I have the most difficult time trying to understand why grocery stores, hardware stores and big box stores such as Wal-Mart feature self checkout lines. While some see it as a convenience not to stand face to face with barely clothed people pasted onto paparazzi magazines, I feel like I’m scabbing or crossing union lines in the way of keeping someone from working during a down economy.
Dad taught me as a child to watch all things that move. He worked for the steel industry that wasted no time laying people and their families off without feeling an ounce of guilt. Save everything including tiny bites of chicken still on the bone, tomorrow could be the day when you’re left with nothing. The only way to get ahead is to know where your head is in the game and it begins with watching people.
For the past couple of years public driven company’s such as grocery stores and fast food restaurants who keep cutting back are looked upon as being evil and uncaring so they creatively come up with self checkout lines and or do it yourself take out as a way to hide the people they’ve laid off. What’s the most important thing after a happy stock investment? Smiles from consumers who don’t like to wait and wait.
Please don’t tell me it helps keep costs down! Buy one get one free makes you buy two to get four then you end up throwing one or two away. Double and triple the coupon forces you into trying new products which end up being lunch me for the trashcan. Costs are not coming down…grocery stores are designed to pull you along like a child on a doggy leash.
My favorite thing is to sit in the coffee shop area and watch managers taking notes while communicating with other managers on the other side of the store. They pay people to watch people and their habits. How much longer before the Red Box with all its video delights will be located in the back of the store because somewhere along the journey you’re going to need toilet paper, sandwich meat, not a six pack of soda but now the short cans that come in fours and carry a horribly high price.
Just because it looks smaller and the price isn’t $2.49…we assume we’re saving. Not true!
I slowly walk through a store asking, “At anytime during the day did I mention eggs in a box are something I can’t live without?” I’m not being a jerk…I can’t handle the cold hard facts of opening the fridge and finding nothing appetizing. I feel guilty about wasting money on a product that didn’t have to be purchased. That $3.99 box of eggs could’ve been four bucks spent on the water bill that won’t quit going up.
Now that California has introduced a new sugar tax, the rest of the states will get supremely jealous and want their chunk of the financial sweet pie. Before you know it, it’ll begin seeping into our nooks and crannies of the world, less will be spent on candy and soft drinks and more people are going to be out of work. Oh oh…get ready for more self check out lines!
I’ve yet to receive an hourly paycheck from the chain of stores that make me do the work. The least they could do is give us a bigger counter to put the groceries we’ve painstakingly shoved across those beep beep machines. If you move one bag the grumpy person standing at the podium for twelve hours looks at you with a disgruntled smile and says, “Do it again.”
I watched a woman trying to ring in two cucumbers yesterday…when the picture came up with all the veggies…she spent three to five minutes trying to figure out what cucumber she had. The person at the podium physically yelled, “5044!” Like the cattle we’ve become, everyone at once turned to look at the podium thinking she was talking to us. All at once we typed in 5044.
I don’t have to go to the stores that feature self checkout nor do I have to be like everyone and want to get out of the store quickly. I honestly believe the only reason why I use self check out is to convince myself that I worked really hard at earning the product purchased. Checking myself out means I gave it 101%! Now go home and forget you bought it until something starts stinking in the fridge.
I love today’s modern way of doing groceries. The shopping carts are big, tall and small…the man in the farming section seems to know what he’s talking about…the fish dude teaches me how to try something different. Most stock people will drop their current plans to make sure I locate soups that have no salt. Today’s stores are big and feature everything Wal-Mart wouldn’t dream of stocking. It’s like watching professional wrestling without hearing the screaming. Invisibly they are bashing the crud out of each other and it’s so cool to see who is going to please the customer first.
Self checkout isn’t the answer. The barking computer voice is too loud and it doesn’t want to ask me how the dogs are. It’s constantly telling me what to do during a time of tremendous guilt…spending money on items I don’t need.
If I worked at a grocery store I’d be horribly upset because people don’t know how to properly put groceries in plastic bags. It’s an art that everyone is trying. Do store managers realize the enormous amount of bad words that are used in the parking lot when bags fall a part in the car? I don’t hate the person who put the items in the bag…the grudge is against the store who thinks self checkout is the answer to keeping costs down.
I almost feel like I should invite them over to the radio station, “I’m so sorry that I did your job today…here, talk over this seven second song intro and entertain the city for a little bit. While you’re at it…could you please cut this new commercial for a Ford dealership? You’re probably going to buy one or something that has four wheels so if you cut the commercial yourself…in the long run you’ll be saving money.”
I’m not complaining…I’m just trying to figure out what would’ve happened to the Oregon Trail, The Pony Express and Lewis and Clark's infamous expedition if they had let the unknowing, inexperienced and never happy consumer do their job for them. Speed is everything, convenience seems to make the world go a little smoother but in the end you’ve got to ask yourself, “You wouldn’t work free for your boss…why do it at the grocery store?” Can you say sucker?
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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