I was weirded out at big box store

[TexasT]

I went on a shopping trip earlier this week at a big box store. Some of my purchases were various kinds of underwear, so I decided to go through self check-out. Even as an adult, I get a little embarrassed buying this (I hope I'm not alone).

The weird thing is as I'm walking up to the self check-out, there's an employee standing there. He asked, "Self check out?" I answered with a yes. Then he started to grab my things out of my cart, scan, and bag them. I tried to get his attention to tell him (1) It wasn't necessary and/or (2) I have my own bags, but I couldn't. No amount of "Sirs" and "Hellos" would pull him away from the machine/process. Finally, I just put the bags down in the bagging areas, so the message popped up with "Please remove objects from scale as they haven't been scanned yet" and even that didn't stop him. He just put in his number and kept going, while I was still trying to get his attention to politely tell him to GO AWAY.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I never actually touched him because he put the cart between us and I couldn't reach him from the other side of it. Plus, I'm not that big into touching strangers unless it's absolutely necessary.

I think he was trying to go above and beyond for me since I was the only one there, but still, if I wanted someone touching my things, I'd go through the regular line. My friend thinks he was hitting on me.

[KatherineB]

I'm with you on the weirdness of buying underwear. As soon as they put self check-outs on my local shops where I buy my 'delicates', I'll be - I was going to say 'all over them like a rash', but that seems rather inappropriate under the circumstances.

I really hate people who do that and Will. Not. Listen. I have to say I would probably have complained under the circumstances, because I don't view that as 'efficient' or 'helpful'. I view it as either rude or too dumb to be doing the job. What part of the 'self' in 'self check-out' is he too stupid to get?

There's also the fact that he would have made a much better impression by saying something like 'if you need a hand, I'll be right over here' and giving you a nice smile.

[Kittish]

Dude's behavior was simply unacceptable. I think, in that position, I'd have picked up my purse and just walked away. Depending on my overall mood, possibly in search of the first manager I find, otherwise either repeat my shopping anew or just leave.

[BrenDAnn]

Like KatherineB said, it's called a SELF checkout for a reason. You would've had EVERY right to complain to management, really. I probably would've walked out after he kept ignoring me for that long, though.

[dragon_wings]

I've had bored self check out attendants at 2 different Kroger's offer to help ring me and roomie up. One we declined cause we weren't in a hurry and the other we accepted cause we had a big order right before close with a lot of voids (boy did I feel like a SC there. I apologized my ass off!). Roomie and I usually go to SCO if we're at Kroger (cause we tend to go late and/or we're used to it).

[Zoom]

My current BossholeTM was spotted one slightly busy day when we had a lot of SCO customers but few registral ones, bagging profusely for them.

Obviously she wanted to help get their lines down without opening another register, but I was surprised nobody complained. I usually go through SCO when I shop, and I would have yelled at her. (That would have been fun. Let's see her write me up for being a customer on my own time!)

[Dreamstalker]

One manager tells me that even if it's dead in the store, I'm not allowed to bag on SCO...I thought the point of SCO was so the customer can get out as fast as possible, and if I can have their items bagged when they finish paying they can leave that much quicker (and the lines move faster; SM is all about keeping lines to a minimum).

When I'm overseeing SCO I am allowed to bag on those lanes though.

[Zoom]

.I thought the point of SCO was so the customer can get out as fast as possible

The point of SCO was to reduce the number of checkers (with an eye towards possibly eliminating that job in future), and allegedly save money. Never mind that the installation of SCO ran into the grotzits.

I've never seen an SCO that operates on the kind of speed that a register does, even when the operator customer is proficient. Hence why the checker's job is (for the moment) still secure.

[Dreamstalker]

It still amazes me how few people around here know how to use the self-scans. I've seen the machines throw errors I didn't even know existed (the best one had to be the SCO refusing to recognize an item that scanned perfectly fine on a cashier lane; I had just cleaned the SCO scanners, so I'm guessing the customer was holding it at some odd angle).

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I'm with the people on the "Grab your purse and leave" option. That was not only weird, but rude. Ignoring you specifically trying to get his attention?

Actually I probably would've put my hand in the way of the scanner and glared at him silently, but I've been told I can be a bit aggressive when irritated. XD