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Are you seeing grocery stores moving away from self check-outs?

I adore the self check-out registers at the grocery store. I am particular (ok, maybe weird) about how my groceries are packed. Sometimes I am shopping for two seperate houses so I like to group my things a certain way. Also, the self check-outs moved quickly, a huge bonus to me when I was stopping on my way home from work.

Just in the past two months, three grocery store chains in my area (Pennsylvania) removed all of their self check-out lanes.

Is anyone seeing this in your area?

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  1. none of the ones here have them or did have them...

    the only place i see them at is home depot or walmart

    1. Just the opposite here in Southern CA.

      I've seen a proliferation of them.

      Even Costco is going the self checkout route.

      4 Replies
      1. re: ipsedixit

        I wish my area Costcos had some. I usually buy less than 5 items at Costco. The Fairfax VA Costco had self-checkout lines for a short period of time. I loved it! They removed it for reasons unknown.

        1. re: Unraveled

          I shop at only a few VA Costco's, and I believe that Fairfax must have one of the largest amount of people shopping that i've seen. I can't imagine either the reasons that they would remove the self-checkout lines.

          When I see those long lines when I myself have a lot of items I always cringe, so I never mind letting someone with a few items go on ahead of me.

          But I must say, checkers at Costco stores have some darned fast checkers, and I've only had one wrong ring-up in about 20 years (that I can recall.)

          1. re: Rella

            For the few months it was there, it was pure heaven. I don't buy a lot of items on one trip so I hated waiting in the long lines where everyone else had a cart full of stuff.

            I just avoid the peak hours (basically weekends when they do the samples).

        2. re: ipsedixit

          Costco will not put self-checkout in really busy locations. Here in Portland, the one by the airport is close to I-205 and a lot of Washingtonians come to it. So no self-check. But other locations have them.

        3. My Kroger just added 4 to the existing 4.

          1. I haven't seem much of a move to self-serve in mainstream supermarkets in the immediate SF Bay area, but we are getting some new stores from the Fresh-and-Easy chain in our area and they have ONLY self-serve. They also have a few roving clerks who will help you check out or bag for you if you need assistance.

            1. I wish....in CT they seem to keep adding more...and the damn things never work, especially w/produce. If I'm expected to cash myself out, I'd like a little discount. What's next, picking my order from the palets?? (oh yeah, that's aldi)

              1 Reply
              1. re: BiscuitBoy

                You know how all produce comes with stickers now? You use the number on that sticker to check out. You enter the # and then let the scale weigh it. The computer does the rest.