What Do You Mean I Have an Unexpected Item in the Bagging Area!

(This is the unedited version of the article that was published in the Clayton Patch on January 26, 2011.)

About six months ago, I stood inside the Clayton Safeway starring at the large newly arrived wooden crates. Staged next to the Starbucks kiosk, I was filled with both anticipation and anxiety as the installation crew began revealing their contents. I knew what was in them because I had asked about a week earlier.

Self check out had arrived at our local grocery store in Clayton.

As the crates were opened, memories of when grocery clerks did not scan anything filled my mind. Stockers used price guns to apply price stickers. Checkers read the stickers and pushed buttons on a “cash register” to ring you up.

So, what’s to anticipate? Well, the “cool factor” was top of mind. New technology always makes my blood run as swift as electrons on a circuit board.

At first it’s the promise of an easier life. Next, there are the familiar “all-knowing, cutting-edge, ego-popping” thoughts that form. Then, the serene bliss that follows from having mastered a new gadget, something to brag about at parties. “Guess what everybody! I did my first self check today and I was a master.” Finally, there is the anticipation of what will be next. 

At last, I would be able to check my own groceries. I was to be spared the anguish of having to wait in line behind the other customers while a grocery clerk scans away. No longer would I be forced into idle conversations with strangers or have to greet the checker I have known for the last 10 years.

On the other hand, the idea of self check out made me anxious. Questions raced through my mind. How would I scan a bunch of bananas? Will they now genetically engineer bananas with bar codes on their skin?

What happens if an item does not scan? Do I call for a price check? Will each customer be given access to that scratchy intercom system?

“Er, umm, customer Kevin needs a price check on…” What happens if I get stage fright when I speak? Worse yet, what if the item is of a personal nature. Yikes!

Will I get carpal tunnel syndrome? Will I need to bring a wrist brace to the store along with my freshly laundered re-usable eco-friendly grocery bags?

Will there be lines in self check out? Will anxious customers be standing behind me in anguish over my inability to scan? Will I be good enough to scan groceries in the 21^st century?

Or, will I become a relic of the grocery past, an old price sticker stuck to the floor of the last century?

At the urging of my 9 year old daughter, who insists on using the self check like it’s a new Xbox game, I quickly learned the idiosyncrasies of scanning groceries. Although, I admit I was curious as to how it works too. 

I was scanning and bagging in no time. I quickly learned to bag without delay or the kiosk would bark at me that I had not placed the item in the bag (or at least on the scale.) And, don’t forget to enter you club card number on the pin pad card reader (a separate input device) if you want your club card discount.

When I could not figure out what to do with a 40 pound bag of dog food because there was no room on the scale, my daughter dutifully pointed out to me the “skip bagging” key on the touch screen. I have no idea how she knew that.

Heel dad! She is trying to teach this old dog a new trick or two.

I won’t do produce at self check out.  The lack of bar codes brings up too many variables.  For example, how does the scanner know you aren’t purchasing yellow onions when you have told it you are buying the less expensive red onions? Or, vice versa.

My daughter resolved this for me too. You just make a few selections on the touch screen, find the red onions, select it, and weigh the onions. But, that still does not answer my question or explain how she knew that. 

I guess some of my irrational aversions to self check out remain.

Nevertheless, I find myself looking at my fellow “antiquated” shoppers using the “old” regular check out, carefully watching to see who finishes first. Cheers erupt from my ego as I dash for the door, my groceries tagged and bagged, just as “they” are getting to the front of “their” line.

Then, as I get to my car, I wonder who has been tagged and who has been bagged.

Well, that was six months ago and of course customers don’t have to use self check out. What’s more, a single clerk now monitor the six self check kiosks, ready to help with any of my anticipated problems.

I also learned that produce is tagged with a little sticker containing an id number that you can key into the touch screen if you get stuck trying to figure out which type of apples you selected.

For the most part, I have been very happy about the self check process. It’s convenient and works very well.

Clayton resident Ryan Clark agreed. “It’s fantastic,” he said. “The technology is brilliant but I would not use it for more than 15 items,” he added.

Anita Wray, another Clayton resident, said the she loves self check out. “It gets me through the line faster.” “Some people don’t like it but I do.” She added.

Former Clayton resident and Safeway employee Kim, said self check out is great.  She shops the Clayton Safeway on the way home most every day.  “One thing I don’t like about it is that you can’t bag things the way you want. If you do not bag them in the order you scan them, you will get an ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ message.” “This freeze up the entire system and it took ten minutes today to get it fixed.”

Kim went on to say that, although Safeway claims it will not eliminate jobs, she does not believe that. “It will definitely cut hours,” she said.

Clayton Safeway management could not comment on self check out and referred me to their public relations department. That department was not able to return my messages by the time I wrote this column.

So, as I master self check out, I anxiously await what is coming next. Will “smart shopping carts” turn self check out into a relic of the past? I think they will.

I just hope they roll out those new carts before my daughter moves on to college.