Checking Out

Self checkouts are one of the greatest and worst things to ever come to a grocery store.  If you know what a UPC is or a UPC scanner and you have just a few items, it's a huge time saver.  For example, if this is your shopping cart:

Then you're in the right line, because even if you're a moron and can't work the scanner, you can get through in less than 5 minutes.  On the other hand, if this is your cart:

(Yes, that's 2+ shopping carts full of stuff that they're sending through self checkout) Then you're a moron.  That's when you choose what I like to call the "full service" line when someone trained in scanning stuff through a UPC scanner and bagging it will assist you.  Even if you're a former cashier yourself (as I raise my hand) it's impossible to get through faster using self checkout in this situation because the barcode scanners are slower on the self checkouts and because of all the little audits and checks that the system does to prevent you from stealing.  This isn't anything like what they had in mind when they created these things.