Self-Checkout Reaps Benefits!
I know Cap hates self-checkout, mainly because it’s poorly executed at his Wal-Mart. Until you understand what the computers are doing, it’s a pretty lousy system.
And the thing is that people take a long time to figure it out. All they have to do is pay attention to the damned machine, but they are too impatient for the regular lines and too impatient to listen to the prompts. Oh but I digress!
The real reason I wanted to write this is that I love when some silly person at the self-checkout doesn’t pay attention when they pick up their stuff and leave. No, I’m not saying that I found a $20 bill in the cash back part of the self-checkout machine. I mean that I am scrupulous about picking up my receipt and right next to it is a checkout coupon printer. Tonight some yuppie lady and her over-tan boyfriend left a useful coupon for me to pick up!
Now here is where it’s going to get TMI really fast. The coupon was for Always Pads. I frickin’ hate buying these things only to throw them out, but I can’t imagine life without a sanitary napkin. Always isn’t my brand, but this coupon is ‘Free’, any size or variety up to $3.50. So I am hoping that I get a nice $3.50 deal the next time I go to the market. I hate coupons, but I am not going to let this expire no way!
The only place I’ve gotten a deal as good as this on sanitary napkins was at my university. For some reason they always had awful ones available for free in the main building of the school. Many years later I happened to meet an older alumna who was in the first co-ed class of the school. It turns out there was an underground feminist campaign to break the vending machines and thus pads were left for free for women to use. While I don’t really condone the vandalism, I must thank my fellow alumna and her compatriots for a 20 year tradition that helped me save my pennies up for more important things, like copies at the library. I can only hope that it continues today, but I can’t say for certain.
udandi wrote:
ha! I just referenced Cap’s self-checkout post, too!
I’ve wondered if the free pads is a state university thing?! There’s another blogger who posted about the generosity of her employer, which is a university.
Posted on 02-May-06 at 10:34 am | Permalink
IRA wrote:
I use self-checkout at the grocery store. But it’s a pain if you have a lot of coupons. After you scan one, you have to shove it into this little slot, but it doesn’t seem to know automatically that you’ve done so. The last time I tried it, I had to wait several minutes for a clerk to clear my register. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly a quick or efficient experience.
Posted on 03-May-06 at 5:37 pm | Permalink