SCO Suck

[Norton]

My husband related this one to me. It happened within the past week.

He was at the supermarket waiting in line for the self check-outs with his basket of items. All of the cashier lanes had very long lines, and no express lanes were open, so SCO seemed the quickest.

There are four SCOs at this store, with one cashier standing by for assistance. All four SCOs were being used, with a growing line of customers waiting. Three of the screens were flashing "Please wait for cashier assistance". From my experience, the customer is often moving faster than the machine, which causes it to lock up. This happens quite often, and usually is quickly fixed by the cashier swiping a card, or punching a few keys on the screen. When I say "quickly fixed" I mean it is literally fixed in seconds.

At the fourth SCO was a family with at least two carts full of items who could apparently not figure out how to scan anything. My husband watched as the girl manning the SCOs scanned every item that this family had, ignoring the three other customers waiting for cashier assistance. One man waiting in line walked off in a huff. When he did, my husband overheard the cashier mutter "No fucking patience".


I wasn't even there and this pissed me off. I'd say most of the suck was on the family with the large order. Why bother using the SCOs if you have no clue how to operate them? Especially with a big order like that, they were not saving themselves any time, and only increasing the wait for everyone else in line.

I can kind of understand the cashier's position - she had likely started to help the family before the other SCOs needed assistance, and may have been reluctant to leave one customer for another. However, wouldn't common sense dictate that the large order would have taken a long time regardless, and that excusing yourself to take care of the other customers would have moved the rest of the line through faster? Obviously the family with the large order wasn't leaving any time soon, and most people using the SCOs have only a few items and actually know how to scan them.

I'm glad we won't have to go food shopping for a while.

[draftermatt]

I have a love hate relationship with SCO's.

I pissed off another customer big time about a month ago though. She was taking forever scanning her large cart of stuff. Then she had to deal with my two jugs of milk because you can't leave things next to you after you scan them. I felt bad, but I was in a hurry, the store was packed, and she was almost done when I walked up to her. Had I known she was going to take 10 minutes to finish scanning and paying I would have gone somewhere else.

Another time we had 2 cashiers watching every move we made at the SCO (we had a larger order, the store was dead, and the only cashiers running lines were ones who had creeped me out on previous trips).

I even heard one say "I'm watching them" because apparently using the SCO means you are going to steal something...

[Jack Doe]

That's why I love the SCO's at both my local Bi-Lo and Kroger. They're marked for express items only (20 and 15 each, respectevly.) Saves tons of time even if the checker needs to do everything for the customer. Wal-Mart, on the other hand...

[Kogarashi]

Most Wal-Marts, I've noticed, now have their SCOs as express-only, which actually bugs me because I know how to use the things properly and like to be able to scan and bag my own groceries. Moot point at the one I shop at right now, though, because when they remodeled the place to make it a supercenter, they took out the SCOs and never put them back in. :: pout ::

I even heard one say "I'm watching them" because apparently using the SCO means you are going to steal something...

It is a favorite of scammers and shoplifters (scan one item, bag two, especially if the bagging scale has been deactivated, like in my store), and said cretins usually have large orders. However, the cashier was out of line saying that loud enough for you to hear, and shouldn't have been so obvious about it. I'd mastered the art of watching customers closely while appearing to stare boredly at my podium screen.

[Midnight12]

Used to worrk the SCO's...and technically the SCO's are meant to be express lanes. and usually there is a sign that says so but when a rush like this happens i thought that rule was supposed to be adhered. (Unless there was the occasional slow as heck day where the family with a loaded cart could go through....) but even then i would have refused it.

[Kogarashi]

I frequently worked the SCOs at the last Walmart where I was employed, and was never told that they were express-only (nor were there signs).

Frankly, I think it would be wonderful if they did it the way the Smith's grocery store out in Utah did it. Have four SCOs for full carts, and another four with shorter counters (rather than full-length belts) for express-only.