I do a large grocery shop every two weeks. In the days pre-vehicle, I would drag a large collapsible cart behind me and walk 14 blocks to the largest grocery store in the vicinity (large by Manhattan standards; outright dinky by any suburban standards). This particular grocery had a reasonable selection of produce and protein stuffs, but it was always crowded, had very narrow aisles and carried an odor that I couldn't exactly pinpoint the genesis of.
As soon as I purchased a vehicle, I retired the cart. I now drive 18 miles to an uber Stop & Shop in Westchester where I have a whole multitude of choices. I load up my cart with abandon. Once home, the groceries are loaded onto a luggage cart and schlepped upstairs. It's positively civil.
One thing I particularly enjoy about the Stop & Shop emporium is the check out options. One can select the traditional in-person cashier or one may choose to do self-check out. Personally, I prefer self check out. There's something very self important about scanning the bar codes on packaged foods and punching in item codes for a head of cabbage. Because self checkout is utterly automated, you enjoy the sensation of an electronic voice verifying each purchase and reminding you to take your receipt. The voice is always friendly and warm, ensuring you'll want to return time and time again to Stop & Shop.
On a drive to work this week, Hollaback and I enjoyed the presence of Jewels and we got on the discussion of self check out in grocery stores. Jewels agreed that he and his other half, Scott, enjoyed the same exercise at their local grocery. He mentioned that after they had completed the scanning of their items, the voice in their store reminds them to "check your basket." Invariably, Scott will grab his crotch in compliance with the automated command.
You gotta appreciate it.
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3 comments:
I can't stand self checkout. It always tells me to either place item in bag after I've already done so, which forces me to take item back out, then re-place it in bag, which makes the voice get angry, and it tells the machine to refuse to scan any more of my items. Of course then I have to call the attendant over, and s/he is usually busy helping another customer whose voice is angry at them, and so I have to wait, and the people behind me start to grumble and sigh a lot, which causes me to start to have a panic attack. I then remove everything from the bag, planning to start over, which only makes the voice angrier. Often I have to leave in tears, full basket and half full bags still in the line, angry customers chasing me with sticks.
I don't do automatic checkout. I think you can appreciate why.
Jules, I can relate, but usually my problems stem from receiving assistance from a 5 year old. If I'm helper free, I can do the self check out. Now at Home Depot...that's a different story all together.
Self checkout may be taking jobs away.
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