Don’t tell me I don’t know how to have fun on a Friday night. After 12 hours of editing in my pajamas, what I really wanted to do was get dressed and take my bad skin and hair out into a brightly lit depersonalized future retail experience. Utopian or Dystopian? You decide.
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i love self checkout. i think i always wanted to be a check out girl.
I’ve been discussing this video with my wife for a few minutes (btw she said you are quite handsome, but I’ll deal with that later) about how it’s pretty un-imaginable for us here to have a lane where people are supposed to voluntary pay for what they take 🙂
I don’t know where GoGen is, but I see self-checkout stuff everywhere. What’s funny to me is they keep a few employees at the end of the self-checkout stations who watch them, presumably to assist if you need help, but really to make sure you actually pay for your items. I always think they should just employ them as checkout staff; they have to stand there anyway.
I love self checkout as well. I see those “helpers” too, Cheryl … but there’s usually only 1 of them for up to 4 lanes of self checkout.
We’ve been internet shopping for so long that I haven’t been into a big supermarket here for ages. So I don’t know how long they’ve been here – seemed pretty freaky to my screen-fried brain at 9pm. And I couldn’t understand what was stopping me swiping the barcode, pretending to pay and walking out with the DVD player. Nothing except my conscience, I guess. I agree, Gogen, it doesn’t make any sense that a shop would be that trusting. I mean, in Wales I can kind of imagine it working, Trine… London, not so much. Reckon they need to get some of those watcher/helpers that Cheryl and Dave are talking about. I was talking to a video camera phone like a madman, for God’s sake. And whatever Gogen’s wife says, I looked like a bum. And there wasn’t a store detective in sight.
Hold on, I’m going to go back and get me a free telly.
Rupert, I think they’ve got security cameras, so they must have the capacity to record video of you or get your photo if you steal. I think here, electronics (like DVD players) have a magnetized strip that will trigger door alarms – you have to set the box down on a particular surface at the checkout table, and when your payment goes through it’s demagnetized. That’s how you can leave without setting off alarms.
Of course that’s all a fantasy of how I think it works. I don’t actually know.
But I’ve seen people set off the door alarms because they never set the item down.
And then there’s the amusing experience I had. Certain items like alcohol can only be purchased if you’re of a particular age. But there’s no warning or reminder about not using self-checkout with those items. I tried to skirt a long checkout line by buying a $1.00 tube of glue at self checkout, but I had to stand there and wait for 5 minutes for an overworked helper girl to come over, look at my ID, and tell the machine that I was old enough to buy glue.
i belive the barcode is deactivated once scanned, so it wont trip the alarm as you exit. Not sure how I feel about self service checkouts, they are conveient and are appearing more and more here, but they do feel impersonal and another step towards that Children Of Men dehumanised robotic future i am dreading…
BTW, Tesco’s is Coming to California. I miss their Veggie Meatloaf. wonder if they still make it?
I usually use self checkout too. What I found interesting is the voice is the same, but of course, with a British accent. Makes me wonder what “she” sounds like in other countries…
Commenting from Arizona, USA.
I love self checkout.