Lapis the Nevrean

@lapisnev

Don't squeeze me, I fart

she/her
dinobird.website/

Things that make you go 🤌. Weird computer stuff. Artist and general creative type. Occasionally funny. Gentoo on main. I play rhythm games!

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Lapis the Nevrean @lapisnev4/12/2023, 12:54 AM

Cay @caymanwent

gravis again @cathoderaydude4/11/2023, 11:54 PM

A couple months ago the supermarket installed new self checkouts that had hand scanners, and retrofitted them on the existing ones. When I first saw this I thought, wow, that'll really speed things up. Then I remembered that you'd still have to put everything in the bags and move very very slowly so the stupid scale can keep up.

Then I finally tried them the other day and discovered you can scan as fast as you want. I wondered how they dealt with this - like, does the scale just have a delay, and it sums up periodically and only alarms if something doesn't make sense? I've since learned the answer is that they turned off the scale completely, and the machine doesn't care at all if you put stuff in the bags or in your cart or what.

I suspect that they finally realized that the only types of people who exist are "wouldn't even steal if nobody was watching" and "will game any system you come up with", and just shut all the safeties off. This is the best outcome for everyoUNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA

Cay @caymanwent4/12/2023, 12:48 AM

Oh this explains a lot. As someone who often brings my own bags or loads into a backpack I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a lot less “please wait for attendant” than I used to which honestly incentivizes me to use self checkout more. I can’t fit all my shit on your tiny bagging rack you jerks

Lapis the Nevrean @lapisnev4/12/2023, 12:54 AM

I despise scanning a dozen tuna cans one at a time with several second delays but do it anyway because I'm still faster than everyone else

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in reply to @cathoderaydude's post:

gull *Plus!*@gull4/11/2023, 11:58 PM

this one got me

Joe Wintergreen @joewintergreen4/12/2023, 12:37 AM

The ones around here few years ago had the scale but did not use it, which meant you could scan shit as fast as you wanted and it was Good, but then they enabled it one day and now it's one item at a time fuckin interminable bullshit and I hate it.

Then more recently, they added cameras, one on the screen that shows you your face just to say WE CAN IDENTIFY YOU, and one overhead looking down at your hands, and it still also uses the scale, so now it's slow and dumb and also just incredibly hostile and I'm more likely to steal shit than ever because believe it or not if I'm going to steal shit I was never going to do it by trying to trick the machine into charging me less than it should, I was just going to steal shit.

Annie D @ann-arcana4/12/2023, 12:46 AM

The ones in Finland mostly didn't have a sensor in the bagging area. There's someone watching the self-checkout usually anyway, and tbh, Finnish shops mostly just ... didn't seem that bothered about shoplifting anyway. Watched a kid walk out who made the worst effort possible to conceal the beer he was smuggling in his coat. Said something to the cashier and he just said, "Yeah I know," and shrugged.

I have slowly come to realize that Americans are a deeply paranoid species.

gravis again @cathoderaydude4/12/2023, 1:02 AM

it's not paranoia, it's that our entire economy is based around paying people precisely one cent more than they need to make rent (good luck on food) and the entire retail industry works exactly the same way. if ten boxes of wheaties walk out of a safeway, their profits go into the red

Annie D @ann-arcana4/12/2023, 1:20 AM

I dunno, maybe, but they all seem to be making a killing on this fakeflation scare we got going.

It's more that until I came back, I had forgotten how utterly pervasive the sense that literally everyone is out to fuck you over and rip you off actually is here. It's everywhere, and it's not entirely unjustified ... it's just usually capital that's doing the fucking, while the rest of us get subjected to the worst of the paranoia.

gotyaoi @gotyaoi4/12/2023, 1:37 AM

The only thing the scale is actually needed for is price per weight, like produce, and even then I've seen a lot of those prices transition to per unit over the years.

Echo Cian @EchoCian4/12/2023, 2:32 PM

I am so tired of self-checkouts throwing a fuss and having to wave one of the...observers? assistants? over three times in one transaction just so they can wave a keycard at the sensor because of a suspicious banana or because I (gasp) inserted my card before I pressed the credit button (the horror).

in reply to @lapisnev's post:

✨🌱rosie the lil bean 🌱✨@rowie3244/12/2023, 1:05 AM

god I work at cvs and the self checkout machines we have are awful, like if you look at it wrong it'll be like HELP IS ON THE WAY. I like the idea of having to do very little work while being a cashier but like the software has to work, at all >w<

Pyxaron @Pyxaron4/12/2023, 11:51 AM

There really should be a "I've worked retail" mode, where it just turns all delays and safeties off.

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