What annoys me at Walmart and Target is how the employees are ordered to chat you up in the most phony tone possible as an obvious anti-theft measure.
The one thing self checkouts have going for them is that I don’t have to talk to a person, and they’ve taken even that from me.
“Have you heard about our five-star service?” Look, five-star service at Walmart is when no one talks to me.
I know a lot of them are ordered to do it by their bosses, and I feel bad for them, but the way employees can help me find anything is when I ask them to do so. Otherwise it isn’t help, it’s just an annoyance. As I have a teenager, I have to take her to the mall sometimes and those stores are the worst at it. Sometimes the salespeople will follow you around the store trying to “help” you. And I don’t think they believe it’s because either of us are going to steal anything.
Some of those mall stores are the worst! I’ve noticed the same thing when shopping with my teenage nibling and nephew. They don’t even let you think or consider a purchase.
It’s also the number one reason I’ve stopped buying gifts at Bath and Bodyworks. If I could just look around freely, I’d be able to make a decision, but swooping down like a vulture only creates confusion and makes me shut down and leave.
“oh my that’s a lot of soda you have there, do you need help scanning it all?”
I now have a habit of giving as firm NO to anyone who seems like a staff member trying to ‘help’ me at checkout or those kiosks in the bulk type stores.
One of these days I’m going to do that out of habit when I do want help and will feel like an ass. Worth the risk though.
I’ve been through Target self checkout at least 100 times and I’ve never seen that. That’s horrible.
