Self-checkout etiquette - is it rude to start scanning while someone else is still there?

[kdonnel]

Had they swept your stuff onto the floor to make way for their stuff, rude. Otherwise I don’t have a problem with someone starting while I move slowly.

 

[BrianL]

Yeah, you have to wait until the pick up all their stuff and move away. I don't see why someone would push in to start 2 seconds earlier.

 

[ronandannette]

Had they swept your stuff onto the floor to make way for their stuff, rude. Otherwise I don’t have a problem with someone starting while I move slowly.

Yes - I'd agree. The big-box store I just mentioned also requires you to bag your own stuff when going through the regular registers. It's always crazy-busy, many people have huge orders and the cashiers can scan way faster than most people can bag. Orders will get shoved together and things will start to back-up if a customer is a slow bagger. I've taken to just firing my stuff back into the cart so I can get out of the way, and then taking my time and care to bag it all up properly when I get out to the car.

 

[bcla]

I think you have to consider both sides of this story. We are hearing one. What were you doing? I'm having a hard time picturing the scene. When I am self scanning, I am also bagging and putting stuff back in the cart as I go. When I get the receipt everything is off the platform and in the cart so I can just head away instantly. Were you standing in the way chatting with someone or on your phone or something else that created a situation that someone would feel the desire to move you along? If someone else started scanning where did they put their stuff after it was scanned?

I was in a city where there’s a 25 cent charge per bag, so I didn’t bag it. Just grabbed my change, then the receipt. The receipt is to the right across the scanner from the platform. Once I have the receipt it’s less than 5 seconds and I hear the beep. I was going straight for my purchased items when they already started crowding in on me. I was somewhat surprised because there were items on the platform/scale. I think they may have gotten a lot of complaints about the sensitivity and turned it off.

This is the model (not the same location), although mine was on the opposite side and the platform was to my left. However, everything else is the same.

I’m pretty sure I was moving out as soon as I could.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don't think it matters what you're doing, it's just personal space. It's the same when you're at the regular check out if someone is picking up the last of their bags it would be rude to just pop up right next to them crowding them. Seems to me most people observe this and give enough space. If someone is chatting it up by the machine a simple "excuse me" said politely is appropriate. Just starting to immediately scan is not IMO.

As far as putting back in carts that generally works in most places. Before they redesigned the self-check out at the Walmart we go to to switch to different machines the ones they had before in the main self check out area were ones with extra space on the side for you to put your bags so people would often put them there and then put into the cart a bit later. Now the newer machines have less side space so people are putting in the cart faster. When I'm at Costco if it's just an item or two I don't have a cart so it stays in the side space til I'm leaving the self check out area.

 

[_19disnA]

Maybe some stores have their self-checkout configured differently, but all of ones in stores I shop have multiple self-serve stations. You queue in line at the entrance to that area and when a station becomes available you step to that one. I have never watched people in front of me that closely to know who is slow and who isn't. If someone is slow, why not just take a different station? Unless the store is very busy, there always seems to be an open station available.

 

[lynxstch]

Rude--I never put my things on the scanner until the person is done,,or else if they tell me to go ahead and unload the cart (sometimes that happens). I always ask the person who gets in line behind me to wait until all my groceries have been scanned and after I use my card. So far everyone has been okay with it.

 

[StevieTimes]

I've found much more light in my life by trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and thinking the best about people, instead of the worst.

It could have been that they had someone in the hospital that they were in an extreme hurry for, or something similar.

This morning I was going five over the speed limit, and a truck flew by me in a double yellow (no passing zone). Was he being unpleasant, or was there some extreme emergency in his life? I could darken my life and think negative thoughts about him; or keep the light and think good thoughts like he is a good person who has a situation in his life.

The negative thoughts only hurt me.

 

[leahgoogle]

Yes, rude! I like personal space and I give others plenty. I would never think to start scanning before someone has packed up all of their stuff and walked away.

 

[Nolcrest]

Some people are so self-absorbed they don't even think. Just this week, the cashier had just finished ringing up my order and I was standing at the end bagging my groceries when the woman behind me came right up to the debit machine to put her card in for her order. At the same time the cashier and myself said that I wasn't finished yet. I then added "but if you want to pay for my groceries feel free". I mean she was way in my space on top of it all. I hope I am never impatient the way others are that I lose all manners. PS: I then gave the debit machine a once over to make sure there was no skimming thing added.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It could have been that they had someone in the hospital that they were in an extreme hurry for, or something similar.

I doubt that and I say that as someone who usually does the same for people for the most part. I think there's a point where you have to not always think someone is experiencing something of distress so it excuses their behavior. The reason people talked about "You don't know what someone is going through" wasn't really meant to apply that to every person who does something as a means to explain away. When you do that you almost lose the effect of genuine empathy IMO as it stops being situational and starts being all encompassing.

If something someone does doesn't bother you (and it sounds like this exact situation wouldn't) I don't think that's the same as pondering what crisis someone is going through that would lead them to do something such as encroach on someone in the self-checkout lane. Sometimes (and more often than we'd like to probably think) people are just being people.

 

[goofyernmost]

I wish I could do this. Most of the self checkout around here, it goes off of weight and tells you to put the bag back. So, I end up bagging on the little platform and then trying to quickly move my bags once it's processing my credit card.

Even if the person was being slow to unload, actually starting your transaction when they have stuff up there is very rude. If you want to move the person along, maybe you walk over and offer to help get their things into the cart? You don't actually start scanning your stuff!

I don't disagree I just feel that usually both parties had something to do with it. Maybe not, there are more rude, belligerent people in this country then I thought possible, so my thoughts could be wrong. I had forgotten about the put stuff in the bag but wouldn't you still be standing in the way of someone doing the bag thing themselves plus the ones I have used will allow you to take stuff off as you go along, but if an additional purchase is made they need the scanner to add to the weight before they can do anymore. Whatever the case, it isn't worth further discussion so I will just say that if what was described is what happened then that person was indeed rude.

 

[StevieTimes]

I doubt that and I say that as someone who usually does the same for people for the most part. I think there's a point where you have to not always think someone is experiencing something of distress so it excuses their behavior. The reason people talked about "You don't know what someone is going through" wasn't really meant to apply that to every person who does something as a means to explain away. When you do that you almost lose the effect of genuine empathy IMO as it stops being situational and starts being all encompassing.

If something someone does doesn't bother you (and it sounds like this exact situation wouldn't) I don't think that's the same as pondering what crisis someone is going through that would lead them to do something such as encroach on someone in the self-checkout lane. Sometimes (and more often than we'd like to probably think) people are just being people.

I can see that. It just is more for me, keeping me happier, not necessarily that I believe it. Do I really think the guy this morning had an emergency? No or he'd drive crazy the whole way. I just found it's healthier for myself to keep positivity.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I can see that. It just is more for me, keeping me happier, not necessarily that I believe it. Do I really think the guy this morning had an emergency? No or he'd drive crazy the whole way. I just found it's healthier for myself to keep positivity.

Ah I gotcha, nothing wrong with thinking positively

 

[MillauFr]

I was in a city where there’s a 25 cent charge per bag, so I didn’t bag it. Just grabbed my change, then the receipt. The receipt is to the right across the scanner from the platform. Once I have the receipt it’s less than 5 seconds and I hear the beep. I was going straight for my purchased items when they already started crowding in on me. I was somewhat surprised because there were items on the platform/scale. I think they may have gotten a lot of complaints about the sensitivity and turned it off.

This is the model (not the same location), although mine was on the opposite side and the platform was to my left. However, everything else is the same.

I’m pretty sure I was moving out as soon as I could.

When you were bagging your groceries, you should have lifted up an item and gotten it a bit too close to the scanner....

 

[Marrila]

Weird and very rude.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Weird boundary issues if people can't manage how lines work. I know I'm sarcastic but when people do stuff like that I generally comment on my invisibility cloak.

Super weird and just as annoying as the people that cram all their stuff on the belt behind yours without one of those bars and are breathing down your neck while you pay. Once I asked the lady if she was paying for my groceries because she was closer to the credit card machine than I was!

I usually grab my purse and pull my cart behind me on lines and have done so for years, it started when someone literally rammed my back with their cart, only gonna deal with that once. Nowadays I can more easily unpack my cart from in front plus first it gives me the 6 ft I want because I can already control my distance from who is in front of me & the cart creates a nice a buffer behind me. Once, last year, a coughing wackadoodle behind me decided chatting and touching the stuff in my cart was the way to make friends and I have never been so grateful for the buffer.

 

[prairie_girl]

Yes - I'd agree. The big-box store I just mentioned also requires you to bag your own stuff when going through the regular registers. It's always crazy-busy, many people have huge orders and the cashiers can scan way faster than most people can bag. Orders will get shoved together and things will start to back-up if a customer is a slow bagger. I've taken to just firing my stuff back into the cart so I can get out of the way, and then taking my time and care to bag it all up properly when I get out to the car.

I always feel so much pressure to get everything bagged up as quickly as possible when I shop there.

 

[shh]

Some people are so self-absorbed they don't even think. Just this week, the cashier had just finished ringing up my order and I was standing at the end bagging my groceries when the woman behind me came right up to the debit machine to put her card in for her order. At the same time the cashier and myself said that I wasn't finished yet. I then added "but if you want to pay for my groceries feel free". I mean she was way in my space on top of it all. I hope I am never impatient the way others are that I lose all manners. PS: I then gave the debit machine a once over to make sure there was no skimming thing added.

Yup...they're in their own world. This has happened to me several times - people have practically pushed me and my purse out of the way to insert their card. And it wasn't like I was the one holding things up - everything was bagged but the cc transaction was still processing! I don't say a word: just look at them like they're totally nuts - and they get the message quickly.

 

[MillauFr]

This never happens at the Amazon Go Stores. You just walk out. Hopefully more stores will be moving to this model. Really cuts down on shoplifting too.