Billings, Are You Big Into Self Check-Out at Stores Now?

How about something a little lighter today?

Today we tackle self-check-out versus having a cashier ring up your stuff and having somebody else bag it up for you.

I'm a self-checker-outter because I've gotten pretty fast at scanning and bagging my own groceries. But if I've got a cart with thirty or forty items, I'll still use a checker. And the main reason is that at most self-check-out stands they only give you room for about three or four sacks. After that, you have to get creative about where you start stacking stuff with a heavy emphasis on knowing which sack you put the product with glass in it.

If I have a bottle of marinara sauce fall and break, it stops everything. We gotta find the guy who knows where the mop is and have him clean it up. Then I have to go back to the marinara aisle and grab a replacement. And that costs valuable seconds. See, for me, checking and bagging my own groceries is exactly like a Nascar pit stop. Every second counts.

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I understand why they have to, but I wish I didn't need the approval of whoever is in charge of the self-check area to buy beer. They need to come up a "hey, this guy is obviously over 21" card to swipe so as to not slow me down on my quest to get out of the store as fast as I can.

Heck, even Costco has self-check-out now. But the problem with theirs is you can't put empty boxes on the bagging area scale. So you have to scan your stuff, set it on the scale, then when you're done, you have to move all that stuff again to put it in boxes to take it home.

I'm all about efficiency.