Self Check-Out Stations Put Us Back To Work And Steal Our Time

The absurdity of fast self-service terminals being stressful instead of helpful

Hello out there - in a rushed world,

Here comes your weekly permission slip to Un-rush and Slow Down.

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Self Check-Out Stations Put Us Back To Work And Steal Our Time

The absurdity of fast self-service terminals being stressful instead of helpful

Humans always want to do things faster. And humans are lazy. Naturally, we welcome and embrace any self-service stations that seem to make our lives faster and easier. Or not.

There are plenty of services done by humans getting replaced by machines. What this often results in is that you get less service, higher prices, and you get to do all the work yourself. Instead of getting a few slow moments in our day to breathe, we get squeezed in some more work and pressure.

Modern society is selling us that we are faster by using technology-driven terminals instead of dealing with humans. Here is what I see: All those self-checkouts, self-check-ins, and do the sh*t yourself terminals add to YOUR workload. YOU have to work more now, to do “their” job, and even have to pay a higher price for the product or service. And, it can add to a lot of frustration, impatience, and annoyance. As if we haven’t enough of this already.

For the companies, it’s of course convenient because they want to save on labor costs, and they collect valuable data for targeted marketing. According to Retail Banking Research (RBR) we will see a 90% per year global increase in self-checkout terminals by the end of 2027.