Go Serve Yourself
Today I packed a giant suitcase with way too many pairs of shoes and left Petal around 4:00. On the way, I had a 45 minute conversation with my mom. She's still one-legged, and therefore unable to go to the grocery store. I told her I'd stop at Wal Mart in Hernando and get whatever she needed.
When I got to the Debble's Playground I was amazed at how easy it was to find everything on my list. No thought went into the list. I had written it while driving down the road at 80 mph and simultaneously talking on a cell phone, after all, but almost every item was found in the store in the exact order that it was on the list. Perhaps my mother is such an experienced grocery shopper that she knew instinctively how the store would be laid out-- despite the fact that she does almost all of her grocery shopping at Kroger. Or maybe she's just a really, really frequent shopper at Mal Wart. Or maybe it was luck. I'm betting on luck.
Whatever it was, as I strolled up and down each aisle I couldn't help but think about how fortunate I was that every item was practically jumping into my basket for me. After all, I had been driving for about four and a half hours, and I was nervous about the fact that I was inside the Wal Mart while my suitcase, laptop, birth certificate, social security card, marriage license, and a bunch of cash were in the car. Within five minutes, I had all 16 items checked off the list. I made my merry way to the front of the store to check out.
Lo and be-freakin'-hold, there was one register open. One register with a human, that is. Every single "self-check" register was open.
Now I don't mind checking myself out. I've learned that it's faster to just let a cashier do it, but sometimes it's worth it when the other lines are too long. I do mind, however, being forced to check myself out. It's just shitty customer service, plain and simple. But faced with the decision to either check myself out or walk to the opposite end of the line of registers to stand in line to be checked out by a human, I decided to check myself out.
If you've ever attempted to do this, you know how pushy and persnickety these self-check registers can be. You have to scan an item, then immediately place it in the bag. If you don't place it in the bagging area immediately, the machine knows you didn't bag the item and it won't let you check the next item until it either feels the weight in the bagging area or you push "skip bagging" on the screen. Every time you make a non-mistake that the machine doesn't like, a loud computerized voice chastises you like a child.
Place item in bagging area! Place item in bagging area!
It's a forty eight pack of paper towels! It can't be bagged!
*skip bagging*
Place item in the bagging area! Place item in bagging area!
I AM, dammit! Give me two seconds!
Scan your next item!
I'm still placing an item in the bagging area!
Scan your next item!
*scan*
Please wait for assistance!
ARRRRGH!
This time I had to push "skip bagging" several times because it wasn't sensing that the item was already in the freakin' God forsaken bagging area. Apparently, if you push "skip bagging" more than two or three times, it freaks out on you. I'm just sayin'. Cause it freaked out on me. It started flashing threats at me and screaming at me to STOP! STOP! Wait for assistance!
The lady who was standing at the little monitoring station where they stand and watch you do their job didn't exactly come running. I had to go get her. Do you think she punched in a code to tell the machine that I'm not a crook and that it's okay to let me proceed? Nnnno. She would scan an item, then hand it to me and say, "Now place this one in the bag." Then she would scan another item and hand it to me and say, "Now place this one in the bag." Seriously, she was talking to me like I was some kind of 'tard. The machine would not deal with my bananas because she scale was being a bastard. So once all of my items were scanned and bagged, she told me to go ahead and pay while she went to ring up my bananas on another register. While I paid with a debit card the lady weighed my bananas on the register next to me, then she went back to her job of watching me do her job. I then had to move over to that register and pay in cash for the bananas.
Call me crazy, but I'm thinkin' it would have been easier, faster, and less RIDICULOUS to just have that woman open a damn register and check people out.
When I got to the Debble's Playground I was amazed at how easy it was to find everything on my list. No thought went into the list. I had written it while driving down the road at 80 mph and simultaneously talking on a cell phone, after all, but almost every item was found in the store in the exact order that it was on the list. Perhaps my mother is such an experienced grocery shopper that she knew instinctively how the store would be laid out-- despite the fact that she does almost all of her grocery shopping at Kroger. Or maybe she's just a really, really frequent shopper at Mal Wart. Or maybe it was luck. I'm betting on luck.
Whatever it was, as I strolled up and down each aisle I couldn't help but think about how fortunate I was that every item was practically jumping into my basket for me. After all, I had been driving for about four and a half hours, and I was nervous about the fact that I was inside the Wal Mart while my suitcase, laptop, birth certificate, social security card, marriage license, and a bunch of cash were in the car. Within five minutes, I had all 16 items checked off the list. I made my merry way to the front of the store to check out.
Lo and be-freakin'-hold, there was one register open. One register with a human, that is. Every single "self-check" register was open.
Now I don't mind checking myself out. I've learned that it's faster to just let a cashier do it, but sometimes it's worth it when the other lines are too long. I do mind, however, being forced to check myself out. It's just shitty customer service, plain and simple. But faced with the decision to either check myself out or walk to the opposite end of the line of registers to stand in line to be checked out by a human, I decided to check myself out.
If you've ever attempted to do this, you know how pushy and persnickety these self-check registers can be. You have to scan an item, then immediately place it in the bag. If you don't place it in the bagging area immediately, the machine knows you didn't bag the item and it won't let you check the next item until it either feels the weight in the bagging area or you push "skip bagging" on the screen. Every time you make a non-mistake that the machine doesn't like, a loud computerized voice chastises you like a child.
Place item in bagging area! Place item in bagging area!
It's a forty eight pack of paper towels! It can't be bagged!
*skip bagging*
Place item in the bagging area! Place item in bagging area!
I AM, dammit! Give me two seconds!
Scan your next item!
I'm still placing an item in the bagging area!
Scan your next item!
*scan*
Please wait for assistance!
ARRRRGH!
This time I had to push "skip bagging" several times because it wasn't sensing that the item was already in the freakin' God forsaken bagging area. Apparently, if you push "skip bagging" more than two or three times, it freaks out on you. I'm just sayin'. Cause it freaked out on me. It started flashing threats at me and screaming at me to STOP! STOP! Wait for assistance!
The lady who was standing at the little monitoring station where they stand and watch you do their job didn't exactly come running. I had to go get her. Do you think she punched in a code to tell the machine that I'm not a crook and that it's okay to let me proceed? Nnnno. She would scan an item, then hand it to me and say, "Now place this one in the bag." Then she would scan another item and hand it to me and say, "Now place this one in the bag." Seriously, she was talking to me like I was some kind of 'tard. The machine would not deal with my bananas because she scale was being a bastard. So once all of my items were scanned and bagged, she told me to go ahead and pay while she went to ring up my bananas on another register. While I paid with a debit card the lady weighed my bananas on the register next to me, then she went back to her job of watching me do her job. I then had to move over to that register and pay in cash for the bananas.
Call me crazy, but I'm thinkin' it would have been easier, faster, and less RIDICULOUS to just have that woman open a damn register and check people out.
Labels: Bureaucratic Incompetence, stupid people, Wal Mart is The Debble
I can understand the attitude if the lady was older. The geezers there generally talk to everyone like they're their grandkids. Otherwise, it's pretty easy to see why she treated you like you're dumber than a trained chimp: Even monkeys can figure out how to get bananas!
Seriously though, those self-checkout machines are evil incarnate. You know the lady with WIC stamps who wants to cash a check and have a high-school reunion with the cashier? Yeah, I'll get in line behind her any day of the week before I use one of those self-checkout bastards.
Posted by
Stewed Hamm |
2:39 AM
I refuse to use the self-check unless my #1 son is with me. And I especially hate it when I have to wait in line to self-check. Whatever happened to that "You're always next in line" slogan?
I have been planning to shout at The Ddevil since yesterday. I am going to do it NOW.
Posted by
Hillbilly Mom |
2:47 PM