Self Checkout Machines Have Gone Too Far, Are Now Asking For Tips

Dinendra Haria. Shutterstock Images.

Fox 2 Detroit- Consumers already contending with a squeeze on their bank accounts due to inflation are now facing more pressure as businesses introduce new tipping features at self-checkout machines.

Companies, including airports, bakeries, coffee shops and sports stadiums, have now introduced the self-serve tipping option, where customers can leave tips including the typical 20%, despite facing minimal to no interaction with any employee, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal.

Customers report feeling obligated to leave a tip as they question where and to whom the extra money is actually going, but businesses are increasingly embracing the option to boost pay for workers outside of salaries, according to WSJ.

William Michael Lynn, a consumer behavior and tip culture professor at Cornell University's Nolan School of Hotel Administration, told the newspaper that businesses "are taking advantage of an opportunity," and "who wouldn't want to get extra money at very little cost if you could?" 

When will it end? When will it end? When will it end? Sure as shit doesn't look like anytime soon. My quest against self checkout machines is a noble one, but it seems I am fighting a losing battle. 

I am forever said that to me anyway, self checkout machines make it like I work there. I find it a hassle to scan the items and put them in the bags (which we now have to pay for) for a variety of reasons. 

1- it feels like they have to be scanned multiple times 

2- if you don't immediately put it in the bag it register wrong etc and 

3- I wasn't trained on this machine, I shouldn't have to deal with this headache. 

When you order a beer at a bar the bartender gives it to you. He's also waiting behind the bar when you walk in. These places now, especially CVS. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE is behind the counter, no one is there to help you, and you end up having to have a supervisor fix the self checkout machine anyway. God forbid you try to pay with cash … it never works. 

And now these scumbag machines want a tip ? 

GET LOST. 

We need to as a society stop using these machines. They want you to basically work at the store and still pay full price ? No thanks If I'm gonna have to deal with hitting buttons and shoving my cash in the thing 14 times, I better get 10% off. Start the movement now and demand to go to a cashier, a real person and not a self checkout machine. Stand for something or fall for anything.