76 replies to this topic

[ngilbert]

I think the whole retail industry is experimenting with self checkout right now, and sometimes experiments are messy and don't necessarily produce the results being sought.

Yeah - the machines are pretty sensitive and obviously weren't designed for morons dragging 50 pound bags of Quickrete over them. What they *should* do is have one of those little handscanner things they have at the real checkouts so you can just leave stuff in your cart.

[camay2327]

Ahhh Stewart is a big arrogant cry baby. He has no problems dishing it out on the track but as soon as somebody gets into his back bumper he's the first one to cry foul. I never said he can't drive a car. I just don't think much of the guy personally......

Did Tony cry when they went to the new modified car they had to run the last two weeks. NO.. Most everyone else did. He got out there and raced and did a great job until two weeks ago the fuel pump cable went out, or he would more than likely have won. Did not do to bad Sunday either. He is a very good driver if you like it or not....

To TONY.......

[antakarana]

A note on self checkout...

Whatever you do, DO NOT use self checkout at the grocery store if you are buying produce. You have to sort through tons of screens to find what you are looking for, and they are not intuitive. I had a green onion, so I looked under "G". Silly me, it was filed under "O" for onion. Then you have to weigh the things. Sheesh! Same thing with hardware stores if you are buying lots of smaller items one piece at a time, like a length of chain and a few individual bolts.

I like self checkout if I only have a few items, but definitely not for a full cart or one-off items.

[bishmasterb]

Yeah - the machines are pretty sensitive and obviously weren't designed for morons dragging 50 pound bags of Quickrete over them. What they *should* do is have one of those little handscanner things they have at the real checkouts so you can just leave stuff in your cart.

Yeah, the scale probably wasn't made to handle half a ton of concrete. A handscanner would be cool, but I believe that since they confirm by weight, anything that can't fit on the scale probably wouldn't work within the current system.

But just think, in 10 years when those bags of concrete have RFID tags in them, it'll all work flawlessly! haha And years down the line you'll be able to wave a RFID wand around your backyard patio and see where the concrete came from!

[mylo]

I refuse to use self checkout. the technology is not yet effective. I commend retailers for trying, but it's just not ready for prime-time. I get angered when all that is available is self-checkout. They need to continue to provide service and have "real" checkers around, and not just one on the 10 items or less line.

[zach5]

I love messing with those self checkout things... if you try to run a credit card and then insert money when its processing, half the time they will crash, and then the attendant has to count down the entire machine to get your money back

[Sonny]

The self checkout also sucks because you never get things for free like when you go thorough the cashier line. You all know what I'm talking about, every 5 or ten trips the cashier and they will skip something, sometimes a big thing. I once got a $399 item for $75 because the checker said he knew the sku by memory (cocky and cool) and when I said that didn't sound right he said it was right, ha... so I took the discount with a smile.

[camay2327]

Nice person. I would have told him s/he made a mistake. But that is just me....

[bishmasterb]

Nice person. I would have told him s/he made a mistake. But that is just me....

Me too!

[cw68]

I refuse to use self checkout. the technology is not yet effective. I commend retailers for trying, but it's just not ready for prime-time. I get angered when all that is available is self-checkout. They need to continue to provide service and have "real" checkers around, and not just one on the 10 items or less line.

I like using it when I have just a few things since I usually don't have to wait in any line to use it. But those darn kids don't understand that they can't lean on any part of it or they're going to mess it up. "Unauthorized item in bagging area".

I miss Broadway Hardware in Sacramento. They knew everything and even knew exactly what you needed even if you didn't know you needed it...

[ngilbert]

I miss Broadway Hardware in Sacramento. They knew everything and even knew exactly what you needed even if you didn't know you needed it...

That's like Emigh hardware on Watt & El Camino. They've been around for years, and have good prices since they're not paying a lot for property and, get this, they have friendly and knowledgable staff - last time I was there was for a replacement chainsaw chain and the guy custom made me one in less than fifteen minutes. Strange, I know.

Seriously, it'll freak you out if you've gotten used to the big "close an entire aisle for forklifts in the middle of business hours for no good reason" stores.

[Sonny]

Nice person. I would have told him s/he made a mistake. But that is just me....

It's nice to know there are moral people out there. It is sad to see dishonesty.

Though I always try to make it easy on the checkers first over the shareholders.

If it had been a Mom and Pop store then I might have forced the issue on the kid.

[cw68]

That's like Emigh hardware on Watt & El Camino. They've been around for years, and have good prices since they're not paying a lot for property and, get this, they have friendly and knowledgable staff - last time I was there was for a replacement chainsaw chain and the guy custom made me one in less than fifteen minutes. Strange, I know.

Seriously, it'll freak you out if you've gotten used to the big "close an entire aisle for forklifts in the middle of business hours for no good reason" stores.

I used to go to the Emigh Hardware on Folsom Blvd in East Sac. It's a little more polished than Broadway Hardware and with a better selection. Broadway Hardware was run by a husband and wife team that focused pretty much on supplying the 1920-40s houses in Land Park. I'd still go to Lowes/Home Depot for bigger purchases, but if I needed clothesline, replacement parts or the like, there's no other place I'd rather go to. I miss having a neighborhood hardware store and wish there was still one in Folsom.

[ngilbert]

No, but I will insist on checking to make sure that every item and price is correct before paying!

That's good advice.

I went to Home Depot in Folsom for paint one time - actually, the last time I was there and the first time I'd been there since the incident at the beginning of this thread, so I blame myself for going there. When I got home I checked my receipt. Apparently I had bought two "electric boxes" for $4.90 each. Well, I wasn't even sure what an electric box was at the time, and all the other paint stuff I'd bought was on the receipt and in the bag. So, foolishly I called the store to tell them they'd made a mistake, that they'd charged me for two electric boxes I didn't buy. I went through a few lengthy phone transfers and was told they would check on it. Before I let them go, I asked "what is an electric box?" just so I could check I wasn't going crazy. "They're blue and about 4 wide" - ummm. Okay, nothing like that in my bag.

So, a couple hours later, a manager calls me and said he talked to the cashier and I had definitely bought them and he reviewed the security footage and I did buy them. I asked, "okay, what else did I buy?", but he couldn't answer. I said, "can I come down and look at this security footage?" He said, and I quote, "you would need a subpoena"

Okay, obviously it's not worth $9.80 to hire a lawyer just so I can get a subpoena to prove the guy wrong, but I didn't appreciate being accused of stealing and lying about it.

So I got the "manager's" name and fired off a letter to their online complaints division. They told me to take it up with the store manager in Folsom (for all I knew the guy I'd been talking to *was* the store manager) and they offered me a $10 gift card to make nice, but they would just need my mailing address. I refused. I figured my loyalty as a customer wasn't worth 20 cents and if I'd stumbled upon some checkout line employee theft ring I really didn't want them having my home address. Actually, that wasn't a legitimate fear, but it was nice to throw that back at them.

Anyway, long story short, if their new CEO is right about them improving customer service then I may give them another chance, but I'll need to hear people actually say things are getting better there.

[foot1647]

The self checkout also sucks because you never get things for free like when you go thorough the cashier line. You all know what I'm talking about, every 5 or ten trips the cashier and they will skip something, sometimes a big thing. I once got a $399 item for $75 because the checker said he knew the sku by memory (cocky and cool) and when I said that didn't sound right he said it was right, ha... so I took the discount with a smile.

Sounds familiar, lol. I used to work at Wal-Mart till last week, Quit, My point being that things like that happens all the time. For example when i was cashiering at the self checkout, I would catch people scanning a home theater in box, on my computer screen it would pop up 99 Cents...they would look up at me and hope i didnt notice. So just before they finished and were to pay, i would just walk up and void out there purchase and take tehre stuf and say they couldnt buy it here. They would have this look of "BUt why, i didn't do nothing wrong" then Stupidly ask, Why not, I'm going to speak with teh store manager. So i lift up up the box and peel a clearance christamas item sticker they put on the over the barcode area. He proceeded to say he didnt put that there, it must have been there already. When i came into work they were just putting those on the shelves as our new add week item, it was on sale for $249.97. I asked him if he wanted to talk to teh store manager again, he told me to "EF OFF" and left. An Hour later he can in and tried it again while i was at a regular register, by this time i told security about him, so they knew of his doings, he scanend it, payed 99 cents, and got stopped by the cops and security. He had apparently been using our self scans for this kind of activity for a few months now, and had his family doing it too...Took our so called Asset protection (Security) long enough. So by these findings, our store manager put closed permanatly signs on teh self check outs and took out teh receipt printers (dunno why, but store managers always have to do stupid unnecesary things to feel overly important). On the topic of hom depot, i went online last night at about 9pm, applied for home depot, and just got a call about 1.5 hours ago for an interview at noon today. I have no specialty skills or anything, only that i have worked retail for a year.