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Self-checkout
I do not understand the hostility I see on Facebook from time to time towards self-checkout.
I don’t know of any major retailers that have eliminated checkout lanes. In Shelbyville, Kroger and Walmart both offer you a choice. You can use self-checkout, or you can go through a traditional checkout lane. I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. The major big-box chains are in a fierce competition, and they are trying to add more options, not fewer. They’ve added self-checkout, but they’ve also added ClickList, in which an employee does your shopping for you and brings your groceries out to your car, and home delivery options as well.
It’s completely up to you. I find self-checkout, for the way I shop, to be much faster and more convenient. But I don’t begrudge anyone the right to go through a traditional checkout lane, and I use them myself in certain situations (a large, full basket, for example, or when buying a gift card which must be activated at the register). I feel no hostility towards traditional checkout lanes or the people using them — it’s a matter of personal preference, not a moral issue.
“But wait,” some of you are saying. “It is a moral issue. Self-checkout lanes cost people jobs.”
I would respond to that in several ways.
