S/O. Anyone seeing self checkouts being closed

No, not closing here. In fact, some times I see only one or two regular check stands open. And I am in SoCal.

No, but there is usually someone monitoring them.

They're not closed, but one of the grocery stores I go to has a limit on the number of items (20) you're supposed to abide by.

In fact, our Aldi just recently added self-checkouts.

I have two Michael’s near me and they have gone to self-check out. There is one regular cash register and then in the place of the other check-out spots, there are self-serve machines. Maybe 3 or 4 of them. They are actually easy to use and they have no problems scanning your coupons.

I haven't seen any close at the places I go to (mostly only the grocery store, Costco, and Target) but they have ramped up various anti-theft measures. At my grocery store you used to be able to leave your groceries in your cart, scan them one at a time, then put them back in your cart. I used to shove them all down to the front of my cart, set my reusable bag in the back, then as I scanned I could just drop the item into my bag. I can see though how people could take advantage of that. So now we have to set each item onto the bagging area as we scan. And we can't take them off of that area until after we've paid. We can't even set our reusable bag down on that area. So because of this they've had to put a limit of how many items you can do at self-checkout since that bagging area isn't very big. 

The last time I was at Target I didn't see anything new, but they always have an employee there watching. Same at Costco.

I hate that! I won't use the self-checkout at one particular store because of that. I had so many problems with their machines. Every time I used them, I had to call the cashier for something. One was that apparently the weight of the item was not "correct" so even though I placed the item on the bagging area, it didn't register.

But, I don't see how that deters theft. If you are going to steal something, you are not going to scan it! Once you scan the item, it shouldn't matter if you place it in your pocket or on the bagging platform.

I haven't seen that here. The only places I go in that have self checkout are Target, HEB, and Home Depot, and those all seem to be going strong. They are always monitored, though, which is fine with me.

That's how it is in our WalMart. I put everything in my cart with the barcode facing up and use the wireless scanner ~ zip, zip, zip and I'm done. I bag it once I get to my car. At Costco, I do the same thing and an attendant in the self-checkout usually comes over and scans everything for me so I don't have to put anything on the *tray*.

They only have them open on the grocery side. They are always closed on the pharmacy side (which is the door I use). And one whole lane on the grocery side is closed. I assume they only open them if they have enough employees to monitor each self checkout lane. My Walmart is a smaller urban one that has locked up almost everything. Sometimes we drive out to the far west suburbs and the Walmarts out there are huge, don't have anything locked up, and have massive self checkout areas.

Well, they just enlarged our Target and added more self-check lanes and fewer lanes with checkers. I always use self-check because I’m so much faster and I don’t have to make chitchat with the checker.

I’ve not seen that. But, I hate them and if that’s all a store has I wouldn’t shop there.

Is this at Coles or Woolies? I hate self serve with a passion, unless I only have one or two items and there are no express lanes open. I think changing to self serve puts a lot of people out of jobs. I'm hoping that the full size self serve checkouts don't come near me! (I'm on the north side in Sydney.)

Nope all the stores with self-checkout lanes are going strong here.

No, but our area is always behind.

I love the self-checkouts at our local grocery store. There are the small number of items stations and the large order lanes. Between the Boy and I, we have the operation down to a science.

Walmart is an iffy proposition. So, if I only have a handful of items and the self-checkout isn’t busy, I will run through there. Otherwise, I go to a cashier. Again, you don’t know what you are going to get. There are really good cashiers and, well, I hope yesterday’s guy was just new. It looks as if they finally got rid of the cashier who thought praying over, while laying hands on customers, was a good idea. At least he would ask permission first.