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On the self-service checkouts at Wal-Mart, I'm starting to believe they presumed only felons would use them which sort of defeats the purpose of them.

If you scan an item that minors can't buy such as spray paint, the line stops until a clerk comes....there may be one for 4-6 lines. Unfortunately, this is more than occasional so it's very annoying. I had this happen twice on one visit so I just went to a real cashier. It just amazes me how many times at WalMart your checkout will stop on a drug or hardware, etc.

I'd go so far as to suggest Target should have an ad "We trust you" ;)

I refuse to use "self checkouts", they take away jobs and they require the customer to do what someone once was paid to do at no additional savings to the customer. What next, self shelf stocking, self bathroom cleaning?

I refuse to use "self checkouts", they take away jobs and they require the customer to do what someone once was paid to do at no additional savings to the customer. What next, self shelf stocking, self bathroom cleaning?

Hear Hear! I'm usually in favor of and prefer to do things myself whenever possible. But I HATE using the self-serve checkout lanes. I never learned to bag groceries and the scanner never cooperates. And while I'm not a staunch unionist, I agree that it's a blatant attempt by commercial uber-markets to reduce costs an improve profits at the expense of community employment and customer service.

Meijer is a huge offender; they have 20-30 lanes, but only a third of them are ever open, and even then half of those are self-checkout lanes. I've sometimes been the 10th person in line at the checkout. On more than one occasion, I have left my cart and walked out.

-Raj Against The Machine

Something ridiculous - self-checkout at Home Depot. One time I was trying to buy 2x4's, and ONLY the self-checkout was open. "Place item in bagging area." Grrrrrr.... I can't! 75% of the stock in that store won't even fit in the bagging area.

I gave up and went to Lowe's.

Since when did Walmart become our nanny, anyway? Why is it their job to prevent minors from being stupid?

Since I obvously don't look 18 or younger, it seems the clerk could simply push a button to bypass the minor checks or have me to ID myself at the start with a credit/debit card.

They should all put up a big sign that says "We Don't Trust You!!!"

I deal more with self checkouts at Home Depot than anywhere else. Ever try to scan a potted plant with the sticker on the side and not spill soil all over the place? Ever try to scan a bag of screws that the bagging are can't weigh and there for assumes you did not put it in the bag? Wait of the cashier to check on you. Ever buy 20 of the same item and have to scan it 20 times? Oh the pain.

These places have also conspired so they you have to twist your back to put the items in your cart. WalMart and Safeway are the worst offenders. Safeway here has designed their checkouts so that the cashier can no longer put your groceries in your bag, but you have to stretch, reach across your cart and the credit card scanner to get the bag and they put it into the cart.

Then in chatting with a WalMart cashier once, she tells me there are more cameras than you can imagine watching the customers and the employees.

Self checkouts ARE used to maximize profits while minimizing costs. So is outsourcing to china, of which wal-mart seems to be very proud. Just about the only thing they have that isnt made in china is their fresh food, which would probably be bad by the time it got here.

The cashiers can easily push a button to override (I used to be one in my high school days about 5 years ago ;)). They are also a lot slower than regular checkouts. Everything is done at a snail's pace as compared to a regular check-out.

Let minors be allowed to work, don't use a self check-out.

I refuse to use "self checkouts", they take away jobs and they require the customer to do what someone once was paid to do at no additional savings to the customer. What next, self shelf stocking, self bathroom cleaning?

I look at this as just like restaurants that charge outrageous fees for a drink and them hand me an empty cup. There was a time when it was much less expensive AND they filled the cup for you.


Since when did Walmart become our nanny, anyway? Why is it their job to prevent minors from being stupid?

I agree with your sentiment but I don't think you can entirely blame Wal*Mart and the likes for having to check IDs when selling certain items. I believe it's either due to laws in certain jurisdictions and/or prior lawsuits. They are being forced to be a nanny.

On more than one occasion, I have left my cart and walked out.


I definitely can't agree with this course of action. Now someone has to re-stock all the items you left behind. I'm sure they REALLY appreciate it. :(

I look at this as just like restaurants that charge outrageous fees for a drink and them hand me an empty cup. There was a time when it was much less expensive AND they filled the cup for you.


Actually, I like this. These same places are the ones with unlimited free refills. Some will offer refills behind the counter, but it's much more hassle - you have to stand in line again. But I usually ask for a cup of water, for free. It's just not worth my money for some (nearly free for them) sugar water with a 4000% markup.


I know it's not walmart's fault entirely. It's just another symptom of the "not my fault, not my responsibility" attitude that's become so prevalent. Like fuel economy - why can't THEY build a car that gets 100 mpg for me, why should I have to lift a pinky? :rolleyes:

why should I have to lift a pinky?

Actually all you have to lift is your right foot WHEN your driving...;)...you might not get a 100mpg car, but you might grow to like yours more throughout its useful life.

I definitely can't agree with this course of action. Now someone has to re-stock all the items you left behind. I'm sure they REALLY appreciate it. :(

He's making a job for someone in doing so, which counter-balances the job lost by installing a self-checkout?:confused:

On the self-service checkouts at Wal-Mart, I'm starting to believe they presumed only felons would use them which sort of defeats the purpose of them. ...

My area Wal-Mart must have underestimated the number of felons who would use self-service checkout. The stands have been removed.

I actually like self checkouts. When I'm just grabbing a few items on the way home, they are usually faster than having someone to check you out...even when there is only one person in front of you & they are nearly done. More importantly for me, I hate having nothing to do. I never feel as useless as when I'm being checked out at an old-fashion, full-servce checkout. Despite growing up in an area where full service waiting was expected, I never felt comfortable having others do for me those things I can more easily do for myself.

It doesn't really matter if you like full-server or today's self-serve stores....the concept of how we checkout is expected to go away in just a few more years. Its expected that the RDIF tags will enable you to walk through a checkout scanner & everything be registered in just a few seconds, no matter if you have 1 item or 100. At that point, you will probably have the same checks as you do now, where they have to verify age for restricted items, but otherwise you just pay your bill at another autoamted system. The checkout process should be reduced to under 30 seconds per person. Not only does that reduce the cost of labour, but it also should reduce the amount of store space being occupied by traditional registers.

I forgot who said earlier that this is about minimizing costs & maximizing profits & that the cost reduction isn't passed on. Walmart (which is a store I normally hate), is clearly an example of them doing exactly that, except you can't argue that the cost reductions aren't passed on, at least partially. Its very hard to find a deal that even matches theirs on a daily basis.

However if you truely want full-serve and maximum jobs, consider a delivery service like peapod. I used to use them. Costs are higher, but someone is doing all the work which should mean more jobs (or at least hours). And, in theory, it should be better for the enviroment to have one person delivering to many closely located homes than to have all those homes run out for groceries. I think its a shame this didn't catch on. I suspected price would have fallen some if it had.

Let's face it. The people who need minimum wage jobs at Wal-Mart are always the most expendable. They need job training to raise their skills, so they won't get axed when corporate cost-cutting revisits their workplace.

Self-service checkouts are just one sign of the times. Automated vending machines selling iPods instead of bubble gum, more outsourcing, and RFID scanners are coming. Minimally skilled workers are in for a coming world of hurt. Not that the rest of us are immune, by any means.

Don't bank on RFID as some kind of a "solution". They are completely
*evil* from a privacy standpoint, and may go away for point-of- sale
product tagging. See spychips.com (http://www.spychips.com/).
.
_H*

As much of a pain in the *** as it is to have to stop two or three times to ensure you're over 18 (I get this all the time, even though I have no idea how or why fuel injector cleaner could be used by kids for something?), it's just a result of today's lawsuit-happy society. You can sue someone for almost anything and win or at least get a settlement.

Everytime I get ID'd, a bit of me dies.

And in Wal-Mart, it doesn't matter where you go: self service or the old fashioned way, the lines are still ridiculously long. I've left my stuff behind several times (although notably less ever since I worked in stock there!) because of the huge waits.

He's making a job for someone in doing so, which counter-balances the job lost by installing a self-checkout?:confused:

No, he's raising prices for all of us because now there's both a self-checkout and a stock person to pay for. Besides, do you like it when people make work for you, when you could be doing other productive work? It's just karmically bad.

No, he's raising prices for all of us because now there's both a self-checkout and a stock person to pay for. Besides, do you like it when people make work for you, when you could be doing other productive work? It's just karmically bad.

True, however at some point the store should see enough time/money wasted restocking from people walking out, that they will realize then need more lines open to prevent such waste. Waste raises costs, which raises prices, which makes a store non-competive, and eventually closes a store.

If the store doesn't see this, then deservce to close. However it would be nice to leave a note in the basked that explained...
"Leaving cart. Not waiting that long to get checked out. Hire more cashiers."

On the other hand, how much time is PeaceFrog wasting? Even though we don't want to stand in line for 10 minutes to get 5 items, by the time we consider the time/gas used getting there, parking, going into the store, finding the items we want....Its hard to believe that waiting a few extra minutes wouldn't have been more effective than giving up & repeating the process again later.

On the other hand, how much time is PeaceFrog wasting? Even though we don't want to stand in line for 10 minutes to get 5 items, by the time we consider the time/gas used getting there, parking, going into the store, finding the items we want....Its hard to believe that waiting a few extra minutes wouldn't have been more effective than giving up & repeating the process again later.

Agreed. Leaving the cart in the hopes of "teaching them a lesson" isn't a very effective strategy and is downright wasteful in many forms. You'd be better off searching out the manager or calling the store later to discuss the issue and your frustration.

I like to use the lawn and garden center checkouts. When available, there are usually shorter lines and less items per person, plus you can often find a close up parking space for easier exit once you have your items.

I see self-service checkouts as a logical extension of self-service in choosing the items you want to purchase. This was a vast improvement over walking up to a counter and telling the store clerk the list of items you want to purchase and then waiting for him to go back to the storeroom and get them, which was SOP for stores in the 1800's/early 1900's. I guess this will all eventually evolve into an RFID-like walk in and pick up the items you want and then walk out as the electronics automatically bills your account for the items you removed.

I wish we had the self-check lanes. We have a new "hybrid" super store that opened 8 weeks ago. 26 lanes (0 self check)and 11:00 at night during the week, they had 1 lane open and about 20 customers in line.

My experiences at Wal-Mart Distribution Centers

- 3 hours to unload half a truck. Always
- Pallet exchange- only receiver that refuses to return me good pallets, a $120 hit.
- My driver showed up 1 hr early for appt, told he was too early and come back later. He returned 15 minutes before his appt, waited in line at the guard shack, the girl at the receiving counter said he was late by 10 minutes, therefore was a “work in”. His half load was unloaded 6 hours later. We lost our backhaul.
- My driver delivered a load of cantaloupe. Halfway thru the unload they said the rest of the melons were too small. Actually, it was their way of inventory control- order a whole load, take what they need based on stock levels, come up with a reason to reject rest of load. So we had to reroute truck 200 miles to get rid of rest of cantaloupe. We lost our backhaul.
- I delivered half a load, unloaded it myself because I refuse to pay Wal-Mart to unload their product. Still waited 90 minutes for the paperwork. So still 3 hrs to get unloaded.
- Some Wal-Mart DC’s suggest that the truck show up an hour before the appt, as the security gate may be backed up. But the truck is not checked in for the appt until it reaches the receiving desk. So even if the truck shows up at the facility 45 minutes before its appt, and can’t get in because of a backup at the security gate, its considered late and therefore delayed at unloading. So what’s the big deal about showing up earlier? If a driver would like to log legally, he just blew an extra hour of time he could be driving. And not all Wal-Mart DC’s will let a truck in an hour early (see above). In that case the driver ends up driving around looking unsuccessfully for a parking space.

My trucks had delivered about 15 times to Wal-Mart DC’s before I said no more. I’ve been to many different retailer’s DC’s, some really rotten, but none are as so pervasive in abusive culture as Wal-Mart. Ironically, their employees are always so nice as they screw me.

Then there is the Cambodian “commercial zones”, anecdotes of poor vendor treatment , questionable labor practices, etc, etc.

I used to shop at Wal-Mart until I delivered to their DC's.
The most interaction I have with Wal-Mart now is watching their commercials. What they do to get lower prices is unacceptable. To me, they represent what is wrong in the US as much as GM.

Just couldn’t ignore the discussion anymore. And my mind is made up about this outfit, no need to defend them. Sorry to the moderators for blatant bashing of Wal-Mart.

Keith

Actually, Keith, thank you for posting that. I was well aware of the issues people have with Wal-Mart's employee policies. Who can't know, these days? I had no idea about this business at the back end, though.

Keith,

I also welcome your post.

Anyone other than me remember in the early 1990's "Made in the USA" in WalMart?

I do, and I'm only 23. I remember when we first got a Wal-Mart in our area. It was a BIG deal. Nice small store, big "made in USA" banners everywhere near products that were 'home grown.' it wasn't a super wal-mart or anything - small dry foods dept, no "grocery" section, no auto lube center, just the core business. It was a great store.


Then they moved about 6 miles away, just off the interstate exits up on a hill where you can see it from a highway (deliberate, so as to draw in passerbys from the highway). Upsized to a "Super-duper Econo Godzilla-Mart," and everything went to hell.

The first year they moved there, our local K-Mart which is thankfully still in business reported nearly a 30% increase in holiday profits. Nobody liked the new store layout, the new location that was further away, the massively poorer quality of manufacture of items......the "wal-mart-ness" of the new store.

I avoid it as much as I can, and shop my local K-Mart so that we continue to have something in our little town.

We lost our backhaul.

I'll bite... what is backhaul?

I'm guessing the oportunity to haul something back from point B to point A, but thought I'd ask.

Thanks!

don't apologize, keith. i won't shop there either. i have watched too many little towns, like the one i used to live in, get a wal-mart super store stuffed down their throats, the local businesses be damned. i can't stand the noise, the dirt, the cheap products, the lousy help, and the business practices.

i perfer our local thrift stores and consignment outfits. cheaper, better and it supports the locals.

wal-mart? no thanks.

Shiba, a backhaul is the use of a return trip to deliver goods. You don't want to drive an empty semi if at all possible.

Shiba, a backhaul is the use of a return trip to deliver goods. You don't want to drive an empty semi if at all possible.

Exactly. The outbound load rarely covers the cost of the entire round trip. Though pricing on the outbound is usually structured to cover basic round trip costs- in case a truck does have to "deadhead" back home. Backhaul pays for overhead and profit.
Sorry, I forget that basic terms to me really aren't generally used.

Keith

Thanks for the inside story, Keith. We only think of our own pocketbooks. Supporting Wal-Mart while ignoring how it hurts its workers and contractors is a bit like going to dinner with a bunch of people who won't tip the wait staff.