WalMart Self Checkouts - Friend or Foe?

This afternoon at WalMart, I decided to try the self checkout lane. I didn't have that many items, and the regular checkouts were busy, so what the heck, right?

Let me tell you, they are not as fun as they look. It took me twice as long to check out as it would have if I had stood in line and checked out in a regular lane! I used to be a cashier at WalMart, and I know what I'm doing. Apparently, most folks don't know what they're doing when it comes to running a register because after scanning each individual item, the screen would prompt you to "please place item in bag", and would not let me scan the next item until a resonable (according to the computer) amount of time had passed, at which time it would prompt you to scan the next item.

Now, while you are waiting for the computer to tell you that it was time to scan the next item, you technically could press the "skip bagging" button on the screen. This would produce a "waiting for approval from a customer service manager" prompt that didn't clear until a CSM cleared you to skip the baggin process.

I am not kidding, it took me fifteen minutes to check out a total of ten items!