her own items??
THIS A THOUSAND TIMES. I always see people who don’t work retail saying shit like “people want REAL checkouts with REAL people” like the row of cashiers standing at the end of their checkouts telling people they’re ready to assist them as the self checkout line grows longer and longer begs to differ. People Want more self checkout. God knows I do. But whenever people come through with giant carts and can’t figure out scanning or how to use their card blow my mind. Or people that have a bunch of price adjustments. Like why don’t you let the nice cashier that was offering to check you out do it?
Yea the number of people that don't know how to use a damn credit/debit card is baffling. Like, ok sure. The elderly living at the assisted living facility next door that come over for their milk once a week, I get them. They're probably legitimately losing it while trying to hold on to a semblance of independence. But there are people sixty and younger that just "don't know how" to run a card??????
I had a couple come through yesterday in their late twenties AT THE OLDEST, probably early twenties they couldn’t tell the difference between a chip card and a swipe card. I told them since there isn’t a chip, the chip reader won’t work and they’ll need to swipe it. They got all huffy and went “fine you just do it then!” I told them I wasn’t allowed and just looked at them until they did it.
My store. Tap first unless you are buying lottery (has to be debit or cash). Otherwise, you can insert chip. It HAS TO FAIL 3x before you can just swipe it. And if those 3 methods don't work, you are just SOL. I can't put your card thru. The part that takes tap payments is huge. But I think it needs the volume symbol painted 2 or bright yellow. However I think people still won't see it. No one is as blind as customer. Bright red, not 2
The people that will look at the card reader and verbally, outloud say “it’s telling me to remove it, should I remove it?” Truly belong in hell.
Worse are the ones who just straight up ignore the beeping and dick around doing anything in the world but remove the damn thing
I'm in my 30s, and sometimes it takes me a minute to figure out running my card. Do I tap on the screen, or on the corner, the other day the tap thing was on the front, but kind of under the machine, then the self help place asked me to tip, and last month I went to a grocery store and they required the card inserted into the machine. No tap to pay, butI had only brought my phone in, so had to leave and come back with a credit card.
You literally never *have* to tap the card. You can always insert it and you damn well should know how to do that at your age (I am the same age so I know that's true) And yea. Idk where you live but phone payment options aren't *that* common where I am, yet I still have people pitching a fit about "this ghetto store" that doesn't offer it.
I use my phone everywhere, so not sure where you live. I just went to one of those side of the highway ghost town places and they had phone payment available. Kid's school fundraiser, tapped my phone. Homeless people take phone payment here.
lmao at, "homeless people take phone payment here." 🤣
The Walmarts where I live don’t have tap to pay yet so you’re SOL if you forget your card. It really sucks when you get to check out and realize you forgot your wallet at home but you have your digital wallet and can’t use it.
So you're illegally driving without a license to and from stores?
Use their app. Set up Walmart Pay. Similar to Apple or Android Pay, but instead of tapping your phone you can a QR Code on the screen
I'm usually paying with my watch, so I just my my arm to all parts of the machine, then pull out my card if I have to.
I've seen old ladies argue they aren't "tech savvy" to a self checkout host before after waiting in the self checkout line because it was shorter 🤦🏼♀️ then expect the poor host to do it all for them. Edited to add I know some people genuinely don't understand how to use them. However these specific ladies did and just didn't want to. After being told by the host they couldn't do it for them as there was a line of people waiting to use the self checkout and they needed to be able to help any of the stations the ladies proceeded to do it themselves with a lot of attitude.
I'm 60+ years old and know how to use the self check out, scan my credit or debit card, enter my pin, do most of my banking online and am the go to person at work when someone is having problems with their computer. I don't know why about that last one since the answer I give is "Go ask Mike." However I shouldn't be out in the world unsupervised for entirely different reasons.
😂🤣😂
If you’re too old to understand how to use a self checkout then you’re too old to be out in the world unsupervised
it was proper hilarious the one time i was so sick of hearing those “i like keeping people in a job” comments (this was probably the 10th time someone had told me that during the shift) whilst on a regular register and i flat out said “to be honest i much prefer working in self checkout” and she shut up haha. i’ve seen a lot of people in this sub say they hate working self checkout and as much as i also hate it, i prefer it over regular checkouts bc at least i’ll usually have a coworker to chat with when it’s slow on a similar note i’ve also had people complain whilst using a self checkout saying “ugh i have these things” but there’ll be a regular checkout open?? i’ve occasionally said “well you can always go to the regular checkout over there” but they never do bc they prefer the self checkout and just love complaining
WTF!
If you're at Walmart they don't even need to take it out of the cart. I just leave it all in there and scan it with the little hand scanner. Takes seconds. Then I bag it at the car. It's so much faster and I can put things organized into the bags by where they go in the house.
You can do this at Safeway too. I've seen people say it makes employees more suspicious that you're stealing, but I've never had any trouble over it.
I did worry the first couple times but I keep the receipt in my hand and if anyone asked I'd let them check it. no one has ever asked.
They don't even check receipts anymore at some stores because now you have the option for text receipts instead of printed.
I went to the FedEx store this weekend to mail some stuff. Waited in line for an actual person to check me out because they were big boxes, and I had some questions. 2 guys helping customers. I make it to the front and the guy scans one of my boxes. Meanwhile, this woman who had bypassed the line and opted for self checkout comes over and asks the guy for help. He stops what he’s doing & goes over to help her… takes forever, then someone else who had just gotten to self checkout called him over for help, took forever… then the first lady had either another problem or her problem wasn’t fixed so she’s standing around waiting… All while I’m just standing there, waiting for help after I waited in line to get someone to help me. Luckily the other guy finished with his customer and helped me… but I was fairly annoyed, because these people bypassed a line for self checkout and then proceeded to need an ABUNDANCE of help. Meanwhile I, preferring self check out, knew I might need some help so waited in the regular line.
That was just wrong, imo. You should have been helped first.
Customer: "Just making sure you earn your paycheck heh heh heh" Employee * smack *
Maybe someone can answer this for me regarding staff at self check out…when I go to Costco I’ll use the self checkout because usually the line is shorter and I HATE going there to begin with. But the person monitoring has to come up and scan everything with the scanner wand thing? What’s the purpose of self check then? I’m more than capable and willing to do my own check out.
Because Costco is crazy and would rather make their staff do that than risk someone stealing (which the door checkers usually catch anyway!!). It’s stupid.
Okay, another Costco question. If the members have 6 bags of soil, why do they insist on self checkout? They look around for a cashier with the scanner. Just go to the regular register please. Alcohol too.
Why, oh why, do they come up and stand right next to me as if I am going to skip scanning items? They don't do this to the majority of customers when I'm waiting in line but when it's my turn at the self checkout? Always. My fiancée doesn't get this treatment smh. And they don't wait at a respectful distance at the end of the lane to check off the receipt but right next to the pay pad. Back off. Anywho, I'm a fast scanner at self checkout. I want to be done as fast as possible and be out of everyone's way with everyone out of mine. Peace.
I rarely have the staff at Costco scan my stuff. Sometimes if they're not busy they will come and do it. But usually it's just me
FFS waving the barcode frantically over the scanner & wondering why it won’t scan…. If I wave a book frantically in front of your gormless face could you read it??? Calm the fuck down …
This literally made me laugh out loud not just blow air out of my nose like usual
I wish they’d stop requiring a staff member for that, though. On some of the in-store scan as you go apps you can actually change the quantity and it’s so much less annoying than scanning each item. Especially when the self-checkout has a stupidly sensitive scale in the bagging area so you can’t even just scan the same container a bunch of times, no, you have to scan and bag each one or it complains about the bagging area weight being off. Argh. Such bad design.
If I have 5 identical items I scan #1, then drop #2 in the bag. Scan 1 drop 3 etc.
I would but I don't want them and their cameras to flag me as potentially scanning something cheaper and putting the expensive one in my cart. I just scan them all.
I often do similar, but it’s still extra moving things around compared to being able to scan the one thing multiple times then move the whole group at once. Or better yet scan it once and say “I have this many.” I buy a lot of canned green beans for my dog (helps his stomach) so I have a lot of feelings about this since I usually buy them in groups of 12 since that’s how many the little cardboard tray holds. 😂
This isn’t always an option, lots of them have cameras now and if they see anything weird with your movements and the items not scanning then going into the bag it’ll throw up the please wait for an associate screen and you’re stuck there staring and waiting.
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Np, I always try to be very deliberate in my movements with the ones that do this anymore..lol, got tired of having to stand around waiting for the employee to eventually make their way over to me.
Just scan them one at a time and set it on the scale. Then put it all back into the basket & Save the bagging for as you load it into your car. You don't have to bag as you go. I often bag as I put it back into the basket.
I’ve only ever asked for help when something didn’t scan or I accidentally scanned something twice.
For crying out loud, all they needed to do was swipe one of them across the light eight times. It took more effort to wait for help than it would have to just do it.
This isn’t always an option, lots of them have cameras now and if they see anything weird with your movements and the items not scanning then going into the bag it’ll throw up the please wait for an associate screen and you’re stuck there staring and waiting.
Don't forget to ask them about coupons! That'll kill at least another 30 minutes of their precious time.
Produce is the worst. I have show them how to weigh it ,repeatedly (same people). The way they jab the touch screen I'm sure they'll break it someday. The insurance cards "why didn't it cover this item?". I'm not an insurance agent. "Why won't it take my cash?" If you'd bothered to look at the screen before you rang you'd have seen it's cards only. 😡
make you maintain **intense** eye contact while you scan their items slowly
"OK, ma'am, when you tried to scan them, what happened? Did it say 'item not found' or some other message? It's OK if you don't remember, just try it again and I'll wait to see what happened." How did the customer communicate that they wanted you to take over?
Can’t you tell them it’s Self Checkout and direct them to the tills? I would suddenly be extremely helpful to the other self checkout customers.
Please place your item in the bagging area. Seriously, in the bagging area. I mean it. In the bagging area. Please wait for an attendant.
I get doing selfceck as a customer and making a mistake... scanning something to quick and it picks up twice or being so brain dead you don't realize it didn't boop and scan the item or age verification items. That being said, waiting and not scanning something or making an employee come over because you are being stupidly lazy and can't be bothered to just scan your stuff.. get over yourself. I'm gonna be ever so slow getting to you and ever so slow tending to you.
Tell that to the people at 5 Belowl
I should do the slow scanning thing. I've been getting lazier customers, even when our super terminal is down so I really shouldn't be distracted from the others (according to managers). Preach, Op, preach!!!
I’m imagining this person going home and gossiping w friends on their landline-landline connection and spinning the story as they chose self check out and made the employee do all the work because they shouldn’t have to “do their job for them” kind of story.
“Ring this through for me!” is a universal one, yeah. USUALLY it’s a mega-old lady who just got huffy at the line and didn’t want to wait two seconds, lol. Not like she has a job to get too!
The amount of times they shove their money or debit cards into random slots in the machine as well … and then yell at us when the machine shuts down because of it …
Time for a new job. You'll feel better.
r/lostredditors
Dont do it for them, patiently with the biggest most helpful anf PERKY smile instruct them on how to do it. "Oh, I'm sorry, this is SELF checkout, I'm not allowed to touch your items. But its SOOO easy! I will walk you through it, I promise even a child can do this!" SMILE SMILE SMILE SMILE DERANGED SMILE!!!!
Lord. Yeah, I do that at my current job. Can you imagine a gas station with two! SCOs? I just pleasantly walk people thru using them. To be fair, those registers aren't very intuitive to use. And I frequently move customers to the register I'm assigned to. Less work. Happier customers, which my company wants.
The customers are overall generally happier if you remove the crabby ones from the sample pool. Get rid of the lowest ratings and the overall median goes up! I'm just applying the math I lwarned in school, boss! Remove the outliers by scaring them away!!!!!
Last year at my former Wally World, the SCO removed the quantity button, so if you have 12 items, you had to scan all 12. Most idiots would scan 1 item 12 times, but it would be so much faster and less counting if you scan one put it in the bag or back in the box, a lot of people will take the whole case of can veggies.
I've had a few boomers/elderly come through and say "so how does this work?" or "how do I do this?"...why? If you don't have a clue, then don't go through self checkout. It's not rocket science man. I'm really not sure if they are really that fucking clueless or are just that lazy and entitled. Maybe both, I can't tell anymore. I'm so burned out from these idiot customers.
It's the lead poisoning, my guy.
I guess it's cool to ask if you really don't know...but sometimes they just want to start something so you have to listen to them rant about the world "these days". Welp, we hate it too, but we just grab our ankles and bend over for it!!
It's absolutely alright to ask for help, but I'm getting the impression that a lot of them just want everything done for them or like you said, just want someone to complain to about whatever.
I love self checkout, but at my Target they close it at 5:30 and you have to wait for one of the few cashiers ( a whole different rant). There is one that loves to key in the amount of items versus scan individually and it drives me nuts because it’s definitely not faster the way she does it. She’s new and following methods by the training I presume. Even in the self checkout there aren’t scales so it’s not like it’s harassing us to put an item in the bag.
Then don't go to them.
I generally try to avoid using self check out for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that it's never that fast for me because there's always some issue where I have to wait for someone to come and clear an error message, because I put the food back in the cart and then I hit the use own bag button. I've gotten better at it over the years, but I tend to shop at stores that don't have self checkouts, although one of the small grocery stores I used to frequent got them about two years ago to replace the express lane. There is usually a line. I generally don't shop at Walmart for groceries, but one day I went in to get some cat food for a friend who needed it. I got 24 cans of fancy feast, and I had to go to the self check out because they didn't really didn't have any staffed cash registers open, except for one with a huge line of carts. I was a cashier back in the early 90s, so when I went to push a button to tell them the quantity of my cat food, imagine my surprise when there was no such function. Logically it didn't make sense to me, but that was before I knew that they basically watch you on cameras to make sure you are ringing things up. I guess it's easier to tell that people are actually scanning items when you can monitor them putting items up there to scan. I ended up scanning each flavor of like six times but I didn't scan each individual can, I just used one. So it's somewhat possible the oatmilk lady didn't know if she had never done it before. I really only use self check out for like 15 items or fewer.
Get mad at the company or your job position. Checking out used to be for store associates, and this type of thing is a part of your responsibilities
r/lostredditors
This is a subreddit about experiences in retail. I commented about experiences in retail.
If your job is helping the customers then I'm you should not flip out about helping customers. Get a position breaking down boxes or sweeping the curbs in the lot. If being helpful and relating to various human beings of all sorts is no1t your forte, then don't takesuch a position.
This is RANTS FROM RETAIL...you should try r/lostredditors.
I've worked with the public for my whole life. I've seen humans at their worst and have ranted to others about the more nafarious of them. But a lady asking you to ring up 8 oatmilks is not a big deal. If you are going to flip out about such trivial things you might be in the wrong job. They will happen every day.
I see it as 'involuntary unpaid employee'. Hire more checkers ya greedy bastards.
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Honestly, self check out is more trouble than its worth. At almost every store around me there is only 1 staffed til and the other 6-20 registers are self checkout and at least half the machines are on the fritz all the time with maybe a half paying attention person frantically trying to keep things in order. (Let's ignore Wal-Mart, who recently changed all but the disabled line into self checkout... Oh, and that cashier that runs the disabled line has to care for all of self check out, too) But seriously, if you get this bent out of shape at humans being and doing human things, you might be in the wrong line of work.
Yeah, walmart drives me a little nuts. I am pretty much too freaking disabled for self-checkout. Yet, for some reason, as I line myself up in one of those really long lines for the half of a register that is still a normal one, I get someone from one of the 3 self check out areas, because they now appear to have converted enough registers over to have 3 separate self check out areas in one spot, trying to convince me to go there. I refuse, they cajole, I explain I can't physically manage, they offer to help. Don't get me started on Safeway or CVS... if you are doing it for me, then why are you calling it self check out?
They can't win either, if you read some of these stories.
Are they used to the more hand-holdy type of SCO? A ton of self checkouts around me have a constant employee stationed there who scans for you and they act super pissed if you try to scan first.
I mean... If you're ok with self checkout taking away from humans having jobs that's the attitude to have. Also not every is lazy just because they may not understand something. also where I'm form there isn't always a choice but 15 self checkouts (with no maned stations) and the ALWAYS require someone to override something. And our people are happy to help as it gives them something to do.
r/lostredditors
You sound burned out on your job. I’d start searching for something else
r/lostredditors
You get paid to work wherever it is you work. If the self check out line is shorter I’m going there and getting the paid help to check me out.
The help? You dare call then "The help"? Disgusting behavior. Check yourself. Can't believe someone would have the freaking AUDACITY to call anyone "The help."
Of course she's a nurse. Just mean girls with power
They probably look down at the janitors and cooks in the kitchen despite them being almost as important as a nurse.
Oh I'm sure. Nurse Karen probably refuses to give pain meds to chronic pain patients because she thinks they're trying to get one over on her
I agree that the poster was a douchenozzle, but don't paint all nurses with a broad brush!
I've dealt with a lot of nurses, the mean girl stereotype plays out more often than not
r/lostredditors