Thank You, Come Again!

Every time I am in a public setting and mention that I prefer to use the self-checkout lane whenever it is presented to me as an option, there is at least one person there who will feel the need to disagree with me. Usually their argument will center around the theme that what companies have done is tricked us into accepting fewer services than we are used to while simultaneously lowering their operating costs because they don't have to hired people to work at registers. All the while prices of items either remain the same or continue to go up. Basically, their contention is that we are paying more money and getting less for it. (From a pure numbers standpoint it is hard to dispute their logic. The problem is that it doesn't really matter how articulate this person's reasoning may be, in my head I'm busy assuming they don't like the self-checkout lane because they can't figure out how the system works.) But even if you think there may be something to the thoughts that someone else working the register is included in the price, it doesn't change the fact that sometimes doing it yourself is just better for everyone involved. I was reminded of that yesterday.

While cleaning out a drawer last week I came across a gift card I got for Christmas. Now, when I first got this gift card I was excited because I knew exactly what I was going to buy with it. But, as so often happens with me, I didn't do it right away, stuck the card in a drawer and promptly forgot about it. Determined not to let that happen again I left the card out in plain sight on my desk to serve as a constant reminder to not forget again. So even though I have been feeling under the weather the last couple of days, I brought the card with me as I was doing a couple errands yesterday afternoon and stopped into the store. I quickly found the item I wanted and was at the register in about two minutes. Honestly, I should have been back in my car and underway in another two minutes, but that was when I ran into a problem. I handed the guy behind the counter the gift card and he swiped it through. After a second he asked me to enter my pin number. I told him I didn't have a pin number. It was at this point he realized I had handed him a gift card and not a credit card, which was what he had told the computer he was trying to scan. Upon learning it what it actually was he handed me back the card and told me I would have to wait until another register opened up, because he didn't know how to do gift cards.

I looked to the left at the guy working the next register, but he immediately turned away in a desperate attempt to not make eye contact. He then apparently decided that wasn't going to be enough to slow me down and took the unprecedented step of walking away completely, still without looking in our direction. Figuring I was on my own I turned back to the screen (which thankfully I could see) and before the guy cancelled out my purchase I noticed that there was a list of functions, among them was "Gift Card." I suggested the guy try that button before giving up completely. He did, scanned the card a second time and, wouldn't you know it, it worked like a charm. (Ironically, the next pop-up on the screen asked if the clerk intended to help me install my purchase. Half of me wanted to say yes, just for the sake of comedy, but I declined. Maybe if I wasn't in such a hurry to get home and climb back into bed.) After that I walked him through the rest of the transaction, told him how much was let on the gift card (he was curious), thanked him for his time and told him to have a nice day. Honestly, we should have just exchanged shirts so that I had a name tag and gotten it over with.

In some respects I guess I should be grateful for the self-checkout registers, because between them and my previous time in retail I am capable of figuring out how to complete my purchase at almost any store. If not for their years of subtle training who knows how long I would have been waiting for another employee to get motivated enough to come over and help (which I bet it would have been a while). However, there is another part of me that thinks if another person is going to be involved in ringing me up than the least they could do is pull their own weight. I have no problem doing all this stuff myself, but if I'm expected to essentially wait on myself then don't expect me to make small talk with a complete stranger while I do so. I didn't even like doing it when I worked in retail, which is why I don't do work in that industry anymore. I guess the person who is really at fault is the manager who trained the guy at the register, because they clearly didn't do a very thorough job. Maybe what that store should do is install some self check-out registers, but keep them in the back of the store for the employees to practice with. They seem to be working wonders for the rest of society.