So Idk where you guys live and how your self checkouts look but here is my German perspective.

1. If I need a new gas cylinder I have to exchange it at the cashier’s
2. If I buy alcohol or cigarettes I also have to get my ID checked. The self checkout will then be put on pause until some worker shows up and realizes I am well in my 30s. I can also not buy things like razorblades at self checkout.
3. Often the stuff will be weighted to ensure I put it in the bag and not more or less. When I buy something light, think a small back of herbs of like 15 grams, the scale doesn’t realize it and again a problem occurs and a worker has to come
4. If I make a mistake like scanning twice I cannot cancel and again a worker has to come
5. It usually is a much more crammed space. I don’t even need a whole trolley for it to become uncomfortable. More than 5-10 items just don’t work because I have no space. Putting everything out of the trolley on the conveyor belt, getting it scanned, and then putting it back in the trolley is much easier.
6. If there are any items with a sale (30% off because BB date is approaching) I cannot scan this and again a worker needs to come.
7. I am not as fast. Not only because it is not a conveyor belt and I am not sitting at a scanner deck, but also I am just slower than a cashier who knows the code for fairtrade bananas and the avocados from spain but not from peru by heart. It’s my first time scanning this can of beans, where is the bar code? While it is 9 am and the cashier has already scanned this can of beans 25 times today. (8. In some supermarkets my kid gets a free fruit which it not necessary but I find super cute. This is only a thing at the cashier’s)

All I have to say is “hello”, “card please”, and “good day”. And I can also just wave these things. So yeah, I am absolutely standing in line if it is possible. It is so much faster and more convenient and going to self checkout to then get an error code and wait for help to arrive for 10 minutes is absolutely not worth it. (Looking at you, cursed Rewe in Munich). Then I also have to explain what’s the problem much more embarrassingly than any “hi thanks yeah with card please have a great day you to bye” conversation could ever be.

Edit: I just thought of an important 9.

9. I feel so much more anxious and pressured in the self checkout. How fast I am done with scanning, paying, and packing things up depends entirely on me. And I feel the stares of the people in line at self checkout stabbing my back. Telling me to hurry. I try to be fast but the more I try the more I fuck up. So for all the folks who don’t like cashiers because of social interaction, don’t you feel the angst of the line?

I know I’m in the minority

Dude look around the comment section. 90% talk about prefering self checkout

Here’s an anecdote: When I studied abroad, I met a guy who was in his master’s program for psychology, and he wasn’t convinced that phobias were a real thing and not something else. Some day, we tried to get home to the dorm through the rain in the dark, and he eventually ended up carrying me home. Before we said good night, he told me that he now has finally seen someone with a phobia, and now believes they are a real thing.

I am actually scared of all wormy creatures, ie long, no vertebrate, no legs or more than 10. That also means I am scared of bugs and flies, not because I am scared of them - I am scared of their kids. (I haven’t taken the trash out in 8 years or so.)

And to me it makes only sense. I cannot understand how others aren’t scared to death. I cannot explain what it is, I can tell you this: it is not just disgust. It is not just their form or smth. It’s a genuine fear. I get tense just writing about this. I would never do therapy because to me the thought of being ok with it is not appealing. I don’t want to be ok with it. Fuck that. Y’all should do therapy to realize that you’re crazy for being ok with it. (I’m joking, I know that’s wrong, but this is 100% how it feels.) I would rather chop off my arm than touch it. I would, and I mean this, rather let my mother die, than touch it. I regularly reevaluate these statements and they are still true.

I am fine with snakes and spiders tho lol.

I live in Germany so they are even in cities :(

Yeah the soil thing is difficult for me. I just wish there was a healthy world without any kind of ~ thing. I love the idea of gardening, planting my own food and stuff, but it takes about 20 minutes in nature for me to realize that is a fantasy self. I like nature, I just don’t want to be around it. At all.

Well that can be less of a wonder and more of a curse. I have a very huge phobia of earthworms, and I can see them very well. People who know me well go outside and are like “it’s all clear, I checked!” and then I go outside and I see them everywhere.

I also get “Oh just don’t look down” by people who I tell this to all the time. Like, sure, stepping on that will totally be ok as long as I don’t see it? That’s not how this works.

Same goes for these stupid tiny green caterpillars hanging from trees. You wear hats to protect yourself from the sun. I wear them as head condoms against these fuckers. But the truth is I see them from miles away. Miss me with that shit.

I’m confused, this isn’t loss

Did you just assume all dinosaurs tasted the same? Or are you asking about a specific dinosaur species?