Cory DoctorowToday's threads (a thread)
Inside: Understaffing as a form of enshittification; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/23/nobodys-home/
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Zanne@pluralistic omg.. I went to CVS this past weekend and the cashier was running two screens where the customer had to look up their account to get their medicine. The touch screen was horrible so it took a lot of effort to use. The cashier was taking over half the time. It was completely inefficient and made us all cranky. This was in my local target which has become completely useless. Who is running these companies? #enshittification 10000%
BandersnatchI refuse to use self-checkout for any reason & have literally left a full cart at the front of the store when no other options are available.
Waste my time & I will waste even more of your money.
Diabetic Heihachi@Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic
I just steal things when I have to self checkout.
I found out the staff login to the machines at my one local grocer is 4444 so I help myself to discounts, or If an item requires a count to be entered that means the scale is not sensitive to pick up the items weight properly, so yes, I only purchased three dried fruit strips, not 50. Oh and those are chocolate covered raisins from the bulk section, not organic chocolate covered almonds...
Wayne Werner@DavBot @Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic I had a Very Experience a few years ago https://waynewerner.com/blag/2024-02-06-13-29-kroger-is-the-absolute-worst.html
Joe Reinhart@DavBot @Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic
This is a weird take to me as I much prefer self checkout and don't see it as enshittification at all. I'd be quite bummed if they took them away because people were using them to steal.
This is a weird take to me as I much prefer self checkout and don't see it as enshittification at all. I'd be quite bummed if they took them away because people were using them to steal.
Brett@jayemar @DavBot @Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic
Capital owners should pay people to do things instead accumulating more wealth.
Self checkout in a just world would have been obliterated by collective bargaining. Grocery stores were almost universally unionized not even 25 years ago. You could literally provide for your family bagging groceries.
TobyBartels@jayemar @DavBot @Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic
I much prefer them to standing in line, but whenever I do get a human checker, I'm surprised again to be reminded how much faster they are. So all in all, I wish that they would pay enough people to check everybody out, but since they won't, I'm glad to have these.
e1evenf1ngers@jayemar @DavBot @Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic I doubt they take them away as staffing less people saves the companies a lot of money. My guess is they expand the surveillance tech they're already using.
At an arena near me they have a "self checkout" where you scan your card to enter, take what you want, and the cameras see everything you leave with (no self-scanning) and use AI to asses what items you "bought" / left with.
@jayemar @DavBot @Bandersnatch @pluralistic self checkout is fine if it saves the customer more time.. many times it doesn't (in my experience). In Target, self checkout has been ok, except now it's longer lines and you have to do everything yourself. CVS screens suck.. so it's was basically having to type out my name painstakingly on a touch screen that didn't work. The checkout person did it in seconds.
Matilda@DavBot @Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic our local supermarket chain closed the self checkouts because of stealing.
Which was a total pain.
But each to their own
@junklight @DavBot @Bandersnatch @pluralistic
Half the store is locked up because of stealing.. they are simply pushing people online. Why don't they just close the stores? Half the parking spots are taken up as order online spots anyway and yet I hardly see anyone parking in these spots. Total waste. It's like moronic AI is already running the store from afar..
@DavBot @zannesan @pluralistic
That will work till it doesn't. Loss prevention has gotten crazy in the past few years. My wife watches YouTube videos of people getting arrested for doing *exactly* what you are describing.
Big box stores will "let" you continue to do this while they collect evidence on you until you hit a felony amount & then they will nail you to the wall and ban you from the store for a minimum of several years.
⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️@DavBot @Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic you ejit. This raises prices for everyone to cover the theft
Negahyphen@Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic even Whole Foods /Amazon are phasing out those experiments as they have shown to cause a dramatic increase in shrinkage. Mm.
There are more people who admit to taking an item from a store with self checkout than support war with Iran (even without ground troops).
There are more people who admit to taking an item from a store with self checkout than support war with Iran (even without ground troops).
Carolyn@Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic High five. Me, too. Once I went to a store that had converted to self checkouts since last I visited and I just looked at the one person who was there to oversee things and asked if there was a person with a checkout who could process me, she took me over to a what seemed the one remaining checkout counter to check me out, and I haven't been back.
If she hand't helped, I would've just dropped my basket and left.
⠵⠻⠷⠕⠭ 🍥🍉⚪🌹@Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic Same. I *could* use the anti labour device (self checkout, self order kiosk etc.) but I refuse.
Sterling@Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic
what pisses me off is when the dumb machines are either not working...or just plain old turned off or cordoned off.
Then they have the balls to check you as you go out while cameras are watching you and you have < $10 in goods.... but will not have someone check you out.
what pisses me off is when the dumb machines are either not working...or just plain old turned off or cordoned off.
Then they have the balls to check you as you go out while cameras are watching you and you have < $10 in goods.... but will not have someone check you out.
ferricoxide@Bandersnatch @zannesan @pluralistic
Prior to recent years, self-checkout was a no-go for me because the scanners were always crap and, 9/10 chance I was gonna have to flip the "help me" light and wait several minutes for the helper-dude to notice and come by.
These days, with all the poorly-designed stop-loss cameras, it's not worth the risk to use self-checkout (this wasn't one of the news stories I was looking for, but you get the drift)
Prior to recent years, self-checkout was a no-go for me because the scanners were always crap and, 9/10 chance I was gonna have to flip the "help me" light and wait several minutes for the helper-dude to notice and come by.
These days, with all the poorly-designed stop-loss cameras, it's not worth the risk to use self-checkout (this wasn't one of the news stories I was looking for, but you get the drift)
Negative12DollarBill