Quote: Original post by LessBread
Did they sell that change to you with promises of improvement and/or progress? Self-check out machines empower you!

They weren't really 'sold' they just started turning up one day and I generally find them faster to use.

Yes, you sometimes get a few slack jawed yokel types for whom reading a few instructions on the screen and touching it is still apprently too complicated, and on rare occasions the weight system goes a bit 'odd' but those are, in my experiance, rare events and are more than made up for by the increase in speed and my ability to control my own packing.

In contrast I've had slack jawed yokel till operators who can't pack a bag, can't put stuff through properly and generally take longer than it takes me to process things on my own.

I don't care for empowering, or improvements, or even their jobs. I care about my time and at lunch time or buying food every minute wasted by someone elses inability to do a job they have probably been doing for years, and that I can apprently do better without any 'training', is a moment I could be doing something I want to do rather than have to do. (I'm seriously considering, when I move for my new job, just getting shopping delivered. Might even work out cheaper as I won't impulse buy stuff...)

Not sure its 100% apples to apples, but I watched a Coloquium Lecture from the University of Washington once about RFID tags, and at one point in the lecture the speaker goes over how to address one out of many RFID tags that are in range. After explaining it he goes on to do a simple excercise with the audience applying the approach. Quite informative.

I haven't looked, but I imagine you can find it online somewhere. I happened to have caught it on the local University Television station.

Personally I love the self-checkout lanes -- never have much of a problem, though it certainly is annoying when there is one. Here there's usually one attendant for no more than about 8 stations, so you don't have to wait long for service when you need.

The best part is avoiding the young nitwits who can barely make proper change, and the slow, elderly checkers who want to chat with you for 3 minutes while you purchase a basket of breakfast items.