Costco Shoppers Complaining About This In-Store Feature: 'Sam's Club Is Far Superior'
If you're a Costco member, you've likely seen or used the self-checkout lines at the store, but not all shoppers find them to be convenient.
On Reddit, a poster raised a question about the self-checkout asking: "Why does Costco have THE WORST self checkouts?" The answers were colorful to say the least!
"…who can I contact at corporate to engage my Karen mode?" the original poster asked. "Seriously scanned items must remain on the weight table… you sell bulk items. You cant even put a box on the weight table to load without the checkout freaking out. No handheld scanner? Lame."
Many in the comments compared the warehouse giant to its direct competitor, Sam's Club, saying that their self-checkout is much easier to use.
"Will say I joined Costco last week and Sam's club self checkout is so much faster and efficient," wrote one person.
"Sam's club I just do Scan and Go," wrote another person, referring to a convenient feature on the app. "Scan everything in the app as you shop and skip the check out lane. Absolutely love."
Continuing on the Costco rant, the comments were coming fast and furious, with shoppers pointing out the fact that it takes a whole crew of employees to run self-checkout, thus defeating the purpose.
"I like that it takes at least three employees to manage it," said a shopper with a penchant for sarcasm.
Another issue some Redditors pointed out was that Costco also deploys workers to check that those using the self-checkout line are the actual Costco cardholders. The chain has been making its cardholder policy much stricter this year, in a way that prevents families from sharing the card among them.
"It's about 4 people and a manger running around at times [ . . .]. One person to just check costco cards match faces because you can just use anyone's…I doubt it saves any payroll."
While people usually love the convenience of self-checkout especially if you're just buying a few items, one poster on Reddit said they avoid self-checkout at all costs.
"I'll wait in line for a cashier even if I see an open self checkout stall," they wrote. "God forbid I need help from someone. Always a nasty attitude from the self checkout monitors."
"They always seem like they're drowning," replied another poster. After that, a Costco employee chimed in: "Fun fact…we are!"
Other customers felt like Costco employees were a little judgy when it came to their checkout skills.
"I'm scanning things just fine by myself, and a checkout monitor comes up and just starts scanning everything. Then it feels awkward."
Others agreed that if it takes so many employees to check IDs and run the self-checkout, it makes no sense to have the feature in the first place.
"Mind blown y'all – just don't have self checkout if it's to this point," the person wrote.
But not everyone was in agreement. One poster pointed out that self-checkout is not for when you're doing a giant grocery haul.
"Self checkout is not garbage, if your [expletive] can't all fit on the weight table, then you shouldn't be using self checkout…"
Although shoppers have clearly been frustrated at checkout, there is a silver lining. Costco shoppers recently noticed in-store price checkers and have been loving the convenience of that feature, which allows you to instantly scan and item to find out its price.
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