Well, if you're liked me and worked as a cashier in a supermarket throughout high school, you have the PLU codes of the majority of fruits and vegetables tattooed into your brain. It does mean I don't have to use the "search" feature in the self-checkout lane.

I feel old. When I sold produce as a teenager there weren't any PLU codes, or stickers of any kind on the produce. We actually were expected to know what each kind of fruit or vegetable was by sight.

We also had to walk five miles to school and back, uphill both ways.

I know. I have tried not to let them stick in my head. Then there is my husband who, for many, many, reasons, refuses to use the self checkout at all. I guess he is protecting his remaining unused brain cells also. I will have to tell him this new reason not to use them, He will be delighted. It takes so little to make him happy!

Love them for small purchases. If I have a full cart I'm heading for the cashier. Maybe that's why food prices are so high, they have to pay for grocery store technology somehow :-)

I worked a grocery store in the summer of 1998, the PLU for Blueberries was 234... I do not remember any of the other ones. I recall being very jealous of the more modern food stores which provided their cashiers with handy cheat sheets in case they did not know the PLU off the top of their heads for certain items.

I have a huge amount of respect for cashiers. My first job was at Super Fresh when I was 15. I was flustered, packed fish in the same bag as the ice cream (they were both cold, right?), and came up a few dollars short at the end of the day. I didn't make it for a week. My sister on the other hand was a great cashier. There is an art to bagging, remembering codes, and handling difficult customers.

What is it with getting the self-service checkout machines to properly accept coupons? At least, at the Super Fresh we frequent, the machine seems to always freeze when we place the coupon in the slot, and we have to get a cashier to do something on her end to process the transaction. Other than that, and not being able to tell the machine that you will be using your own bag, I love self-service checkout.

I hate the self-service checkouts. I look at them, and see job losses. Being the anti-social hypocrite I am, I sometimes use them, but I didn't know you could use them if you had produce.

I guess it would mean you don't have to explain what plantains are to inexperienced cashiers. On the other tentacle, I've had some great "how do you cook that?" convos with cashiers and other customers.

All I know about PLUs is that organic produce has longer numbers.

My favorite check-out person, Boots, retired this past Friday from my local Giant. For 19 years she would give my order a once over with a gentle hint if I had forgotten anything obvious, and would even help decipher abbreviations that probably made sense when I made them. I'm pretty sure that the automated check-out counters can't do that for me. She was also a wiz with the codes, to the point where I had to find something brand new in the store to get her to look one up.

And while I'm thinking about it, does anybody else have an issue with the fact that the automated machines all have the same voice?? I mean, wouldn't it make a little sense to have one voice for Giant, another for Superfresh, another for Weis, &tc. (Just to keep me from being confused, if nothing else!)

there should be a competency exam required for use of the self-checkout lanes.

Following up on MD Canon's suggestion, what would be an appropriate automated checkout voice for each of the local grocery chains, and why? My first thought was that the accent should reflect the store's ownership, but since most of the local stores have German or Dutch ownership (Tengelmann owns Superfresh, Ahold owns Giant, the Weis family controls Weis), we'd just get the same Teutonic accent intoning, "You vill scan your purchases now."

I remember when ATMs first arrived on the scene they were touted as time savers and they were free! It's just a matter of time before supermarkets start charging for this "convenience".

I refuse to use them. It is just another excuse to get rid of jobs. Regardless of how many items you have, the regular checkout is much quicker and easier. Add to that the fact that most people have no idea how to use them, and their utility and practicality gets reduced even more. Most of the folks working at the Canton Safeway actually live in the area, I'd like to keep it that way.

I worked my way thru high school and college as a clerk/cashier for Acme Markets when it was still a factor in Baltimore. Had to depress a "taxable" key on all items taxable so you could get a sub-total to tax, I'm sure I screwed the state or the store outta collecting some taxes.
Seen alot of changes..the latest
on the horizon is the RFID tag, that works somewhat like the transponders in the EZ Pass. Soon all you will need to do is just pass your entire order thru a "gate" and your entire order will "ring" up.
In the future you will get a grocery cart, fill your bags as you shop, when you want to leave, you push your cart thru a gate, swipe your credit card and your on your way!!!

what would be an appropriate automated checkout voice for each of the local grocery chains?

Well, I don't know how to break them down, but obvious selections would be:

1. Kathleen Turner: when you buy some rabbit, she would say, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."

2. Majel Barrett: when you enter something incorrect, she could say "starting self-destruct sequence."

3. Hal9000: Again, with something incorrect: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that."

Lindsay Wagner should just be THE voice for everything!

Anonymous, I doubt it. Metal blocks RFID tags, as a library I used to serve found out, when their DVDs walked out the door without being checked out by their RFID system, and ended up being sold to a Blockbuster.

Or the voice could be unique for each individual store, not just each chain. I have friends who live in DC and refer to the "Soviet Safeway" (poorly stocked and always out of things), "Gucci Giant" (a Whole Foods wannabe), etc. Hence, you have, respecitvely, a Russian accent and one of those affected would-be British accents that snooty Americans sometimes use - or perhaps a John Cheever sound-alike.

But I'm with the people who won't use self-checkouts. I already disliked them even before someone beat me over the head with the obvious job-loss implications, and I haven't used one since.

I use self-checkout if I only have a couple of items or the staffed checkout lanes are crowded.

At Home Depot and Lowe's, it seems like they only have one or two cashiers but quite a few of the self-checkout kiosks.

I'll only use them if I'm wearing my tinfoil hat to prevent "them" form reading my brain waves.
Seriously, I refuse to use them on principle. I was at Home Despot and the self checkout overseer waved me over. When I refused she said that she would show me how to use it. I told her that I knew how to use it, but I did not want to. BTW, I don't have an ATM card either.

Fl Rob, I've noticed that at Home Depot and Lowe's. There's no one in the 5 empty self checkout lines but about 20 waiting in the two checker aisles. So,...

Having said that, I'm a hypocrite too, Lissa because to me, it's the supermarket equivilant of sending manufacturing jobs to China. Fortunately for the cashiers, most people don't really like them and they don't really work very well.

Laughing out loud here, Zevonista!

I love the automated check out, never use anything else. And I am also pleased with the new scanners at Giant. I can scan and bag my groceries while I shop. When i get to the counter, all I have to do is pay and leave. I dont think they are at all Giants yet, but I frequent the ones in Towson and Pikesville.

I'm with RayRay on this one. I have refused to use the self-check ever since one of the checkers at my Giant told me all the checkers had had their hours reduced when they installed the machines. Also, I don't want to listen to the annoying automated voice.

If the cashiers at the stores I frequent were even the least bit friendly I would never use the self checkout. In the Midwest where friendly is not a dirty word I knew all the cashiers at every store, all of their children and all of their names. Here you get the mandatory hello and that is it. Atleast that is how it is at the New Town Giant, the Reisterstown Giant and Wegmans.

You need to face the facts. Just like oilers and grade checkers are no longer needed for heavy construction equipment soon cashiers will no longer be needed for grocery stores.

EEL, I hope you're wrong. I think the those automated check-outs are a royal pain! As long as there are people to ring up my order, I'm there! I've gotten to know several checkers at the stores I frequent, and we'll discuss all sorts of things while s/he's checking my order and I'm packing it (packing my own order is just a personal quirk).

Dottie is right, EEL. I find the checkers at both my Giant, TJ, Wegmans and all the other stores I frequent friendly. Maybe the fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars ...

EEL, thanks for the King of the Road nod. I'll be singing it (happily) all day.

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