I hate it when my local Kroger has NO attended check out counters.

[h2ebits]

116. Many years ago. . . .

I had a neighbor who worked in admin at a King Sooper's store. Her major task was entering pricing into the computer system and "correcting" pricing for items on sale so the barcodes would scan correctly. Back in the day, if an item rang up at the incorrect price and the customer caught the error, the customer would get the item for free. It was/is an onerous task to perform with accuracy.

That was when I started trying to monitor the pricing as the cashier scanned each item in an effort to spend less money on my weekly family grocery full-cart shopping. That was then and this is now.

I have slowed down a lot from those days and now shop on a need to buy basis, which means that I have much smaller quantities at any given time and I watch pricing very carefully.

I mostly shop at the Natural Grocers by my house. They do not have self-checkout and always have at least 1 cashier available at all times. When the line builds up to a couple of people, the cashier will call for backup and another cashier will open a register and so forth until they "handle the rush." I have always found cashiers to be most helpful and thanked them but in a non-consistent manner. During COVID restrictions they were not allowed to bag our groceries so we had to do it ourselves. I will NEVER forget again to say "Thank you for all of your help." I also try to show up there--COVID or not--to shop when it's not busy so that I don't hold up the line.

Although I didn't want to use self service when it first started, I have grown to appreciate its usefulness. Most places have more than one station--some have many stations. There is only one line for all of the stations so my lack of speed isn't all that noticeable as other people finish more quickly and move the line forward. Also, there is a cashier on duty to help with any problems and I can save the time of standing in line behind the full grocery cart people.