Penny Problems

I don't want pennies from my bank unless I get a tetanus shot first.

 

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Concerning self checkout................where's the mirror, I ask. Always met with blank stares.

 

Exactly!

 

I’d rather have the pennies than getting a tetanus shot because I tripped and fell. Now I have the tetanus shot and injuries to recover from.

 

Well, I hope next time you'll remember to go get pennies instead of falling.

 

Side note, now that they're asking cashiers to monitor self-checkout, now they're calling it "assisted checkout." I mean, isn't that all of them? The only difference is we're expecting the customer to do more of the work lol.

I don't complain too much as long as they're still giving me a paycheck. But I'd always rather be on a real register than monitoring "assisted checkout" when I have a choice in the matter. That makes me feel like a cashier. Working "assisted checkout" makes me feel like a babysitter lol.

 

When Harris-Teeter installed a new style of self-checkouts a few months ago, those things were absolutely paranoid. I don't think I ever managed to check out through one without having a cashier come at least once to review the overhead video of my bald head and my clumsy hands scanning items. I gave up using those units, mostly because of that, but also because they won't take cash at all.

 

I sure will and I have 10 years to work on it. Lol

 

It's just progress. I remember going to the grocery store with my mother, she was dressed to then nines, hair done up and in a nice dress. She would smoke as she went, dropping the half-finished cig to the floor, stepping it out with her high heels, and slide it to the side out of the way. At checkout there was a cashier and a full-time bagger who would take the cart out to the car and load her groceries in. They usually got a nickel or dime for their efforts, and they were always smiling, as polite and helpful as could be.

As the cost of labor increases you have to reduce employee count to stay competitive. Rural areas where the cost of housing isn't so high there is less automation, so more laborers are needed. That bagger in the 60s was actually supporting himself and maybe even a family off of that job because it didn't take three weeks salary just to pay the mortgage.

The next step will be the scanner - you just move between two pedestals, and every item in the cart is detected via chip. Pass your card over the reader and walk on out. Maybe even get your own chip embedded somewhere, no card needed.

 

Remember, once you pay for the items they are yours and the store has no right to check them, then or as you leave.

 

I assume you're talking about things like the Walmart exit checks. I'm sure their response would be that they aren't "checking" "your property", they're checking to make sure everything you're leaving with is your property.

Retailers do a lot of things that bug me, but that isn't one of them. If they let people walk out with stuff they haven't paid for, I'm the one who ends up paying in the end, when prices rise to cover the losses.

 

There's always people by the self checkout to "assist".
But they are really there checking what people are scanning and paying to see if they are stealing.
And there are reverse mirrors at the self checkout. Just look for it, because every move you make is on camera and has been for MANY years.

 

Emptying the jars as a solution depends on where they go. Since the feds have stopped distributing them, if the banks process pennies back through the fed they will just disappear into a black hole.

 

The cents don't go back to the fed. Whether it's Brinks managing the Coin Stars or people emptying their jars, they are being returned to the bank, and the bank sells them back to the retailers (or to those of us who CRH). My bank is encouraging folks to return cents to them as the local retailers are running low. They will still sell me some but only a few rolls at a time depending on what they currently have on hand.

 

Sigh... not really the point of this thread, but since you brought it up, I feel a need to say something...

There's no default assumption that any particular person is trying to steal something, but yes part of our job is making sure people are scanning all their items correctly. I've corrected people that have over scanned their items too. I am also there to give assistance, especially on large and heavy items, and intervene on certain things that a customer can't do themselves (including measuring things that are sold by the foot, checking ID on age-restricted items such as spray paint, entering items that have to be entered manually, and helping them with items that can't be scanned because the barcode is damaged or missing.)

And every register openly has a camera pointed at it, and we make no secret of that fact; customers are even shown what the camera is recording. Actual stealing at assisted checkout is quite rare, but it does happen. As far as my job goes, we are supposed to document acts of theft or acts of attempted theft, but only the asset protection officers are allowed to directly confront people suspected of theft. We're just supposed to observe and take reasonable precautions against it happening. Like "did you ring that item up?" if they claim they did, we're supposed to take them at their word, even if we know they're lying... but then report it after they left.

If you're not stealing anything there's no reason to be paranoid and in my experience people NOT stealing something are the ones that go out of their way to convince you they're not. Actual thieves will do anything to not bring attention to themselves.

A store is a place of public accommodation, and the store has the right to observe whatever you do there, anywhere in the store (except obviously, inside of the restrooms). There's effectively no difference between being on a camera and a human being just directly looking at you. We want people to know we're watching and we make no secret of the fact we are, because it reduces the number of people even attempting to steal. People still try, and people still succeed, but it does reduce it significantly.

If you're an honest customer you should be happy we're doing this, because any revenue we lose to theft is a cost that will eventually get passed down to you. We're saving you money by watching.

 

I go to a few places each day and pay cash. They all are rounding. I'm not sure many even care.

 

A few businesses have signs posted about a penny shortage but 90% of the stores are not having any problems. I’m sure that will change but for now if it wasn’t on the news I wouldn’t know anything changed.

 

I checked out items in three separate transactions at the H-T self-checkout today.

It made me wait for the attendant to come and review the overhead footage FOUR times. I was getting a little cranky by the last time. Especially since the attendant was taking a good long while to respond each time - not helping anyone else, not even on her phone, just staring into space.

 

I know what the point of the thread is. ~sigh~ I was answering
2 posts with my response.