A shopper at CVS declared, “I hate self-checkout!” in what’s become a viral video, and it turns out a lot of people are inclined to agree.
The video capturing the moment of frustration was put into the world by TikTok creator @jvass424, who appears to be based in Washington, D.C., judging from other content on the account. It’s taken inside a CVS, and starts with the woman, at some distance from the creator at a self-checkout kiosk, yelling, “I hate self-checkout!”
As the creator gets closer, she continues, “I scanned one item already! There is it, right there!” Then, she continues. “Now it said I scanned two!”
The creator quipped via on-screen caption, “This lady speaks for all of America.” The caption, visiting another known CVS trope, adds, “At least she’ll get a mile long receipt for her troubles!”
A recent BBC article on the “spectacular failure of self-checkout technology” from January goes into why it hasn’t worked as anticipated.
“While self-checkout technology has its theoretical selling points for both consumers and businesses, it mostly isn’t living up to expectations,” the article notes. “Customers are still queueing. They need store employees to help clear kiosk errors or check their identifications for age-restricted items. Stores still need to have workers on-hand to help them, and to service the machines. The technology is, in some cases, more trouble than it’s worth.”
@jvass424 At least she’ll get a mile long receipt for her troubles! #cvs #selfcheckout ♬ original sound – jvass424
A CNN article on the topic, also from January, notes, “A newly-released study by researchers at Drexel University published in the Journal of Business Research found that ‘regular checkout’ – the kind featuring a human cashier – makes customers more loyal to a store and more likely to revisit in the future than self-checkout. The study comes as some companies remove self-checkout machines and others adjust their self-checkout operations.”
A number of commenters understood the shopper’s frustration.
One remarked, “No because CVS has the most dysfunctional self checkout machine.”
Another said, “In her defense, CVS does have a very poor self check out system. Like every other items needs employees intervention, kinda defeats the purpose.”
Someone else relayed, “I couldn’t figure out CVS self checkout so I just left everything there & walked out.”
But some still swear by the system.
“I love self checkouts!” one declared. “Don’t have to talk to anyone. One less person touching my stuff. And I can bag in my own OCD way.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment and to CVS via email.
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