Thank you.

Thank you for responding. I have noticed a huge lack of courtesy and civility in our current society as well. Heck! I miss full service gas stations too.

Thank you for commenting. I am guilty of enjoying being waited on whenever the opportunity comes up. Many of us have so much to do that it is pleasant when someone else does for us.

Thank you for commenting. I am finding, in my study, that most people prefer to use the registers with the cashier when they have a large amount of groceries and the self checkout when they have few items; it's like using the express lane. I, like you, agree with the meme. Times are changing and cashiers will soon be a thing of the past, like full service gas stations.

Thank you for your response; it seems common. I was just curious and doing some market research and the more responses that I get the more accurate the statistics.

Thank you for responding. Your response is common as you can see when reading the other comments. I am doing a study and was interested.

Thank you for responding. That seems to be the common answer to the question. I may have implied that I never use the self checkout; but, I have used it when I have been in a rush and the cashiers were really busy with a lot of items to check out for others.

Thank you for your response. I was not aware that the cashiers felt this way. However, that cashier's language, although not directed at you or the GF, was totally inappropriate. Yikes!

@PatriciaBurger It caught us completely off guard. What was even stranger is that there was a line behind us and other employees within earshot and nobody other than us flinched.

I would definitely agree as far as bagging goes, but at the regular check-out they don't do the bagging, anymore, anyhow.

Thank you for responding to my post. I am really getting amazing input and I am wondering if the responses can be stratified by gender and age? It would be an interesting market study.

Thank you for responding. I believe my original post implied that I have never used the self check out. I agree that they are a great replacement for express lanes. I admit it, I have used the self check out when I was in a hurry once to prevent being late for another engagement,,

Thank you for your comment. However, I think that you may have misunderstood what I meant by "steal jobs". I will provide clarity. When minimum wage raises companies seek ways to keep their current profit margin. This usually results in the elimination of jobs by the company as opposed to finding other ways to keep their profits. The jobs, in reality, disappear; they are not "stolen". It was a poor choice of words on my part.

@PatriciaBurger
I understood that. I believe it still represents a false understanding of what is going on in the market.

>>companies seek ways to keep their current profit margin.

No. Every company would like to make as much profit as possible. If they could pay their workers nothing (perhaps a government program) that would be wonderful. You pay workers what you pay workers as part of a balancing act: you pay them more to attract and keep and motivate better workers. You pay them less so your expenses are less.
When the government artificially messes with that, companies have to react. One thing that happens is that the distinction between workers is eliminated. Thus a worker that was making less, and was worth less to the company, is now making just as much as a more valued worker. At that price that worker might not be paying for himself. The company might be able to hire a better worker at the new price.
And this artificial expense does not mean that, somewhere else in the company, there is other money . So the decision must be made... raise prices? And risk driving away customers? Lower other expenses... which begs the question of why they were paying more in the first place!
Or, what seems to be the choice implied, stop making so much money. Well, that money does not just flow to shareholders. It can also be used to open up new markets, take risks, etc.
And even the part that does go to shareholders is important. People invest in businesses to make money. If companies don't do that, then people won't invest, and the companies won't exist. Great for our economy, that.

@VonO I am thinking that we agree; but, I am still boycotting self checkout. It's one of those freedom things.
My partner is an employee, machine operator, with US Bank whose value was minimized when the minimum wage hike occurred. Higher earners wages did not raise proportional to the rise of the lower paid workers wages. He now says that he will only provide minimum effort because they are only paying for minimum. Here is a great video on this subject:

@PatriciaBurger That is a great video.
You are welcome to boycott sell-checkout. Or, better, to choose to use line with people at the end. I do the same at the bank. The part I was objecting to was what it seemed like your portrayal of business was.

Thank you for your response to my post. I have worked several years in customer service as well. I have never feigned happiness. In my humble opinion when one chooses to work in service of others, one should choose to have a "half full" glass over a "half empty" glass. Customer service agents should have the ability to acquire a unique set of skills that make them qualified for the job to include the ability to read the customer, patience, attentiveness, knowledge of their product or store, clear communication skills, ability to use positive language, time management skills and maybe some acting skills. As a hiring manager, I would not hire anyone for this type of position who does not display these aforementioned qualities or the ability to attain them.

@PatriciaBurger I'm not sure how long it's been since you worked in this area, but these days it is a disturbing amount of pressure to smile all the time. Managers promote fake happiness, forcing people to be constantly cheery and don't acknowledge or appreciate well rounded work ethics. If one person is bad at their job they get praised for always looking busy, and someone who does the work of three people and even enjoys their job is ridiculed for having no work to do when they try to take a break.

Often the hours and pay are shit. You have very few companies wanting to give you more than 4 or 5 hour shifts so you need two shitty jobs with shitty pay just to barely make ends meet. And benefits are out of the question unless you get a minimum amount of hours.

"Your welcome" is out of fashion. "No problem" are the words that so often slip from servers mouths because we are conditioned to feel like nothing should be a problem and nothing is exactly what ends up being appreciated.

I do enjoy customer service, and I'm good at it. But over and over again it breaks me because of how shalow our interactions are and how little value we place on individuals.

Maybe this is more so in overly polite societies like Canada, I do recall grumpy or more natural service providers when I've been in the states and it was a lot of emotional pressure off me to interact with them, even as a customer but even still I wondered how they manage to keep their jobs.

@Oxfret I appreciate your input. As a hiring manager my level of customer service is different than that of a waitress, waiter, or cashier; however, I have done all of these aforementioned jobs in the past and it appears that not much has changed on the amount of hours one can acquire. One variable that never took place "back in the day" is the sharing of tips. My tips were mine. I earned a $1.70 per hour and worked maybe 30 hours a week, but; I was only required to claim tip earnings up to the minimum wage at the time ($3.35 per hour). I claimed $10.00 for a 6 hour shift and I might have earned $50.00 which means that I got $40.00 tax free. I have, also, noted the change in the level of etiquette as the years have passed. Sadly, I have seen this change in not just customer service; but, in other public places too.

@PatriciaBurger in my experience hiring managers are only competent half the time, the other half they are there because of family or because they have just been there so long. I do love the competent ones, and it sounds like you are good at it.

I've done a variety as well, and it always bothers me how much lack luster serves complain about tips, they make so much but act like it's never enough. Like the customer owes them something. Lots of entitled elitist mentality in the tipping sectors. And they really don't do more than the workers who aren't getting regular tips but they justify this as reasonable because of a couple extra dollars an hour. I did the math once for a waitress that wouldn't stop complaining and she shut up when I was done. Haha. She walked out with $100+ just about every night.

I've had a particularly raw deal myself, so I'm likely someone who has seen the worst of it. My perception is definitely one sided when it comes to this topic.

@Oxfret thank you. As you have expressed many of my peers don't care; I care because it is part of my Christian nature. Back when I was only claiming a portion of my tips as income, I felt guilty. I always gave to the person who was busing the tables and to the hostess a portion of my tips. Funny thing is, that only increased my tips. I either over tip or don't tip at all. If I get bad service I can justify not tipping by knowing that the server is now earning a minimum wage, unlike the days when waitresses and waiters earned less than minimum wage,