Wally World vs. Auto Zoneout

It's really hard to believe that in spite of the horrific events which always occur during a thing called "checkout", I still find myself going back to Wally World for another round of thumbscrew torture. It occurred to me while I was running between stores to find a lawn & garden battery for my riding mower last night, that my attitude is different while I wait in line at the automotive store.

At the automotive parts store, you can see the clerk at the register testing equipment and walking back to the shelf to find what the customer needs (it's a new concept today we refer to as "customer service".  I would love to see the business model catch on because I think it might actually work). Even though there is a wait and it takes forever to check out, the customers are not angry, they actually talk to one another about the project they are working on, and some even offer their own bit of knowledge to help a fellow shopper.

At the blue box store, you find 20 customers waiting single file looking at twenty or more "self checkout" machines, are which are turned "off". This is because some professional idiot believes it is cost effective to let the customer feel they are in control of their own destiny scanning everything in the cart by themselves. This is a false sense of shopper security, and watching concrete cure is more exciting. Everything may be "flawless" at first, but wait until you have only one or two items left and inevitably there will be the dreaded "Waiting for Assistance" message. Thus begins the long wait for the sole person working at the checkout line for the entire store to come over, after they are finished of course with the other 15 customers who are waiting ahead of you!

I am sure it's hard to smile when you are that "attendant", knowing you are in a position destined for failure.  Once upon a time we actually called them "cashiers" and they smiled from time to time, of course now they are just "scanner fixer uppers". *sigh*

At least I still can enjoy every savory morsel at the Awful Waffle :)