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...
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.
@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.
WesDym@zannesan Also, lots of us don't want to deal with other people if we can avoid it. It's much less checkers, honestly, than being sandwiched in that cattle-call line, often in front of some pushy or impatient person. Self-checkout is typically non-linear, in that there is no 'line' per checkout, just one to get at them.
@wesdym it seems you would be better off just ordering from home.. no people at all to deal with and delivered right to your door. I don't have too much of a problem with self checkout if it's frictionless. What's the difference between linear and non linear when you have to wait? Not much to my mind.. still spending my life waiting in line and hoping I don't get a bum checkout at the end of the line. Meanwhile Target has a gazillion other checkouts empty that you can't use.