The Joys (and Pains) of Self-Checkout

Well, they've been around for a while, and I don't hear nearly as much complaining about them anymore. Probably because we've gotten a little more used to them. I'm talking about self-checkout stands.

I use them when I shop, as long as I don't have a whole cart full of items to check. When you have too many items, you have to be some sort of ninja-trained Jenga expert to get everything set in the bagging area.

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The one thing I don't love is that if you're buying alcohol, you set off the flashing light. Then you have to get the key master, who sometimes isn't even old enough to drink, to decide if you get to take your hooch home or not. Or when you set off the flashing light because you can't find the UPC code, and the same kid with the keys has to come back over and be disappointed that I'm not a better checker. That's because I don't work here.

I see where Albertsons had to put up a sign asking customers in the self-checkout to limit themselves to 15 items. Now, Target needs to do that. I got behind some lady who must have bought 25 kids' outfits. So she had to take them out of the cart, take the hangers off, toss those in the hanger return, then scan them, then fold them neatly and place them in the sack. You're killing me.

One thing I like about the self-checkout is that you can tell how much people hate talking to the cashiers by how good of a self-checker they are.