self checkout counters

there’s this carrefour equivalent (minus the fresh food sections) in the town shopping centre which recently introduced the concept of self-checkout counters.

i dropped by two weeks ago to purchase some toiletries and it worked perfectly fine. so i was pretty happy cos it was quick and easy. self-checkout counters were so cool.

today, i went there to get some other stuff. half of the self-checkout counters were down because of dunno-what problems. fortunately it was 11.30am in the morning and most of the population was at work or in school. so i got an empty counter, scanned in the barcode of the pack of paper and waited.

*beep: assistance required. item weight unknown.

so i called out for assistance and the former-cashier had to key in her PIN number and password.

then i placed the pack of paper in the bagging area, which is what they call the metal hooks holding the plastic bags. there must be some kind of lousy sensor in the bagging area which screwed up.

*beep: unidentified item placed in bagging area. please remove item.

so i removed the bloody pack of paper.

*beep: item removed from bagging area. please return item.

so i put the pack of paper back in.

*beep: unidentified item placed in bagging area. please remove item.

and it went on and on till i got fed up. so i called out for assistance again and the lady keyed in the PIN number and password. she was also telling me, “oh, this (pointing) is the bagging area, you just need to place the scanned items in the plastic bags”.

hell, i know that is the bagging area, there are pictures on the screen. do i look stupid? it’s the freaking sensors that went mad!

so there, self-checkout counters may appear cool but damn it, they screw up too much.