Cashiers down here are SLOW as molasses. They were quick up north, "a sense of urgency" was an actual job requirement. I've been a supermarket cashier in three different states, I've been a supermarket customer in six states plus Canada. Florida, so far, is the absolute worst. The ******* even at Publix aren't taught to bag correctly; their big bagging employee video is more about cross contamination. They aren't taught to "square" or "frame" the bag, so you end up with bags tipping over, contents toppling out of bags, and often twice as many bags as the customer needs. Eggs and bread and two 2-pack mini catfood serving packages? Three bags! Or - put the eggs on the bottom. Put the bread on top of the eggs, and the cat food on top of the bread. Just one bag, weighing less than two pounds. Did you know you can fill a plastic grocery bag with up to four 2-litre bottles and they won't tip over or break the bag? Stronger-looking customers should be trusted to carry that. But instead, they're told one bottle per bag, standing up. So of course when you go to open one of them when you get home, you make sure to do it over the sink because they all inevitably fall over in the car and create a fizz-bomb.

I usually give the ****** a break when I shop anywhere they don't have self-service, because they don't know how to bag correctly. I use the self check-out everywhere else.

EXACTLY!!
I get no discount for doing the work you should be doing!!

Went to CVS the other day and brought my basket of stuff to the checkout area. There were three employees standing there as I waited at a cash register, but nobody helped me. I asked if someone there could ring up my stuff and was told I had to use the self checkout. I informed them that I didn’t want to self checkout and repeated that I would appreciate one of them ringing me up at a register. They responded again that I had to self check out and they could help me if necessary. I tossed my basket of stuff by a cash register and told them their help at the self checkout wouldn’t be necessary as I walked out the door. CVS’s loss, if the want my business someone can ring me up at a cash register, otherwise I’ll order the stuff on Amazon.

I have had poor ******* as well as good ones at some Publixes here in the Villages as well as those in Palm Harbor, Safety Harbor, and Oldsmar, FL.

Sometimes I have to do it myself again after I get back to my car or golf cart.

[QUOTE=Mamalea;2249198]Or the government.

Plus charge transaction fee on top of toll, so guess the automated system costs more than manual labor collecting tolls. After 10 years IMO the tolls should come off, but once start money making schemes it hard to stop them. Don’t say maintenance cause that why we pay 25 cents plus on gallon of gas.

simple, basic math
 

[QUOTE=Stu from NYC;2248713]Now that's a tough one. I'd have a pretty hard time designing a system that could *prevent* a capable human from learning addition and subtraction while still spending six or so hours a day, nine months out of the year, for several years, holed up in those classrooms.

It's always seemed to me that education isn't something that is done "to" you. Pretty sure there has to be some active effort on the part of the student. And, percentage-wise the knowledge that I have that came from a school is minute. Either you're curious enough to learn stuff or you ain't.

Rote learning isn't much fun, and most won't do it without practically having a gun to their head (or be self motivated). I can't be convinced that there's another way (besides rote). I recall noticing that the 4th-6th grade grammar books all looked almost identical, and I'm *certain* that they all had that same table of subjective and objective pronouns and where each should be used. Seriously boring stuff that we were *all* subjected to repeatedly. If you didn't learn it - and it seems to me that an amazingly large percentage of Americans didn't - I can't see how you put that on "the system" - unless you count the inability to enforce discipline or otherwise demand compliance.

Seems to me that "good schools" and "good teachers" equate to having the luxury of having "good students". Big nature over nurture guy here. . .

I shop little enough that I kind of get a kick out of the "self check-out" thing - *especially* now that I can nearly always use that little beeping gun - and especially now that I no longer seem to have to pause for that couple of seconds before consecutively beeping multiple, identical items. I *am* easily entertained. BTW, it's been over 50 years now since I was one of the fastest bagboys in the country. These little plastic bags are *so* tricky, though!

As to the patting down to get out the door, the apparent questioning of my integrity most definitely does still irk me, but weighed against waiting in lines, I've resigned myself to it being the lesser of two evils. Plus, it gives me a chance to test my skills at getting a giggle out of the "patter-downer". Seldom fail. :-)

Have never been a fan of paying folks to dig holes and then fill them back up, but I also don't understand how civilization works, even as well as it does - nor how we've gotten this far without much bigger problems manifesting over the use of nuclear weapons.

Last I heard, neither New Jersey nor Oregon would allow self-pumping of gasoline. Bad info? I'll de derned. Timely. New Jersey is the last state in America where drivers can't pump gas | CNN Business.

Bagboying
 

Wow. I defer to your superior skills!

Publix can afford hiring cashiers with the prices they charge.

So could you be bothered to ask to speak to the manager. You do know the employees could care less if you leave and not come back.

I like to have my groceries checked out but I prefer to bag my own groceries to assure it is done correctly. I worked at grocery stores from age 14 - 16 bagging groceries and actually still enjoy the process. I realize grocery stores receive tax incentives for hiring mentally challenged people to do that job nowadays and I am happy they are employed but I do want my groceries properly bagged.

Agree. Great system. Wish Costco would get scan and go.

It's not rocket science. When you scan an item, the machine makes a "beep" and the scanned item charge shows up on the screen. It's not difficult to see if your item was charged correctly. I will continue to use the self checkouts. I prefer them when I don't have a lot of items.

Except when you keep scanning an item over and over and there is no beep, or you have vision problems and can't see the screen, or you are overcharged on an item, or you scan an item and when you start placing it in the bag the register charges you again, or you have to use the scale and the register charges you an obscene amount, or you don't know the code for a product and it is not on the screen, or the credit card is not accepted, or the register will not take one of your bills. And, thoughout this process, the attendant has no interest in helping you. Easy to see why people hate self checkouts or just place some items in the bag and leave without paying for them.

Sometimes I get through self-checkout without a problem. Other times, it is a headache! Seems when something goes wrong, you cannot find an employee to help.

I use them all the time at Publix and have never been stopped to show my receipt. I’ve never seen a person checking at the door.

Sam's self check out works , until you want to buy beer or wine..... then it all comes to a screeching halt.....

Have you tried it? What happens?

Yes, many times....you have to go and look for a cashier that's not busy to come and approve your age... and that's not fun....

Self checkout.
 

What I find annoying is the store not keeping the price on the shelf accurate. So I just let my mind goof up and ring white onions as yellow onions and save the money. Yes it is stealing but they can spend some money and put cashiers back on the job. Actually the last time I used a real person cashier they stole my card information and charged hair straightener and other ethnic beauty products from a online california company. Vystar handled it eventually and told me it happens a lot at that particular walmart. That is my motivation for my petty slipups.

No problem with costco checkout.
 

Can’t complain about costco at all. Never takes me more than a minute or two for them to ring me up. Of course I have all the upc bars up so they can scan without moving anything.

I don't remember "grammar books" in grades 4-6. I remember reading books in earlier levels, stuff like Fun with Dick and Jane and similar. I distinctly remember our class reading The Hobbit in 6th grade, and I didn't learn how to diagram a sentence until high school. By then, though, I was already reading on a college level. After a disastrous First Grade reading class, I aced every writing and literature class through college graduation.

What gets me is that even most adult cashiers don't know how to "count up". I can't blame "the younger generation" because most of the cashiers at Publix are older than I am. If the total comes to $37.42 and you give them two twenties, three singles, 2 pennies, a dime and a nickel, they just give you a blank stare. Cashiers: it means the customer wants a $5 bill. And three quarters. It's not rocket science. It's called "counting up."

It's $37.42
You give them 43.17.

Subtract 17 from 42. That leaves you with 25. So now you count up. From 25 to 50, 75, $1.00 = 3 quarters to make the $43, and remove all the digits on the right side of the decimal. That means you need 5 more dollars to bring the $37 to $42 (because you already counted up one of those dollars, so subtract that dollar from the $43).

So the total change the customer gets is $5.75, in the form of one $5 bill and 3 quarters.

These days they call it "Common Core Math" that parents of kids in the 2010's all went insane and blew their collective gaskets over. But it really is very simple. It's just counting, nothing more or less.

Look for a cashier to come and approve? Why not just walk up to one?

Odd that the scan and go isn't working for you the way it is described on the website. I'll have to try it sometime.

Oh wait! You are using the self checkout line and not the scan and go app. Yeah, I can see where that could be a problem. But I don't think that is unique to Sam's. I imagine alcohol requires an id check at any self checkout line.

If you try to scan alcohol, the register will stop you and not let you go any further until an associate puts in their numbers to indicate that they've verified your age on your ID. It usually causes the "help" light over the register to start flashing to alert the associates that your register requires something from them.

If you handed that to me I would give you back five singles, two quarters, a dime, two nickels, and five pennies. Not my job to guess why you overpaid, my job is to take payment and give back change.

Customer should say why they are doing this to prevent confusion.

Pre-positioned bar codes!
 

Why didn't *I* think of that??!

With scan and go there is no waiting on a line to get to the register. You scan the items yourself then get on the line to exit the warehouse along with all the other customers. Scan and Go just eliminates the line at the register. Wish Costco would get that technology.

We have not purchased alcohol at Sam's using Scan and Go so I'm not sure how that is handled with that technology.

Passive aggressive much???

Not at all. The two twenties would pay for the $37.42. I would hand the rest back then make change.

Hand me two twenties and 42 cents and I can see what you are after. Hand me two twenties, some singles, and a bunch of change that doesn't add to 42 cents and I don't have a clue. I want to make customers happy but that includes the eight people in line behind you that aren't interested in hearing you explain "counting up" to me.

That’s OK, I have no idea what “counting up” is, and even less idea of why it’s needed. It’s called subtraction and we learned it in first grade