Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Self-Checkout
Saturday
October 14, 2006
If something is going to sink Wal-Mart long-term, it's not the battle over unions. It's not the coalition that believes that Wal-Mart leads to urban sprawl. It's those damned self-checkout aisles.
(And, yes, despite earlier requests, I am writing about Wal-Mart on here. That's the way it is, and you'll just have to deal with it.)
Last night, following my now weekly drive back to Alabaster from Nashville, I stopped by the Super Wal-Mart mega-complex near the I-65/Alabaster interstate exit. The shelves and cabinets here at my apartment were almost empty, and I needed to do some shopping.
Shopping on a Friday night isn't usually my thing, and it was interesting to observe who was there. There were a surprising number of young couples, apparently foregoing other Friday night possibilities to buy groceries. The occasion random old person could be seen, but nothing like the droves of elderly that you can see at the Alabaster Wal-Mart during the day. I know this because usually my schedule most easily allows me to go there during my lunch break, where I'm usually easily the youngest adult male there who's not an employee (and it's not exactly overloaded with young women, either.) It's the polar opposite of the Barking Kudu on a Saturday night.
Wal-Mart has low prices on food that I like to buy, compared with the gouging that I've observed at most of the chain grocery stores in the area. It's strange how almost everything here in central Alabama is less expensive than what I was used to in the Tampa area... except for groceries. And that's before you add on the oppressively high sales tax rate (there is no sales tax for food in Florida.) Then again, I have a mansion of an apartment here that would cost close to $2,000 a month in Tampa (and I pay less than $800 a month for it *and* my cable bill), so there's some give and take involved.
So what really annoys me about Wal-Mart? It's the advent of the self-checkout lane. At first I thought it was a great advance, allowing me to shop quick, leave quick, easy times. That's fine if you have only a few items, though even that can be a bit unwieldy as you have to scan and bag your own items.
However, if you have an entire cart full of goods, doing a self-checkout really isn't an option. You could do it, but it would take forever (unless you have mad skills on that clunky Wal-Mart self-scanner), and invariably you'll have the machine bitch at you for something not being bagged (even if it is) or you'll accidentally double-scan something. And even if you throw the shopping equivalent of a perfect game on the self-scanner, there's nowhere to put all of your stuff as you go through the process. I suppose the floor might be an option, but it's not recommended.
So why would I not like this option? Because Wal-Mart has, in turn, reduced the number of actual real check-out lines and workers. That means some long waits in line, which in turn puts me in a disagreeable mood. Unlike most normal grocery stores, there's not a separate person to do the bagging, so the checkout clerk ends up having to do it, which makes the process take longer. Moreover, you have to put the bags into the cart yourself, which can be a pain if you're trying to keep an eye on the prices as they scan through.
|  | Mary Beth's car, aka the Green Goblin
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In short, it's a huge disincentive against large volume purchases, and it makes me think that maybe paying an extra $1.29 for a box of Frosted Mini-Wheats would be okay at one of the grocery stores over on Highway 119. Maybe.
This week in Nashville was a good time. Work kept me busy, but that's a good thing. The real fun was on Thursday night at my parents' house at dinner. My sister
Mary Beth helped with the meal, making the rice a certain way so that it stuck together more than normal. My bro Matt at first teasingly admonished her for the rice not being cooked properly, but she told us that it's supposed to be done that way, as it makes it easier for eating with chop-sticks. See, these are the things you learn when you spend several weeks in Japan. For now on, for all non-pro wrestling related Japanese things, I'll defer to Mary Beth.
You might think that Japanese curry flavoring (which was used with the meal) would be an odd choice, but it's actually really good. Throw in the green tea (which was pink-colored) that, amazingly, was delicious, and it was a fantastic meal. Better than having a couple of peanut butter and honey sandwiches for dinner, I assure you.
What's more, we all laughed long and loud at various topics that came up during dinner. Well, at least I laughed loud. Between Mary Beth giving up on protesting the name of her car as the Green Goblin, to us reminiscing about the recent Thursday night when Dad said that Mary Beth's "Hispanic friend" had arrived ("Half-Hispanic!" corrected Mary Beth), it was a good meal and good times. With my weekly split-schedule putting me in Nashville from Wednesday night to Friday afternoon, Thursday night has turned into family meal night for us, and it's been great. This is the sort of thing that I missed out on living in Tampa.
One addendum: there was some amazing college football on TV today. There may be no Big 10 Title game, but that Ohio State/Michigan showdown should be a great battle.
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