Will’s View

Talking with a couple of my friends today about the new “SmartGate” that both Australia and New Zealand are intending on implementing in the near future I recalled an incident I recently had with a self-service checkout at KMart.

It was a bright summer’s day and I had just popped into KMart to buy a couple of things for the upcoming semester. Nothing too challenging, just a couple of books, and a new bike helmet. After perusing the shop (let’s face it, one could lose days in KMart just ‘browsing’) I headed to the checkout. On my relaxed stroll to the checkout I suddenly saw a self-service checkout. Being in the relaxed and open-minded state that I was, I thought perhaps it would be a good idea to give it a go. It wasn’t as if there were too many people at the checkout, I just felt like giving a new-fangled piece of technology a try.

Off I wander to the amazingly interactive and welcoming user interface. Following the user prompts I scan my first item, an exercise book (exciting stuff I know). And then I decide to try a fancy trick I always see at the supermarket, when you’re buying say three of something the checkout-chick/dude just scans one of the items three times, then bags them all. Well I thought it was a good idea anyway! But unfortunately Mr. Self-Checkout had different plans. After battling with the darn thing for a couple of minutes a supervisor comes over to give me a hand (apparently she’s needed there to supervise the self-checkout…). It turns out that it has a weight sensor and it has to sense an increase in weight after each item scanned. Hmmm.

So after having my attempt at being tricky foiled by the self-checkout, I went on to try and pay for my purchases (now stacked up on the weighing device, and with the supervisor looking over my shoulder). Being a poor student with appalling control over my finances I had decided to pay with my credit card. Mistake Number 2. As we all know, the little swipey-thing that you swipe cards through hardly ever works when you want it to (say when you’re using a self-checkout and someone’s looking over your shoulder) and true to form, it didn’t. It must have taken me at least three or four tries to get it to work, and then I had to sign a little digital pad (which I think was pretty cool). But then it had to be verified by the supervisor-lady.

With my supervisor-approved receipt in hand, I finally thought the ordeal was over and I could safely leave the store. Not so! Being a student I was of course wearing a backpack (shameless plug for Macpac), and as such it just had to be inspected before I left the store. So finally I was able to leave, with my wits a little frayed, and my faith in technology almost crushed. Suffice to say I’ll be sticking with the checkout-chick option for a while longer.

[Editor’s Note: This person seems to think they are a great idea. each to their own I guess. Even if they’re wrong.]

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Humorous, Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.