h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

all the big chains in Germany have self-checkouts but none of the small ones, which is apparently a thing in other countries.

I never use them and when (in Real, usually) the assistants try to push me towards them I ask them why they want to encourage me to contribute to their job being phased out.

There are a couple of "Dollar" stores in my little S-town. I occasionally stop by the Family Dollar store (I consider it a better option than the more popular Dollar General as it carries many name brand products and Dollar General mostly carries cheaply made knockoffs). What both stores have in common is being surprisingly understaffed.

As far as I can tell, there are only two people working at any time. There are rarely more than 5 customers in the store at a time, fortunately. Both employees are usually busy restocking the shelves so it's normal to need to ring the bell to get one to check you out. Another thing about Family Dollar is how claustrophobic it is. Not only are the aisles particularly narrow, the store has two narrow, nonautomated doors and one is permanently blocked.

I don't use self checkouts any more. The last time I used one was in Morrison's and it snatched my cash as I was feeding it in. Rude.

I'd prefer to deal with a person .

PP.

None of this self-service technology saves time. A supermarket cashier can scan a trolleyful of shopping in seconds flat. With the exception of a simple cash withdrawal, a bank teller can perform transactions far quicker than the machines.

This is all designed so they can reduce the number of employed cashiers - it's as simple as that. It's galling to go into a bank and find an employee walking up the queue suggesting you use the machines. They are being asked to make themselves redundant, and many of them don't realise it.

And I just realied that's what Sho said earlier.

At least the self-service check-out scans your shopping at the speed you want to pack your bags. The cashiers in Asda whizz the stuff through so quickly that when I move the full bag to replace it with the empty one, all the scanned shopping slides down to fill the space. It doesn't help that I then feel obliged to slow down to show them I won't be rushed. I'm bloody-minded like that.

It's actually a petty hate.

Another one is how they sometimes reach over the stuff at the start of the conveyor to scan something else first - usually something heavier. The thing is, I fill the conveyor in the order I want to pack - heavy stuff, then light stuff to go on top of it. New bag, heavy stuff, then light. So now I'm having to wrestle with two bags. I use the great big bags and they're pretty awkward to keep open while you're packing them. Two is more than twice as bad because now I'm having to reach over one to get at the other. Only I don't do that any more. I just stand and wait for them to finish scanning the wrong stuff and only resume packing when they send down the stuff they've reached over. I'm bloody-minded like that, too.

And breathe...I really hate grocery shopping.

To be fair to the cashiers, they have to scan quickly. I asked during my last trip if they're monitored and was told that they are. So it's the company's fault, as it usually turns out to be.

Deb

Self checkout does often save time...


BECAUSE they've already reduced staff.


When they opened one of the larger chain department/grocer/big box stores with a target in the logo , I was amazed at the number of register lanes they had.

I was also amazed at how few of them were open.

They have over 30 lanes, but the most checkers I've ever seen on duty is about 5.




I think we're heading for a huge revolution in social structure. Automation is making huge swaths of jobs obsolete. The strong work ethic is dysfunctional in this coming age. The goal of full employment is more and more unobtainable. Nations are competing to see who's workers will work for less and the manufacturers are moving to those with the cheapest labor, until another nation lowers its standards even farther.

We have the greatest efficiency in history, why don't we use it to make life better for everyone. Instead of putting the profits of this greater efficiency into the pockets of the uber-rich, the 0.01%, it should be used to create a new social order. Why not pay people to be creative, or studious. Educate people not for menial jobs, but for the sake of education itself. Invest in a better future through science and art.

Get your pitchforks and torches . The next REVOLUTION is coming!



(or not, I really don't have an optimistic view of the future. I personally think we're in the last generations.)

I just hope they've designed into the self-service checkouts the three rules:

1. A self-service checkout may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A self-service checkout must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A elf-service checkout must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

I just experienced a common petty hate...

The office 'fridge.


I have noticed an increasing stench arising within it recently.
This morning it was particularly malodorous. It can be difficult to find the source of feculence sometimes, but I found it right away. I noticed a canister of Low Fat Cottage Cheese in the 'fridge door, right up top. The smell did seem dairy related, so that seemed like a possible suspect. So I opened it...


It offended my eyes more than my nose.
It was pink with bits of grey green on top.

"Why not pay people to be creative, or studious. Educate people not for menial jobs, but for the sake of education itself. Invest in a better future through science and art."


You're preaching to the choir there.



"(or not, I really don't have an optimistic view of the future. I personally think we're in the last generations.)"


Oh everybody always says that and nothing bad ever happens. Are you people blind?

Don't be so cynical.

Petty hates? People who show up out of nowhere, haven't read the past 1000 posts, and comment anyway

*waves to Mala*

PH: I opened a jar of Branston Pickle this morning and it was runny. Have they changed the formula? If they have, I need to re-evaluate my life.

Was it definitely 'original' and not 'smooth'?

<BB<

ah the office fridge. I'm usually first in our office and sometimes I empty the dishwasher while I'm waiting for the coffee to finish filtering. Or I go through the fridge. And the amount of stuff that i chuck away really makes me cross.

Or there's the time someone had had a meeting and afterwards put the little jug of (tinned-stylee) milk in the fridge. And someone knocked it over so it spilled all over the top shelf, dripped all over the 2nd shelf (both glass) and into the salad drawer.

I took a photo, emailed it round and asked the responsible person to clear it up. But no. (plus HR asked me why I hadn't cleaned it up...) and that was a Friday. Come Monday it had dried solid and was starting to smell. So I binned the entire contents of the fridge and put the shelves through the dishwasher.

And yes: fridge police. But there's no excuse for it.

This office fridge makes its own mess. In the ceiling of the main compartment are two rectangular vents that drip water. I suspect it's draining from the self defrosting freezer unit above. I placed two coffee cans, cut down to fit on the top shelf, below the vents.

I've been emptying the one on the right out about once a week. If I don't it's twice as full the next week.

I'm now wondering how long it would take for someone else to empty it? Would the other slowly fill up while I wait?


Yes, I'm sure of it. And as the only items I keep in the fridge is my canned V8 and my pitcher of iced tea, both safe in the fridge door, I think I'll find out.

We've had photos of interesting fridge growths e-mailed round the office.

Once I emptied the fridge (just before the lunch break) and cleaned it out and left a note for people to replace what was theirs, after having thrown away stuff that was frankly a health hazard, and some meat parcels, where people had been to the butchers, and put the whole bag in the fridge, including the till slip, which clearly showed that the bag had been in there at least 8 weeks.

I wrote that what was not re-claimed or dumped by 3 pm would be disposed of.

This resulted in a nasty e-mail from someone complaining that what if people were on holiday and the folly of leaving stuff out of the fridge.

You can't win. I'm not doing it again.

Heh... one of the things thrown out this week was 3 week old barbecue with a dated receipt.

What I am taking away from the posts about fridges at work, is that coworkers' hygene habits resort to that of their student days when not at home.

Have you tried a pre-emptive strike on the office fridge? Eat anything in it before it goes off.