The Self Checkout Line

I usually forget the phrase self checkout. It’s that self thing at the grocery store where you do the machine on your own. I often forget the word Cashier. As a kid I wanted to be a cashier. It was probably my first job choice before I stopped wanting any grown up jobs. I miss the cashiers at Whole Foods (otherwise known as Whole Paycheck). The self checkout is not usually fun because I am not a cashier and my ADHD makes my cashiering a brain maze. Of course I like the bar code making the noise, but I scan items in any order and then I have to throw them in my bags or in the cart with my bags, usually the latter. Life is hard enough when people are waiting for you to do something and impatient. I didn’t ask for that at the grocery store. I can get the stuff on my list and go around and back when on my own. Trying to do someone else’s job that they do much better is a disaster for me. I know it’s lazy and that I could just use the supposedly simple method everyone else uses, I guess. I suppose they scan the heavier items first to get them in their bags the quickest and then the lighter ones. Probably other simple rules apply. I never got cashier training and I would be a terrible cashier. Now there is a cash machine toy for little kids to play with. I wish I could have had that toy as a child, a plastic cashier machine, whatever those are called. You get to push some numbers and push a button and there are the rows separating the coins and you hear the cling when you open the door. It comes with fake coins and bills. I would have loved playing that. I did get to play that as a grownup with kid.s Anyway, my favorite thing at not self checking out is seeing the person who is the cashier and looking at their name tags and interesting unique parts of their uniforms, like one person and a ton of buttons on her apron that said all kinds of things. At Whole Foods almost everyone had really cool names. I wish I had written them down. They also had all kinds of other cool things you can’t ask about because eventually you seem crazy and you’re interfering with their job.

So I used to say, “How do you say your name or I love your name and I love your nails. About two things, one a quick question and the other a quick observation. Then shut up while you wonder about this person checking out your groceries and knowing exactly where to put what in the bags. There is the bar separating your stuff from someone else’s. I can’t find out more about the person. When I’m getting my hair cut I have no interest in finding out anything about the person cutting my hair and don’t want them to talk to me. It’s totally different then because getting your hair washed and cut is a relaxing experience. Also people working as a cashier probably have a much more complicated life because they make so much less money. And now what are they supposed to do to make money when self checkouts have replaced them. They lose their health insurance and whatever other slight perks they might get from the grocery store.

I knew someone who worked in the bakery at Whole Foods. Now she has her own company making choclolate barks and seems to be doing well with it. I think she had a relatively senior job at the bakery because she had a lot of experience. I remember bumping into her once and asking about some kind of option that involved some effort at being healthy.

Anyway my point is that I don’t like Self Check Out. What if your’e tired? I’m fast at reading and other stuff but not things like checkout. Yesterday I felt rushed and put something heavy on top of potato chips. I heard them crunch. I dump some stuff in bags and some in the cart and go to the side to take my time filling the bags. I don’t want people jobs to disappear, whether they are just a summer or temporary job some college student is doing or a person is doing it five days a week to survive. And the baggers.

Being a kid now going to the grocery store maybe the self check out seems fun but they don’t get the full experience.