Yesterday I stopped by one of those big retail chains that have mostly switched to self-checkout.
I grabbed what I needed, unloaded it myself, scanned everything myself, bagged it myself, and put it all back in my cart.
At the exit there was an employee standing by the doors checking receipts.
By the time I got there, I felt absolutely no obligation to stand in another line just to prove I had completed the store’s job for them.
So I just kept walking.
I heard a “Sir, excuse me!” behind me — I lifted my receipt up in the air and kept going.
And honestly, the point is pretty simple:
• either you trust people and trust self-checkout,
• or bring back the cashiers like before.
I’m not interested in proving that I performed your internal labor correctly.
If you expect me to act as your cashier — untrained and unpaid — that is an expectation on your side, not a responsibility on mine.
And here’s the bigger thing:
Keep hiring young people. Give them jobs.
The store doesn’t pay me to scan and bag my own purchases.
And it doesn’t offer a discount for doing the work myself.