Working for no pay at Walmart

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

Since I don't work for Walmart, or any other retailer, I refuse to use the Self Checkout. Since Walmart and the other retailers PAY their employees that DO run cash registers, and don't pay customers, could these places be construed as forcing us, the public, to work for them without being paid? 

If so, it sounds like a Class Action Suit might be in order.

When gas stations first started having Self Service, the gas at those pumps was CHEAPER that at Full Serve pumps. If using the Self Checkout was to knock, say 5% off my bill, I'd be completely on board with it. 

Am I on to something here, or am I just crazier than normal?

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

If there are 3 people in front of me, each with full carts and I have one item, I’m using self checkout. I won’t stand in line for 15 minutes on principle. 

[Blackwater 53393]

If you’re buying alcohol, tobacco, or ammunition/powder, you have to get a clerk to come and check you out on those items anyway.  You might as well go through the regular checkout.  You’re supporting the workforce if you do.

 

For some reasonable percentage of discount, I could be persuaded to use the self checkout.

[Warden Callaway]

Mary refuses to use self checkout. 

 

 

[Pat Riot]

I always go to a cashier checkout. I won’t use self checkout and I will not use a kiosk to order food or anything else - Cabela’s tried to push kiosks a few years back for ordering guns and other products that weren’t in stock in Oregon. It was short lived. 
 

I was just at Walmart and checkouts had 5 cashiers at work. Normally it’s 2 or 3 and they try to guide you towards self checkouts. I know people have been complaining. Perhaps the complaints have helped. 
They still have those people filling online orders as if CoVid restrictions are still in effect. It’s a PITA when an aisle is full of Walmart people filling orders. 
 

I agree @Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 make it worth my while to do their job and maybe I will bag my own. 
All that is needed for the self check system to fail is for me to use it. Those things go down every time I use one. I am not kidding. It’s weird. 

[Chantry]

I must be weird, I prefer self checkout.  I get to load my bags the way I want them and it's faster than waiting in line for regular check out

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

I concur ; no discount, no self-checkout  

[Choctaw Jack]

For every 1 self checkout , 4-5 people lose their jobs.

I was told recently that Walmart has plans to replace 90% of their manned checkouts with self checkouts, and any new stores to be built in the future will be all self check out.

Wal-Mart recently announced a new round of store closings, which will didplace even more workers.

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

How many items do I have?   How long are the lines at the registers?  Do I have any items that have to have a clerk check them?   Which will get me out faster?

 

Sometimes if I have a "Manager's Special" item that needs a card to scan the percentage of tag I'll hit the self check anyway.  I wave it at the attendant to come and scan it.  Nine times out of ten they go ahead and scan everything for me.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I prefer self-checkout when it will be faster. I have observed items being five finger checked out, I.e., not paid for.

[Subdeacon Joe]

46 minutes ago, Choctaw Jack said:

For every 1 self checkout , 4-5 people lose their jobs.

....

Wal-Mart recently announced a new round of store closings, which will didplace even more workers.

 

 

Those 4-5 people then get shifted to pulling online orders. Or most of them do. 

 

Stores close because they are no longer profitable. Often because of large losses to shoplifting. Should a store that is losing money be forced to stay open?  

 

A year or two ago a chain that had stores somewhere around Los Angeles announced that it would be closing two stores because of shoplifting losses.  Well, these stores served the "underserved community." The outcry, outrage, the wailing and gnashing of teeth, and accusations of racism were amazing.  City councils tried to force them to stay open.  Same thing happened in the San Francisco area.  It got sorted out and the cities were told to butt out.

[Cypress Sun]

Around here, the manned checkout were pretty much phased out...for a while. Recently, they have changed the checkouts to mostly manned with self checkouts on either end. Last Christmas, I asked the lady that approved the alcohol purchase "When is our Christmas party?" She said that she got that somewhat often. 

 

I'll go to either one. At least I know how to bag my purchases and don't have to spin that damn bag holder thing around (twice) to make sure that I don't still have things in it.

[Marshal Dan Troop 70448]

I know some that have said that they will use Self-Checkout if they get a discount on final. But then, we no longer have Full-Service Stations were employees would pump your gas, clean your windshields etc. Now you do it yourself.

[Warden Callaway]

I read where McDonald's has a fully automated restaurant.  

[Rye Miles #13621]

I prefer self checkout especially if I only have a few items and it’ll get me out faster. 
People have to make the self serve machines, service them, repair them and there’s always someone around if something goes haywire. 

[Old Man Graybeard]

Our local grocery store just went to ALL self checkout except the courtesy counter. Their are two lanes that can be turned into manned checkouts. I go to the courtesy counter unless there is one of the manned lanes open. Someday I will have a full cart with a lot of perishables and no manned lanes open and the courtesy counter backed up. Then I will leave the cart set and they can put things back...if they realise it is just sitting there at all. I go 15 miles to another brand of store most of the time now. I think I will start stopping at the local store when I am coming back and show the management my reciept and tell them this is part of your loss

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

28 minutes ago, Marshal Dan Troop 70448 said:

I know some that have said that they will use Self-Checkout if they get a discount on final. But then, we no longer have Full-Service Stations were employees would pump your gas, clean your windshields etc. Now you do it yourself.

When gas stations first started Self Serve, the gas at those pumps WAS several cents cheaper than at Full Serve. Now, if you can FIND Full Serve, it's more than if you do it yourself.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

I didn't get to 75 years old to start checking out my own groceries.

 

Or to read my newspapers on a tiny screen.

 

I don't like to see people kicked out of their jobs, and then the usual spin about how the big store needs to make a big profit and the clerks will surely find work elsewhere.....

 

The restaurants a few decades back that tried to make you think it was cool to cook your own food-- remember those?-- all went bust long ago.

 

I'm not excited about the 'opportunity' to do the work they should do. The lines would be short if they'd hire more  clerks. 

[Chili Ron]

Howdy,

A few weeks ago the fuss at the checkout was too much.

My back was about to melt down.

I left the cart and walked out.

One day I got inline right at 12 noon.....26 minutes later I got checked out.

But walmart has the items other stores dont.

Can I just order groceries off of ebay??????

Best

CR

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

32 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

usual spin about how the big store needs to make a big profit

 

I don't think anyone said anything about "big profit." 

[Buckshot Bob]

1 hour ago, Warden Callaway said:

I read where McDonald's has a fully automated restaurant.  

I saw that article also. Think about what they could get away with serving with no employees to rat them out. Reminds me too much of Soilent Green. But on the plus side the people who service those automated systems will be paid far better. 

[Buckshot Bob]

1 hour ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

 

 

I'm not excited about the 'opportunity' to do the work they should do. The lines would be short if they'd hire more  clerks. 

When I was a kid one of our local grocery stores always used the line “you always next in line” in their advertising. And if a 3rd person got in line they opened another lane. You certainly don’t see that happening anymore. 

[Still hand Bill]

8 minutes ago, Buckshot Bob said:

When I was a kid one of our local grocery stores always used the line “you always next in line” in their advertising. And if a 3rd person got in line they opened another lane. You certainly don’t see that happening anymore. 

Actually our local fareway does that.  If people are waiting they open more lanes.  Also deliver groceries to your car.  

[Rye Miles #13621]

Don’t forget it’s hard to get people to work these places. They’re all hiring but they’re all short staffed. I think that’s why we’ll see more and more self serve. 

[Buckshot Bob]

14 minutes ago, Still hand Bill said:

Actually our local fareway does that.  If people are waiting they open more lanes.  Also deliver groceries to your car.  

Quite a few of our local grocery stores will deliver to your car if you order your groceries online. But I haven’t seen anyone going with the next in line policy in a long time. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Chili Ron said:

.

Can I just order groceries off of ebay????

 

Likely there is a store near you that offers online shopping.  Order, schedule a pickup time, show up, notify the store, they bring it out and put it in your trunk.  

 

I started doing that at Safeway when I had COVID.  Order and pay online, showed up, used the app to notify the store that I was there and which pick up spot I was in.  No sweat.

I kept doing it for about a year, just went to the store early Saturday morning for produce and to check some specials. 

 

I had been doing the shopping after work on Fridays, usually took between an hour and an hour and a half.  Now that I'm not working my wife and I will go early Friday or Saturday morning.  We may do a "Peter Rabbit" trip during the week for bread, and milk, and cackleberries.

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

being retired my daily trip to wally world is one of my major 'events' of the day

 

I know the 3 main greeters by name, say hello to all the worker bees and enjoy my stroll through the store.  

 

Know the self check-out 'managers' also  as I always use it.

 

I working on enjoying life without hurrying through what I've got left

 

cr

 

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

What irritates me even more is that of youngsters getting jobs to assist with self check out and somehow feel they have an actual job doing actual work Home Depot had four of the most lovely and indifferent youth to work their four self checkout registers. The only cashier on duty was the contractor register.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

We raised 5 kids and it's been decades since we filled up a big grocery cart.  I go to the grocery store pretty regularly (I've been to Wally's about 5 times total). Gets me out. Besides, I use those smaller carts and almost never get more than 15 items; usually much less. So there's usually an express line.

 

But then others have more important things to do than I do!

1 minute ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

 

 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

So question for the lawyers in the crowd: Could we, as a group perhaps, bring a lawsuit against these stores for forcing their customers to work for them without pay? Just for fun.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

2 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

I don't think anyone said anything about "big profit." 

 

You haven't been in the boardrooms.....

[Rip Snorter]

Sam Walton is spinning in his grave.

[Subdeacon Joe]

27 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

 

You haven't been in the boardrooms.....

 

No, I haven't.  Nor do I want to.

 

Ok, if we are going to get that picky,

 

I don't think anyone here, in the Saloon, on this specific thread, had mentioned "big profit" until you, yourself, out of the blue,  brought it up in such a way as to suggest that someone posting a comment on this specific thread here in the Saloon had used that phrase.

 

Better?

[PowderRiverCowboy]

Self Checkouts vs , worker checkout , If I go to the self checkout that person that does want to work wont be needed I prefer to help someone have a job . Only time I use self check out only a couple items and lines on regular check out . 

[Fence Cutter]

I always use self checkout. Makes for one less person to touch my stuff.