From CNN: The next step in self-checkout

“Convenience” my rear-end. If they wanted to make shopping convenient, they’d have more checkers, not fewer. What they want is for you to do their work for them…and I speak from experience. Our local Giant supermarket, recently remodeled to widen the isles so they could shove more standups into them making navigation impossible (my personal favorite was pitching a tent in the head isle, forcing everyone to navigate between a pole and a rope), is working hard every day to force their customers to do more and more of their work - believe me, they would have the customers unload the trucks and stock the shelves if they could come up with a way to do it…thay have radically reduced the number of checkers they have available, closing their “Express” lanes and even closing down all checker lanes during the overnight hours, in effect forcing their customers to do their work for them. Service economy? Pfui…it’s all about doing as little as possible while making as much short-term profit for shareholders as possible.

Me, I’ve about had it. Go ahead, Giant, check to see how my purchases there have dropped. You see, I know with your privacy-invading “Bonuscard,” you have the ability to manually review all of my family’s purchases, creepy as that is, along with everyone else you’ve coerced into using one with the artificially-higher prices you charge without one. Honest to goodness, I never thought I’d see the day I’d get better service and less hassle from a Wal-Mart or big-box store than I get from the local grocery store…