What's With The Automated Checkouts?

By Author: Call me Queenie
Total Articles: 1
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It's 5:30 Friday evening. I've just put in a full 8 hours at work, commuted for another hour, the home frig is all but empty and I still have to make dinner for my family. So I dash into my familiar home town supermarket, who at this point shall remain nameless - but the name does starts with A - thinking I'd quickly pick up the makings for tonight's dinner and do my full week's shopping tomorrow when I have more time to think about it.

After throwing the needed items into my basket I headed for the familiar check out lines. There I came to an abrupt halt as I tried to make some sense of what I was looking at. Remember it was rush hour, yet all I saw was one, count them ONE check-out line that was backed up around 3 aisles of canned goods. What the hey was going on? Then I noticed several other lit check out stands which looked differently from anything I'd ever seen. A nice bright sign said something about self-check-out. Excuse me??? Why on earth would I want to participate in that adventure? Were there any signs stating you could save X amount of dollars on your purchases if you checked and bagged your own groceries? ...
... No. Well then, I think not.

While I did notice a few brave souls trying to figure out how to get with the store's new program, I wasn't about to join them. Hey, I had just spent 8 hours serving others and now it was time for someone to serve me. So I took my place at the back of the very long line waiting to do business with a real human being. When I finally got to the cashier, I inquired; Aren't you concerned about the fact a lot of cashiers are going to lose their jobs because of those automated thingies? Oh no, she gushed, management has already told us how much we are going to benefit by the use of this new technology! I just shook my head. If she really believed that one, I had a pair of red sequined shoes I would like to sell her.

When I had more time a few weeks later, I returned to that store for the last time in order to try out their automatic system for myself. Talk about frustration. I zapped my bar coded stuff across the little belt thing. But how do you zap an onion and a tomato? A single piece of celery? An automated voice pipes up saying something about keying in codes. What. Am I now expected to take the time to learn how to buy a tomato for Gawd's sake? It wasn't long before an employee recognized my plight and appeared to try and teach me all there is to know about being a grocery clerk in one easy lesson.

When I didn't get it, and really didn't want to get it, the helpful employee turned a bit sour and began treating me as if I was an imbecile. Which, I actually found to be fairly interesting. My own profession is in a field that far surpasses being able to check out a simple piece of celery from a grocery store. And since I've already surpassed that field I can't imagine why I should be interested in
back tracking at this late date. You know what I'm saying here? I just want to be able to buy a loaf of bread on my way home without having to be re-educated. That's not too much to ask, is it? Shoot, I could bake my own bread faster and probably churn the butter too.

About the Author Queenie has been in the field of living for more than 65 years. Yet it never fails to amaze her how people continue to play follow the leader instead of speaking their own minds. Nobody likes these automated checkouts, so why are they taking over our super markets??? You can meet up with Queenie in one of her favorite hangouts