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Source: (consider it) Thread: Hell: Unexpected item in bagging area
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58

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You know the story. You pop in to the supermarket for a couple of items, and stupidly think the self-service checkout will be quicker than the ones with the long queues with trolleys piled high.

"Do you have your own bag?" - there is NO correct answer to this because you will either be asked to remove the last item from an (empty/non-existent) bag or else to wait for an assistant to verify your bag.

"Unexpected item in bagging area!" This will often be the last thing you just scanned.

Every so often the machine gets bored. "Please wait. The assistant is coming." And after the assistant has been, fixed it and gone, "Please remove the last item from the bag."

Assuming you get past that, then "Please insert cash into the slot" and heaven help you if you have a banknote. You basically have to iron the damn thing beforehand and assume a crouching position (I swear these machines literally want you on your knees) trying to feed it in. It never works first time.

"Temporarily card (or cash) payments only" - just after you've tried to pay by cash (or card). In the end the assistant will lose patience and put a bag over the head of the annoying terminal.

By now, long queues are forming as people stand there waiting for the luckless assistant, who's trying to sort out three other customers simultaneously on self-service tills that aren't happy. Meanwhile, the other long queues at the non-self-service checkouts have paid, left, gone home, had dinner and are about to go to bed.

[ 28. May 2015, 14:50: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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Preach.

I got into an argument with one of those dumb-ass machines the other day, because I put a second bag next to the one I had just filled. It squealed at me to remove the first one, but I had nowhere to put it. I finally set it on the floor.

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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
goperryrevs
Shipmtae
# 13504

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Usually if I'm shopping the unexpected item is my daughter's teddy bear - he gets around...

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"Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole." - David Lynch

Posts: 2098 | From: Midlands | Registered: Mar 2008  |  IP: Logged
Og, King of Bashan

Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562

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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Meanwhile, the other long queues at the non-self-service checkouts have paid, left, gone home, had dinner and are about to go to bed.

Oh, you mean non-self serve is an option where you live? I shop at the most understaffed Safeway in the world. First thing you learn: grab a basket while you are in the parking lot, because no one has collected them in ages. Do your shopping, and hope that you don't need deli or meat counter service. And then get ready to do self-service for your entire weeks' worth of food, because there will be no one on the check out stands, or the person running the one line is running around getting someone a new carton of milk that isn't leaking or tobacco products (no one on staff to call for help on that project).

I will say that the first place I did lots of self check out had the best attendant in the world assigned to that post. She knew all of the produce codes by heart, and would yell them to you before you spent two seconds clicking through the catalog. They don't get her kind at my new place.

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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy

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aunt jane
Shipmate
# 10139

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I once got sworn at by a member of supermarket staff when I said I wouldn't use the self service checkout again because it kept "unexpected item in bagging area" me.
I kid you not.

Posts: 97 | From: South East of England | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

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I came THIS close to telling the auto-checkout that it could shove the "unexpected item" up its "bagging area." Not a good thing in a crowd all buying ahead of the storm. [Hot and Hormonal]

My son was entertained.

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:

I will say that the first place I did lots of self check out had the best attendant in the world assigned to that post. She knew all of the produce codes by heart, and would yell them to you before you spent two seconds clicking through the catalog. They don't get her kind at my new place.

That is beyond awesome.

--------------------
I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

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Taliesin
Shipmate
# 14017

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Our how about the new self scanning as you go round, thing? Looks marvellous, beep your shopping and bag it, pay a total automatically calculated as you leave the store. Lovely. Until the random rescan, which takes place at the smallest desk imaginable. Trying to unpack 6 bags of shopping, the random guilt that convinces anxious people like me that this is the day my son will have put something in the trolley without beeping it properly, and the woman trying to balance it all on the tiny desk drops a 4 pint poly of milk which bursts all over the floor. She finishes bleeping it all but says it doesn't tell her if it's accurate or not, that info goes directly to managers office. I struggle to collect up all bags again and leave behind bag with bread in, which is what I went shopping for in the first place... And don't realise till trying to make sandwiches for 4 people at 7.30 following morning. Grrrrrrrr.
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Alan Cresswell

Mad Scientist 先生
# 31

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I rarely have that sort of problem. The usual problems are if I've forgotten my bags and need to try to get one of the plastic bags hanging there open, I just can't seem to get the knack (while the operators on the tills pile up a thousand of the things all open and ready to fill even though I've clearly got twice as many "bags for life" than I need). The annoying thing is just how many items need someone to come along and authorise them - it's just 16 iboprofen! If I can't get this stupid bag open soon it'll be 14.

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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.

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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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I once put a bottle of ibuprofen in my purse, and the autochecker had a shitfit because I didn't put it on the scale after paying for it. The attendant had to come and administer a sedative.

--------------------
I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894

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Remember, everybody, these are made by the same people who will be designing your self-driving cars.

"Unexpected item in the front bumper area. Help is on the way."

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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.

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anoesis
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# 14189

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I have heard loads of complaints of exactly this sort from, well, just about anyone who has ever used one of these things. Luckily they have not wholly overtaken checkouts operated by real, actual, people here yet.

I don't use them because I see them as taking away jobs from checkout operators - there have to be some jobs left in society for people who are just never going to be an IT professional or a graphic designer or a PR consultant or whatever. They're paid little enough already, and with the 'self-checkout' system it's usually one attendant to four or six 'tills'. I hope they [the machines] continue to be as useless, time-consuming, and frustrating to customers as they are currently. If supermarkets notice that people are more interested in standing in line to interact with a person, rather than having the opportunity to wrestle thanklessly with a machine right now, maybe they'll give up on them...

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The history of humanity give one little hope that strength left to its own devices won't be abused. Indeed, it gives one little ground to think that strength would continue to exist if it were not abused. -- Dafyd --

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Zacchaeus
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# 14454

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I hate the automatic check in at the doctors and hospitals too – they terrify me I always press the wrong button.

Last time I had an appointment, I got a severe telling off from the receptionist for not using the automated one. – I didn’t know it was compulsory.
[Frown]

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Adeodatus
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# 4992

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quote:
Originally posted by aunt jane:
I once got sworn at by a member of supermarket staff when I said I wouldn't use the self service checkout again because it kept "unexpected item in bagging area" me.
I kid you not.

In my local Sainsburys, the assistants prowl the normal checkout lines like the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, seeing whom they can drag off to humiliate in the self-service queues.

The first time one of them got me, I smiled and said, "No thanks, I'd rather wait." She moved on. A couple of weeks later, the same assistant came up to me again to tell me the self-service was free. I smiled and said, "No thanks, I'd rather stick hot needles in my eyes." She moved on. She stopped. She half turned to face me in that "Did I just hear what I think I heard?" way. Then she thought better of it and moved on.

It's odd, but I don't think I've seen that assistant again.

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"What is broken, repair with gold."

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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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We need to start running the NoHell Unrest Awards for best application of Hell ethos to a RL situation without killing someone. Good one, Adeodatus!

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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76

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That'll be because of the hot needle treatment, Ads.

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Might as well ask the bloody cat.

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basso

Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228

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You people get clerks/assistants at your self-checkout lines? How fancy. There's usually nobody to be found when the robot starts getting its automated little panties in a knot for me.
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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748

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As much as I hate everyone and want exactly zero interaction with them at any time, I go out of my way to avoid the self-service checkouts.

Either: they work for your entire shop every single time,
Or: they are killed with flaming hammers.

So far, all the ones I've encountered deserve the flaming hammer treatment.

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Forward the New Republic

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Adeodatus
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# 4992

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quote:
Originally posted by basso:
You people get clerks/assistants at your self-checkout lines?

Yes, but they have to have been trained in both Basic and Advanced Attitude.

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"What is broken, repair with gold."

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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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When attendants manifest themselves, I have been lucky enough to get good humored ones. In the purse incident I described, the attendant and I spent a few merry minutes speculating on the various neuroses of the autochecker, and suggesting about where she* could go to get a restoring vacation.

For me, thought the point is, the attendant shouldn't have to be making the rounds, addressing Sylvia Bot-Plath's little melt-downs.

* The voice was that of an overly-serious female. The effect was that of hearing someone making an urgent 911 call about produce.

--------------------
I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333

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I frequent a DIY where the self-check has a permanent attendant. I still laugh at this.

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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou

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orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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Hmm. As a person who initially had a distaste for the self-service checkout at the supermarket, but who now tends to use it because it's damn clear they're not going to put anything like enough staff on 'staffed' checkouts to deal with the likes of me, with my single-person household and hence a handheld basket, in between the mothers buying enough food to keep me going for several weeks...

...a lot of what you folk are complaining about sounds like poor process design as much as anything. Most of the things you're saying aren't inherent faults of a self-service checkout, they're the result of poor programming or poor decisions.

For example, 'scan as you go' is clearly a dumb idea.

I notice the differences. Of the two main supermarket chains here, there are several reasons why I tend to prefer Woolworths to Coles, but one of the reasons is that the Coles self-service checkouts are notably more idiotic than the Woolworths ones IMHO. And louder.

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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.

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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460

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quote:
Originally posted by basso:
You people get clerks/assistants at your self-checkout lines?


Too many. I'd use them if there were fewer assistants about. As it is they assume I don't know what I'm doing and interfere patronisingly before I get half a chance to check out. Which makes me angry. So I queue for the normal tills.

Also I nearly always buy things that legally require a human to check them anyway - the obvious ones being alcohol and paracetamol - so the alarm would always go off when I got to them.

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Ken

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

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Pancho
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# 13533

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quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
I frequent a DIY where the self-check has a permanent attendant. I still laugh at this.

quote:
Originally posted by ken:
Too many. I'd use them if there were fewer assistants about. As it is they assume I don't know what I'm doing and interfere patronisingly before I get half a chance to check out.

As a retail veteran, my experience is that for every customer like Ken and lilBuddha who doesn't need help there are 6 or 7 others who do (and in fairness some of these machines can be hard to figure out, especially if you've never used the self check-out before) and half the time the ones who say they don't need any help come back asking for it.

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“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’"

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Leorning Cniht
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# 17564

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quote:
Originally posted by ken:
Too many. I'd use them if there were fewer assistants about. As it is they assume I don't know what I'm doing and interfere patronisingly before I get half a chance to check out.

I quite deliberately select the unmanned tills in order to avoid a "helpful" assistant packing my shopping. Unfortunately, the unmanned tills at my local supermarket are the kind with conveyor belts, and they have enough spare employees that someone often leaps out of some secret cupboard and starts randomly shoving things in plastic bags.

Somehow, they seem to have an unerring ability to put canned vegetables and bananas in the same bag.

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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:


Somehow, they seem to have an unerring ability to put canned vegetables and bananas in the same bag.

I thought that they taught you not to do things like that when you got the bagger job.

--------------------
I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Piglet
Islander
# 11803

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quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
... they seem to have an unerring ability to put canned vegetables and bananas in the same bag.

But not necessarily in that order ...

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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music

Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
no prophet's flag is set so...

Proceed to see sea
# 15560

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The double check person thing after the self serve check out? Why do they always start with "how are you today?" What I am supposed to say? How about "I have many medical problems", or "my bowels are in an uproar"? Or maybe "I've come to turn myself in".

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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/

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orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:


Somehow, they seem to have an unerring ability to put canned vegetables and bananas in the same bag.

I thought that they taught you not to do things like that when you got the bagger job.
Okay, I'll bite. What the bloody hell is wrong with having bananas and canned vegetables in the same bag, when the whole point of cans is that they are quite effective at preventing interaction between the contents and any stray fruit that might, apparently against all etiquette, be hurtling past?

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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.

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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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I guess it depends on what kind of bag you got, but won't the cans themselves be bouncing around? and thus banging the bananas?

The bananas ideally belong gently placed between two packages of toilet paper.Or a bag full of marshmallows.

--------------------
I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Huia
Shipmate
# 3473

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I tried to use one at a local supermarket but I couldn't hear rhe voice and the assistant was rude.

I hate supermakets.

[ 14. March 2014, 03:30: Message edited by: Huia ]

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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.

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Palimpsest
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# 16772

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quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

Somehow, they seem to have an unerring ability to put canned vegetables and bananas in the same bag.

As a former cashier/bagger in a small mom and pop grocery store, the preferred technique is to put the cans on top of the butter. This works especially well with paper bags.
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orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I guess it depends on what kind of bag you got, but won't the cans themselves be bouncing around? and thus banging the bananas?

The bananas ideally belong gently placed between two packages of toilet paper.Or a bag full of marshmallows.

We're weird in this country. We keep the thick skins on the bananas until we're ready to eat them.

Although, now that I think of it, I'm paying a lot more money for the weight of those damn inedible skins.

Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008  |  IP: Logged
Wesley J

Silly Shipmate
# 6075

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quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
I tried to use one at a local supermarket but I couldn't hear rhe voice and the assistant was rude.

I hate supermakets.

Rhesus saves with super macaques? Monkey business.

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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)

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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I guess it depends on what kind of bag you got, but won't the cans themselves be bouncing around? and thus banging the bananas?

The bananas ideally belong gently placed between two packages of toilet paper.Or a bag full of marshmallows.

We're weird in this country. We keep the thick skins on the bananas until we're ready to eat them.

Although, now that I think of it, I'm paying a lot more money for the weight of those damn inedible skins.

Oh, now you're just being obtuse. You know very well that a big bruise on the outside will make a brown gooshy spot on the outside. I like my bananas nicely freckled, but I can NOT abide those brown gooshy spots. That is the most disgusting---

WHYY!! do we keep coming back to food? Is is because of Lent?

--------------------
I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
ExclamationMark
Shipmate
# 14715

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quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
I came THIS close to telling the auto-checkout that it could shove the "unexpected item" up its "bagging area."

Well I've done that. I routinely answer the machine back too - it clears the crowd and means that your wife refuses to shop with you again. I've also asked it for a discount on the basis I've the work of the cashier .... no response yet but I'll keep you posted.
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orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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Honestly, now I've got visions of deranged shopping assistants who aren't placing items in bags, but are dropping them from great heights or using violent downwards force, leaving squashed bananas in their wake.

I guess I would have realised the American propensity for violent aggression had extended even to this facet of life, if only I'd done some more grocery shopping. I did buy fruit** twice in Washington State, but it was at proper markets and I guess the actual growers are quite respectful of their produce. Not like those supermarket cretins who have no appreciation of where their stock comes from.

**Cherries and apricots. Not bananas.

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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291

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Last Remembrance Day, Macarius and I were in a supermarket at 11 am. All through the 2 mins silence, there came the plaintive cry of 'unexpected item in bagging area'.

Don't these machines have any respect?

M.

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Firenze

Ordinary decent pagan
# 619

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All the ones in my local Tesco have personal space issues. The least infringement of which - a gnat passing over at ceiling height say - has them insisting there is an Unexpected Item. Screaming 'No there fucking isn't! You're imagining it!' has little effect other than clearing your immediate area of other shoppers.

There is a staffed till - usually a young chap with a twitchy look - who is obliged to hand you a card asking you to rate his performance. Given the competition, obviously he could be flinging your stuff at the far wall while laughing maniacally, and still come out ahead.

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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Honestly, now I've got visions of deranged shopping assistants who aren't placing items in bags, but are dropping them from great heights or using violent downwards force, leaving squashed bananas in their wake.

Now you are just fucking with me. Continuing this stupid banana tangent for your own sick amusement. One does not need to apply a sledgehammer to banana to make a deep bruise. The edge of a can will work just fine to leave a gooshy spot. [Projectile]

quote:
Originally posted by M.:
Last Remembrance Day, Macarius and I were in a supermarket at 11 am. All through the 2 mins silence, there came the plaintive cry of 'unexpected item in bagging area'.

Don't these machines have any respect?

M.

[Snigger]

(oh forgive me.)

[Killing me] [Killing me] [Killing me] [Killing me]

[ 14. March 2014, 07:16: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58

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And depressingly, some of the machines bellow at you. If you try turning the volume down, it looks as if you're interfering with the machine and attracts unwanted attention.

I'm glad to say that the "let me pack your shoppping for you" thing is mostly non-existent or on request only here. It does get done sometimes for charity by Boy Scouts or Sea Cadets, but I tend to pack my own instead. The bananas need to go in last, on top of everything, otherwise the tins are likely to break the skin and mashed banana gets everywhere. But if you put them into a plastic fruit bag first, it usually limits the damage.

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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
The bananas need to go in last, on top of everything, otherwise the tins are likely to break the skin and mashed banana gets everywhere.

SEE, orfeo? [Razz]

quote:
But if you put them into a plastic fruit bag first, it usually limits the damage.
How many inches thick are your plastic fruit bags? Because the ones I've seen in our grocers wouldn't protect bananas from the footprints of a fruit fly, let alone a can.

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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58

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The plastic fruit bags are about 0.000000001" thick. But at least they keep the mashed banana in one place.
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Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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Ahh, ok.

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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

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Schroedinger's cat

Ship's cool cat
# 64

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I am not a technophobe - I work in the IT business. As a whole, I love technology.

I don't particularly like people, so would tend to avoid them when possible.

I avoid self-service checkouts, like the plague. I hate and loathe them, because they are so poorly designed in terms of usage, for all of the reasons above. I realise shops like them, because they can reduce staff costs, but they fundamentally don't work. They are too error prone, and frustrate customers, which is not a good thing.

I occasionally do use them when I am buying one or two items, and there are big queues. But as a rule, I will avoid them. I would rather engage with another human than use them.

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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.

Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Kelly Alves

Bunny with an axe
# 2522

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This was the last encounter I had with a checker:

Me: Do you still carry that soymilk?

Checker: Yes we do, baby, it's just been a couple days since they delivered, and we ran out.

Me: Oh, good! I didn't find any, and I though maybe y'all didn't carry it anymore.

Checker: We sure do, baby. You just get you here on Friday, because that's when they deliver next.

Me: Oh, I'm OK for now, I got a stockpile.

Checker: Stockpile! That's what you got to do, honey, you got to have a stockpile!

...Yeah, fuck the machines.

[ 14. March 2014, 07:46: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.

Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
chive

Ship's nude
# 208

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I like self check outs as they mean I don't have to talk to anyone which for an anxious person like me is a bonus. I do however hate the expression 'unexpected item in bagging area.' It's a bit of fucking shopping which in a shop can't be that fucking unexpected unless someone has been doing this again which is arguably genuinely unexpected.

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'Edward was the kind of man who thought there was no such thing as a lesbian, just a woman who hadn't done one-to-one Bible study with him.' Catherine Fox, Love to the Lost

Posts: 3542 | From: the cupboard under the stairs | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
orfeo

Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878

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quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
The bananas need to go in last, on top of everything, otherwise the tins are likely to break the skin and mashed banana gets everywhere.

SEE, orfeo? [Razz]

...you're not still under the mistaken impression that I actually care, are you?

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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.

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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713

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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
The plastic fruit bags are about 0.000000001" thick. But at least they keep the mashed banana in one place.

Yeah, all over that damned bagging area.

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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"

(Paul Sinha, BBC)

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deano
princess
# 12063

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I'll be honest, we do our "Big Shop" (a la Peter Kay!) on t'internet and have it delivered.

But I always end up going to the local Tesco's anyway, just because there's always something they can't deliver. Usually it is something obscure such as bread, or potatoes, or milk, or... you get the idea.

I always use the self-service tills because I don't like interaction with poor people, so I'm pretty much up to speed with the subtleties of the scanners.

The only problem I have is with something realy lightweight, such as a greeting card. It's too light to measure on the scales so it continually tells me to put the item scanned in the bagging area. Which I have!

So I always take something weighty such as a tin of beans with me when I'm buying something like that, and just whack that down (without scanning). The machine belives the greeting card does weigh half a kilo and carries on! Then when I've paid I just leave the tin there for a poor person to replace back on the shelf.

s'easy!

[ 14. March 2014, 09:31: Message edited by: deano ]

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"The moral high ground is slowly being bombed to oblivion. " - Supermatelot

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