Self checkout

Joe always did his weekly grocery shop on Tuesdays after work. He would drive his Toyota for the twenty-some odd journey from his office to the big shop just outside his town. Joe wasn’t a big shopper, and he liked to get in and out of the store as quickly as he could so he could get home and get on with life. He was busy enough as it was, so spending loads of time buying food was something he wouldn’t have minded doing without.

Today, Joe walked around the store as usual, checking items off his well-planned mental shopping list as he went. They were out of onions today, which was ridiculous. Even the little store on the corner of his road always had onions, but they were more expensive there. Everything else was fine, and he grabbed a box of ice cream from the freezer isle to make up for the onions. Joe pushed his cart up to the self-checkout isle.

“Card only,” warned the tired-looking attendant as he walked up to a kiosk. Joe waved him off. Who used cash these days anyways? One by one, he passed each item through the scanner. The total was a little higher than he would have liked. “Inflation these days…” he muttered to himself.

Joe tapped the button to pay by contactless card. He held up his bank card to the machine. It beeped and the indicator spun around for a few seconds.

“Declined!” read the machine.

“I’ll have to insert it,” Joe thought to himself. Every now and then, his card made him do that instead of tapping it contactless. Joe placed the card into the slot in the machine and keyed in his PIN. The wheel spun around again. “Declined!” it said again.

Joe made a face at the machine. “What’s the matter with this dumb thing?” he thought. I’ve got plenty of money in my account.

He tapped the button on the kiosk to try again. Once again, he inserted his card into the reader and typed his PIN, this time being very careful to be absolutely sure he used the right number.

Once again, the machine simply gave him a big red X and said, “Declined!”

Joe looked over to the attendant for help.

The attendant had a disapproving scowl on his face. He motioned with his hand towards the regular checkout line, which had a rather long queue. The one where you talked to a real person instead of a machine.

Joe obediently took all of his shopping out of his bags and pushed his cart over to the back of the queue. He wasn’t too happy. This was taking much longer than he expected.

Joe hadn’t used the regular checkout lane in years. He absent-mindedly took his phone out of his pocket. Three new notifications. Then he quickly put it back in his pocket. Surely he could wait for five minutes without needing his phone to entertain him.

Joe looked around. The shelves on the side of his lane were full of bright-colored items in a last-minute attempt to get shoppers to spend a bit more. He spotted a bag of dried mangoes and slid that into his grocery bag.

Soon, he was far enough towards the front that there was space on the conveyor belt to put his groceries on. Joe started to unload his cart onto the belt.

The older lady in front of him in the queue smiled as he placed a bouquet of flowers on at the end. “Special occasion?” she asked politely.

“Girlfriend’s birthday,” Joe replied, smiling.

“That’s very sweet of you,” she replied. “It’s my sister’s birthday today as well.”

“Ah, very nice,” replied Joe. “Doing anything to celebrate?”

“Yes indeed.” said the woman with a smile. “It’s her eightieth, so there’ll be a big gathering at her place tonight. Her grandchildren just got down from up north this morning! I’m just picking up a few last-minute things.”

It was the woman’s turn at the till, so she waved goodbye.

“Enjoy the birthday,” called Joe.

A few moments later, it was Joe’s turn.

“How you doing today?” asked the cashier as he began to swipe Joe’s groceries through the register.

“Not too bad,” replied Joe. “Card’s not working for some reason though.” He motioned over towards the self-checkout lanes.

“Yeah, those self-checkout machines can be a real pain,” replied the cashier. He has a bald man, probably in his fifties. He had a big tattoo on his arm and seemed friendly.

“Haha, yeah,” replied Joe. “I pretty much always use them now though.”

“World sure is changing fast,” said the cashier as he passed Joe a bag of potatoes. Joe put the potatoes in his cart. “Those machines just came out a few years ago and now everyone’s using em. Reckon in a few years they won’t even be hiring me to do this anymore.”

“Yeah, it is weird,” said Joe. “I guess they’re faster, but they’re not really much fun to use. Always beeping at you and telling you you’re not doing it right.”

“Maybe they’ll need to keep professionals like me on to help folks like you work the machines,” the cashier laughed. “Here’s your total, he said, pointing to the screen.”

Joe laughed along with him. “Let’s hope so,” he replied. He counted out the cash from his wallet and handed it to the man. “Have a good afternoon,” he called as he walked away.

“You too,” replied the cashier.

Joe left the grocery about ten minutes late but feeling much refreshed. “Maybe there’s something to those little personal interactions we try so hard to avoid,” he thought to himself.