My local supermarket has 12 self serve tills manned by one employee.
I love self serve but that's ficking ridiculous.
this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2026
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Remember, kids: it's not a breadline if the capitalists make you wait in line for no damned reason.
The grocery stores lines are nothing compared to drive-thru and parent picking up their kids lines. Plus they're wasting a fuck ton of fuel too.
But twins?
Theft was so bad at the Home Depot in Cleveland they replaced the cashiers. Now it's awkward. They didn't bring back the old counter so the cashier uses the self checkout for you
Panel 3 : 2 cashiers in middle of empty ones and solid people/carts queued up to get in both.
I really dislike that most groceries don't have one big line that feeds into registers. It's just stupid to allow me to get stuck behind someone who's arguing about a coupon for 5 minutes while people who came after me flow through the other registers.
The grocery by me also never seems to have enough checkout staff to keep the lines short. There's a lot of people with full carts, and no express line. I end up waiting for 10 minutes to buy some bread and bananas .
More grocery stores around me are creating this: one line to a huge silo of like 15+ self checkouts and one employee that just like corrals you to whatever is open and helps out with issues
In grocery stores that have more trust for the community this can work really well however it may be a double edged sword: Wegmans has a very pleasant experience for example. The scanners are effective, they don’t bother weighing your bag to make sure you didn’t steal, they can even auto identify produce with shocking accuracy, and they still keep several manned lanes open. However, that last point is key as Wegmans has rolled out facial recognition technology to track shoppers. That is probably the main reason they feel comfortable lowering their guard in those ways and it’s far worse imo. What’s even more fucked up is that this is mainly widely known bc New York requires them to post signs informing people who enter the store of this, whereas other states where they operate like PA and NJ don’t have this regulation and they silently track customers
It’s frustrating beyond belief that once again we have to trade our dignity for a reasonable experience
Trader Joe's has one line that feeds into all the registers, and all the registers are open & manned by overly-friendly attentive workers.
Where? I saw that at a TJs in NYC once, but never any of the other 20+ TJs locations I've visited.
Where? At that TJ's in NYC.
TBH I think this is relatively common in NYC but not elsewhere in the USA (just like making appointments at the DMV, like catch up, everywhere else).
Checkers (in South Africa) has two big lines, each serving about 10 registers. I imagine having two is slightly more efficient than having one, because the next person doesn't have to walk as far
I recall buying Biltong from Checkers. Best damn beef jerky on the planet!
Checkers (in South Africa) has two big lines, each serving about 10 registers
That's just a holdover from apartheid.
That was an attempt at a joke but I'm not sure if it was actually funny or not. Surely this disclaimer will fix it (anything to avoid the '/s')
I end up waiting for 10 minutes to buy some bread and bananas
I could literally walk down to the end of the street and buy my bananas from the gentleman who's been operating the same produce stall for the last decade, then a loaf of bread from the bakery next door, and be home within 10 minutes. I don't want to make assumptions, but if bread and bananas requires you to travel to a packed general store, wherever you live, it's a city planning hellscape.
That’s the US and supermarket dominance for ya.
US zoning laws are a fucking farce. They were developed to facilitate racial segregation in the 1910s and never really went away.
I’d say it’s the automobile that ruined it all.
Racism comes in more with white flight and suburban sprawl. Then it all collapses.
The automobile was just one additional way to do the racism.
You live in the suburbs and drive to the shopping malls because the blacks can’t afford the cars to get there.
Literally a society designed on apartheid.
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Hey that's all of Norway more or less. There's bakeries you could buy bread in for the low low price of 10 grocery breads, but you won't find anything else edible in a stall or small shop unless you're in one of the biggest cities.
I'm a believer in a future where there's only grocery stores in norway, everything else will be bought online and shipped.
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I'm curious what region you're from. I've never heard of grocery stores being called groceries. I've only ever heard the products from grocery stores called groceries.
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The Costco near me used to have one single line for all lanes of self checkout machines, it was great. Then some months ago they switched it to a line per lane and I hate it so much. I think it's just stupid "perceptions" — people probably just "feel like" it takes longer when it's one long line, so they're happy to wait longer in a shorter line because visually "their turn is coming soon."
100% about perception, but doesn't mean it's not valid. One long line that's constantly moving is better than a small line that's stuck for a while. Also, as you mentioned, it prevents issues when one of the checkouts is stuck for whatever reason. The line would still move, just a bit slower.
I think I've read that it is about perception, which is up there with children thinking the tall, narrow, glass has more water after pouring the short wide glass into it.
Very “1/4 pound burger is larger than a 1/3 pound burger because 4>3” coded.
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I've learned a few things standing in grocery lines. Look for cashiers on the younger side, they just tend to work quicker and less small talk. Look for lines with no elderly, they are the ones who complain about the price tag showing 5 cents cheaper or an expired coupon, pay by check etc.. Look for no kids with parents, the parents get distracted and things just go wrong.
It's not a perfect system, but it's saved me many times.
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Time to use the self checkout to save time!
- Please wait 5 minutes for an associate to verify you aren't stealing
- Please wait another 5 minutes for an associate because you scanned alcohol
- please wait yet another 5 minutes for an associate because we just do that if you have too many items
- please wait for, believe it not, another 5 minutes for an associate because our coupons just never work at the self checkout
- please wait 5 more minutes because fuck you that's why
No thanks, I'll just go to the regular checkout lane from now on.
Unexpected item in the bagging area
Never had any issue like that.
- If someone doesn’t show up for the random bag check in 30 seconds or so it just automatically skips it.
- If you scan alcohol it just beeps on the hand-terminal of the person overseeing the self checkout area and they take one look and click approve if you look old enough. You can just keep scanning while that happens. If you look young enough that you need to show ID then they usually show up within seconds anyway.
The rest of the things you mention just never happen.
Self checkout is a godsend. No more waiting in line. No more awkward small talk with the cashier. No more unpacking and repacking your groceries.
if you need to get a lot of stuff you just grab a portable scanner at the entrance or use your phone. Scan and bag while you go through the store, then return the scanner and just scan your phone at the self-checkout terminal and pay. Zero friction.
it seems in some countries they just don't want self-checkout to actually work
Self checkout has gotten better. Back in the day they didn't work for crap. But it's still often a matter of luck of the draw and whether or not there is a god somewhere that decides to piss on your parade that day.
In the immortal words of Dirty Harry, "Do ya feel lucky punk? Well, do ya?"
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Had to explain to my daughter why there are so many empty checkout lanes, and it struck me that I’m gonna have to explain a lot of ruins of a civilization that used to be a bit more human.
Why is there so much empty space around the fast food kiosks? Did they used to have longer lines?
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