Have you ever been so annoyed...

[Morticia]

... You walk out of a store without even looking for what you want?
I just realized I never asked for the item I wanted in the store because I was so bothered by the clerk I had to listen to as she carried on a 100 decibel 'conversation' with a customer who had actually stopped even answering her questions he was that annoyed!
Another customer walked by and commented that it looked like they needed a few more hands to help everyone. Chatty Cathy interrupted her own speech to take on this new thread - well, that's retail for you. Never enough help. We just do what we can. Always busy. Run off our feet. Etc.
If I had to work with her I would quit. As it was I walked out just to get away from her incessant chatter.
And, I didn't get what I went in to look at! Never even found it, I was so put off by her.

 

[Highlands John]

I'm not very patient in stores at the best of times. Just this weekend I was queuing in a clothing store with a few items, the girl on the till is taking ages to serve the woman in front of me, then she disappears off to the warehouse to get a click-and-collect item and is gone ages, there's no other tills open, in fact no other staff to be seen. In the end I dumped my items on the till counter and walked out.
I don't like this fake friendliness on supermarket checkouts either, a bit of small talk about the weather is fine, but this thing about asking what I'm doing the rest of the day I find intrusive. I know they're told to do this, the till probably prompts them to, but for me it crosses a line.

 

[Jcam]

I'm not very patient in stores at the best of times. Just this weekend I was queuing in a clothing store with a few items, the girl on the till is taking ages to serve the woman in front of me, then she disappears off to the warehouse to get a click-and-collect item and is gone ages, there's no other tills open, in fact no other staff to be seen. In the end I dumped my items on the till counter and walked out.
I don't like this fake friendliness on supermarket checkouts either, a bit of small talk about the weather is fine, but this thing about asking what I'm doing the rest of the day I find intrusive. I know they're told to do this, the till probably prompts them to, but for me it crosses a line..

sad as it seems its why we do self check out everywhere we can! our waitrose staff are super nice though we always chat a little with them.

 

[Highlands John]

I'm not very patient in stores at the best of times. Just this weekend I was queuing in a clothing store with a few items, the girl on the till is taking ages to serve the woman in front of me, then she disappears off to the warehouse to get a click-and-collect item and is gone ages, there's no other tills open, in fact no other staff to be seen. In the end I dumped my items on the till counter and walked out.
I don't like this fake friendliness on supermarket checkouts either, a bit of small talk about the weather is fine, but this thing about asking what I'm doing the rest of the day I find intrusive. I know they're told to do this, the till probably prompts them to, but for me it crosses a line..

sad as it seems its why we do self check out everywhere we can! our waitrose staff are super nice though we always chat a little with them.
.

Some of the checkout girls in our local Asda are genuinely chatting and friendly which I like but most you know are just going through the script and it's painful.
Like you I tend to use the self serve checkouts as often as I can, partly to avoid the chatter partly because I'm a bit of a techy freak.

 

[GoodScout]

I never do self-checkout. Never.
I feel like if HomeDepot, the grocery store, the drug store, or anywhere else wants me to do a checkout clerk's job, they should pay me to do it.
I'm not doing their work for them, taking away a job from an American so some corporation can throw an extra half penny to its stockholders.
/rant

 

[Jcam]

I never do self-checkout. Never.
I feel like if HomeDepot, the grocery store, the drug store, or anywhere else wants me to do a checkout clerk's job, they should pay me to do it.
I'm not doing their work for them, taking away a job from an American so some corporation can throw an extra half penny to its stockholders.
/rant.

See where I am we have negative unemployment staff are all run ragged and constantly recruiting just gives them better chance to help the 1 million little old ladies (we are a retirement town) while I zip through the zero queue at the back!

 

[Generic]

I never do self-checkout. Never.
I feel like if HomeDepot, the grocery store, the drug store, or anywhere else wants me to do a checkout clerk's job, they should pay me to do it.
I'm not doing their work for them, taking away a job from an American so some corporation can throw an extra half penny to its stockholders.
/rant.

And then there is this... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-labour-fast-food-1.4298476

 

[TheBeachHouse]

I was checking out at the grocery store and the kid doing the scanning was slow. And talking to the bagger. So she'd tell a story, then scan an item, then talk, then scan, then talk....
I said, "Can you please do this first and talk later?"
She was p!ssed, but she moved faster.

 

[Highlands John]

I never do self-checkout. Never.
I feel like if HomeDepot, the grocery store, the drug store, or anywhere else wants me to do a checkout clerk's job, they should pay me to do it.
I'm not doing their work for them, taking away a job from an American so some corporation can throw an extra half penny to its stockholders.
/rant.

And then there is this... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-labour-fast-food-1.4298476
.

Sounds like people wont work there because they get better paid jobs elsewhere plus less restaurants selling unhealthy crap. Seems like a win-win to me.

 

[Generic]

I never do self-checkout. Never.
I feel like if HomeDepot, the grocery store, the drug store, or anywhere else wants me to do a checkout clerk's job, they should pay me to do it.
I'm not doing their work for them, taking away a job from an American so some corporation can throw an extra half penny to its stockholders.
/rant.

And then there is this... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-labour-fast-food-1.4298476
.

Sounds like people wont work there because they get better paid jobs elsewhere plus less restaurants selling unhealthy crap. Seems like a win-win to me.
.

It's just manifesting itself there. We have low unemployment, especially in minimum wage jobs and getting reliable people at minimum wages is difficult. It doesn't manifest itself in the city because they likely can afford to pay more if they have to, to get employees. But often we see businesses that are short staffed.... and you need a bloodhound to find an employee.

 

[Arks]

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. That's because of all the people in the long lines at the regular check-outs, wanting someone else to do the scanning for them.
Same with the bank drive through. I almost always drive up to one of the tubes available, and my business is done in seconds, vs. waiting in the long line of cars who are afraid of the tubes and wanting to go to the window with a teller sitting there.
Then there are the people who won't leave a message on answering machines, so they have to call and call to get a human. I love the technology. Works great for me.

 

[Highlands John]

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. That's because of all the people in the long lines at the regular check-outs, wanting someone else to do the scanning for them.
Same with the bank drive through. I almost always drive up to one of the tubes available, and my business is done in seconds, vs. waiting in the long line of cars who are afraid of the tubes and wanting to go to the window with a teller sitting there.
Then there are the people who won't leave a message on answering machines, so they have to call and call to get a human. I love the technology. Works great for me..

Same here.
Same at the petrol station, do I want to queue behind other people who then have to go into the shop to pay or drive straight up to the empty automatic pumps, fill up and drive off.
Some Tesco supermarkets over here have "scan as you shop" which we love. You pick up a hand set at the door of the store, you scan your items as you put them in your trolley as you go round, which means you can also pack your bags as you go too. You then walk past all the tills with people queuing and unloading all their shopping on to the belt so then can then load it all back into the trolley again. Walk up to the "scan-as-you-shop" tills which invariably are empty, scan the code on the till, pay and leave, sometimes a member of staff has to do a random scan of a few items. It's brilliant.
The cash-and-carry/wholesaler has this system now too.

 

[Jcam]

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. That's because of all the people in the long lines at the regular check-outs, wanting someone else to do the scanning for them.
Same with the bank drive through. I almost always drive up to one of the tubes available, and my business is done in seconds, vs. waiting in the long line of cars who are afraid of the tubes and wanting to go to the window with a teller sitting there.
Then there are the people who won't leave a message on answering machines, so they have to call and call to get a human. I love the technology. Works great for me..

Same here.
Same at the petrol station, do I want to queue behind other people who then have to go into the shop to pay or drive straight up to the empty automatic pumps, fill up and drive off.
Some Tesco supermarkets over here have "scan as you shop" which we love. You pick up a hand set at the door of the store, you scan your items as you put them in your trolley as you go round, which means you can also pack your bags as you go too. You then walk past all the tills with people queuing and unloading all their shopping on to the belt so then can then load it all back into the trolley again. Walk up to the "scan-as-you-shop" tills which invariably are empty, scan the code on the till, pay and leave, sometimes a member of staff has to do a random scan of a few items. It's brilliant.
The cash-and-carry/wholesaler has this system now too.
.

our whole saler does this too - we don't buy that much there but you will see people with about 4 trollys of stuff making them hand scan it all - on for ages! why wouldn't you just scan as you go for all that? mystry!

 

[JimBoone]

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. That's because of all the people in the long lines at the regular check-outs, wanting someone else to do the scanning for them.
Same with the bank drive through. I almost always drive up to one of the tubes available, and my business is done in seconds, vs. waiting in the long line of cars who are afraid of the tubes and wanting to go to the window with a teller sitting there.
Then there are the people who won't leave a message on answering machines, so they have to call and call to get a human. I love the technology. Works great for me..

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. I love the technology. Works great for me.

I don't like waiting in line so works for me as well if I have a few items, but with a couple of carts of stuff it doesn't work that well for me.

 

[Arks]

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. That's because of all the people in the long lines at the regular check-outs, wanting someone else to do the scanning for them.
Same with the bank drive through. I almost always drive up to one of the tubes available, and my business is done in seconds, vs. waiting in the long line of cars who are afraid of the tubes and wanting to go to the window with a teller sitting there.
Then there are the people who won't leave a message on answering machines, so they have to call and call to get a human. I love the technology. Works great for me..

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. I love the technology. Works great for me.

I don't like waiting in line so works for me as well if I have a few items, but with a couple of carts of stuff it doesn't work that well for me.
.

...with a couple of carts of stuff it doesn't work that well for me.

Right. Those self-serve kiosks are set up for smaller purchases, I guess so it's easier for one employee to monitor 7 kiosks at once.

 

[notAgrandma]

There have been a few times that I've walked out without purchasing anything. Most times it's because there weren't self-checkout lanes and there were no clerks to be found, or the lines were super long and it wasn't worth it.
The only time I've ever walked out because I was annoyed was due to a customer talking politics to the clerk. A smart clerk would've remained neutral. This clerk chose to side with the customer and bash the political party that I identify with. (I'll refrain from getting into details here - not appropriate or relevant.) I called a manager over, dumped my items on the counter, and explained why I wasn't purchasing $100 worth of items at our local botanical garden.

 

[Generic]

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. That's because of all the people in the long lines at the regular check-outs, wanting someone else to do the scanning for them.
Same with the bank drive through. I almost always drive up to one of the tubes available, and my business is done in seconds, vs. waiting in the long line of cars who are afraid of the tubes and wanting to go to the window with a teller sitting there.
Then there are the people who won't leave a message on answering machines, so they have to call and call to get a human. I love the technology. Works great for me..

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. I love the technology. Works great for me.

I don't like waiting in line so works for me as well if I have a few items, but with a couple of carts of stuff it doesn't work that well for me.
.

...with a couple of carts of stuff it doesn't work that well for me.

Right. Those self-serve kiosks are set up for smaller purchases, I guess so it's easier for one employee to monitor 7 kiosks at once.
.

Around here, after certain hours the large stores have an employee limit... just 4 on the floor after certain hours or days. Keeps WallyWorld from staying open late. But 4 registers for 1 employee makes things move a little faster.
No employees other than at the cash.

 

[Northern Dreamer]

I never do self-checkout. Never.
I feel like if HomeDepot, the grocery store, the drug store, or anywhere else wants me to do a checkout clerk's job, they should pay me to do it.
I'm not doing their work for them, taking away a job from an American so some corporation can throw an extra half penny to its stockholders.
/rant.

Rant On!
Well don't go to Menards then...the cashier rings up the item and thats it!!!
You load it in the cart while you shop, you put it on the conveyor belt, they ring it up, you swipe/insert credit card details, then you have to load all your purchases back in the cart or bag it...while they start ringing up the next customer! Then they stand there and watch me, annoyed that the next customer's stuff is now bumping into mine at the end of the conveyor...which only makes me bag and load my cart the much S-L-O-W-E-R!!!
I am not sure what they are getting paid for, but I am doing most of their job now as all they do is "stand & scan"
OK, just wanted to add my 2 cents!

 

[Highlands John]

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. That's because of all the people in the long lines at the regular check-outs, wanting someone else to do the scanning for them.
Same with the bank drive through. I almost always drive up to one of the tubes available, and my business is done in seconds, vs. waiting in the long line of cars who are afraid of the tubes and wanting to go to the window with a teller sitting there.
Then there are the people who won't leave a message on answering machines, so they have to call and call to get a human. I love the technology. Works great for me..

I love self check-out because I can almost always walk right up to an empty terminal and I'm gone in seconds. I love the technology. Works great for me.

I don't like waiting in line so works for me as well if I have a few items, but with a couple of carts of stuff it doesn't work that well for me.
.

...with a couple of carts of stuff it doesn't work that well for me.

Right. Those self-serve kiosks are set up for smaller purchases, I guess so it's easier for one employee to monitor 7 kiosks at once.
.

Our Asda has self checkout lanes with a belt, so set up for large loads, but I want a real person if I have a trolley full, especially if I'm on my own.

 

[Highlands John]

I never do self-checkout. Never.
I feel like if HomeDepot, the grocery store, the drug store, or anywhere else wants me to do a checkout clerk's job, they should pay me to do it.
I'm not doing their work for them, taking away a job from an American so some corporation can throw an extra half penny to its stockholders.
/rant.

Rant On!
Well don't go to Menards then...the cashier rings up the item and thats it!!!
You load it in the cart while you shop, you put it on the conveyor belt, they ring it up, you swipe/insert credit card details, then you have to load all your purchases back in the cart or bag it...while they start ringing up the next customer! Then they stand there and watch me, annoyed that the next customer's stuff is now bumping into mine at the end of the conveyor...which only makes me bag and load my cart the much S-L-O-W-E-R!!!
I am not sure what they are getting paid for, but I am doing most of their job now as all they do is "stand & scan"
OK, just wanted to add my 2 cents!
.

That annoys me when the start putting the next customers things down before you've finished.
We have a discount supermarket aldi here (we have two in the area now, plus a Lidl), they sell very few big brands, but you save quite a bit of money over the big supermarket and on the whole I've always been happy with the things I've bought there. They also stock a lot of Scottish products which I prefer to buy and give to my guests.
They have a system where you put all your items on the conveyor then you back your trolley up next to the assistant and they ring it through and chuck it back in your trolley. They're super fast and you're expected to then take your trolley to the counter behind the tills and bag up there. I guess it helps them keep their staff costs down by allowing people to get through the checkouts faster. They're also super efficient at opening new tills when required, which is great.