If you are a fan of handling your own grocery item checkout, your life is about to change.
Albertson’s is removing self-checkout lines from all its stores as part of a seven-state redo taking place beginning next month, according to a DMN story. Kroger also is considering removing the lanes.
Both chains say they are considering using something called “metro lanes” instead, which appears to be what Central Market uses at its Greenville-Lovers Lane store: a longer, snaking line that feeds into more high-volume, highly staffed checkout positions. The line seems longer when you queue up but also seems to move more quickly, in part because you won’t become “stuck” behind someone with three cart-loads of goods or someone who is having trouble working the self-checkout line.
Which, in my experience, is everyone. Every time we get in the self-checkout line, my wife and I spend any time we might have saved arguing about who is “better” at working the item scanner and who doesn’t know what they’re doing in terms of putting the items in the bag without drawing the ire of the checkout machine.
