this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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I’m gonna be so real, I prefer self-checkout whenever possible. The “employee discount” is just an occasional bonus
I don't.
Every single thing involves me getting the attention of the 1 guy who is responsible for minding like 10 of them.
I have seen only one implementation of this that I like so far, in Decathlon. You dump your shopping basket in the machine's basket, you don't even have to know what is in there and the machine automatically picks everything up by their nfc tags. It has never failed for me and you don't need to search for any tags or barcodes. You pay, you can pick up all yours stuff and dump it in your bag and you are ready to go.
The polar opposite experience is the one you describe and for those shops I avoid the machines if I can.
My experience is from Norwegian shops, so it might differ from the standards in elsewhere.
Having lived in both the US and Denmark, I'd say the listed problems are much more prevalent in the US. The ID check being a pain, the double bar code, discounts not being applied.
It's just a better experience here than the US lol I'm guessing it's similar in Norway
Not to mention it takes twice as long because you're unloading an entire trolley onto a space that holds maybe 4 items, you're scanning, and you're bagging. There's no area to actually work and put all your shit, this doesn't even include the 4-12 times you need the person to come fix the broken machine, but that 1 person is busy fixing 4 other people's broken machines.
Something that would take you and a professional working together 5 minutes ends up taking 10+ minutes
Wait, you guys have to unload everything at the register and scan it there?! No wonder you hate that shit. In Sweden we have a portable scanner that we bring with us through the store, and you can remove stuff yourself. Removes most of the hassle. There might still be items that need checking or an ID check, but the former usually doesn't take long, and the latter they can do remotely if you look way above the required age. Saves a shit ton of time, since there's very often a queue at the regular registers.
I have absolutely never had that experience, it's always the opposite. I'm in, I'm out. The good thing is, if you don't like self-check you can go through the clerk line and vice versa.
There is a severe lack of space if you're getting a lot of items and no good way to remove full bags without the thing yelling at you.
I used to scan and bag groceries in high school and the scanners on the self checkout slow me down significantly as well. Constantly flagging items as not bagged if I scan the next item too fast (even when bagged) or for not scanning items if I dare have something in my right hand while bagging with my left.
And yeah, I'll avoid the one line with a human where they're 4 deep with 50 items each wanting to pay with checks still.
Stores vary. In mine there's ample bagging space and the self-check limit is 15 items anyway.
Years ago they used to do that here. If they did that now though, with only one register with a person, you'd easily be waiting 20 - 30 minutes to check out.
If you have more than like three things get the hell out of the self-checkout lane. I'm so sick of being behind a person getting fifteen different kinds of produce that all need to be entered manually while I wait with my single gallon of milk.
Supermarkets in my area have had separate basket and trolley self-checkout areas for a good while. Basket ones are what you describe, trolley ones have enough space for a trolley on one side and about three or four times as much packing area on the other
You can avoid this by just ringing up all produce as bananas.
So, ten dollars?
What is the cheapest tomato? That's the tomato you ring up. Oops, silly old me, making a mistake anyone could make.
Loose romas
I actually would like to do that but I live in Canada and in February there cheapest tomato choosing is hard.
Red tomato might be a green house tomato and cost more than you might think.
This combined with the shit interface that truncates the names and is slow as hell makes it annoying.
In my experience (L.A.) the tomatoes each have stickers on them, with either a scan code or a number code. But you're right the whole thing is a PITA
Carrots are cheaper.
If you can find them sold by weight. Most stores in my area sell them in big, pre-weighed bags.
Self check-outs at a fast food place (or boba tea etc.) are great because you can ensure that everything is correct and to your liking before making payment.
But they’re absolutely atrocious for any transaction where you’ve already picked out a half-dozen items or more.
Advantage: when somebody is taking so long it seems like they're figuring out their taxes, you're not stuck behind them because the one line goes to multiple stations. At least where I shop.
Wild guess, you're American? Because every story I hear about self checkouts in the US is this. Meanwhile in actual first world countries where they are modern systems you very rarely have any of these issues. Even my experiences in Croatia and Spain from 20 years ago had solved most of this (and please, I'm not dissing them. I'm a Swede and my experience is just that Scandinavia is on the forefront of stuff like this.) I haven't had to grab the attention of a worker for so many years, and from what I see with other shoppers it's the same for them. The workers seem bored if anything because they so rarely have to help someone even with one person minding twenty of them at the larger stores.
I prefer self checkout since they have to hire at least 2 person that I have scanned everything instead of 1 person to do the scanning.
Or I get something for free.
Wow yeah I bought a six pack of Coke or something and the scanner picked up the UPC on the cardboard carrier AND one bottle, like fuck off you're charging me an extra bottle! Took a while for the attendant to stroll over and lackadaisically fix it at his leisure.
Yeah, so I hit the grocery store two or three. Times during the week, usually getting stuff for dinner that night, fresh veggies, meat, that sorta thing. It makes sense with how my mornings lay out, and I prefer small trips. I'm at a point where I have this shit down by rote. Yes, there's some hiccups, like watermelon needing an employee because people use watermelon to steal apparently, but I kind of program in to the whole operation.
Larger orders, I'll hit an employee so I can bag while they scan.
At the end of the day, it's always about efficiency, and so it's generally best for me to self checkout.
I prefer it if I have like 8 items or less.
Anything more and I cant be bothered. Especially if it's groceries and there are codes to enter instead of barcodes to scan and weights to take.