I actually like this Long's except I always have an issue with one employee. fat, tall male. Looks kinda hapa asian. So, for the third time, I have a shopping cart full of things and am walking to check out. Now this longs has a line of self-checkout kiosks along one perimeter of the exit. Fine with me but the problem is that the area where you place your scanned products is like 14 in x 12 in. So, if you have a lot of stuff in your cart you CANNOT possibly place all of it on the scanned area. And if you dont place a scanned product in the area everything stops and the scanner tells you to place it there.
Normally, when clerks see me come along with my full ass cart, they'll wave me over to the manned check out register on the counter where I can place all my things. Easy. But, not with big, tall guy. Oh no, for the third time, he waves me and my full cart over to self checkout. Perhaps he's too lazy to walk in back of the manned area to check me out. And, so. Let the fun begin. As I scan each product, I play Tetris and try and fit the crap load of scanned products into a perfectly fitting column within a 14 x 12 in area. Yeah, right. No. Instead, as I'm scanning products and trying to balance them in the area, I have stuff falling on the dirty ass floor and under an adjacent counter. Great. So I paid for the can of mushrooms, but that can is now in some unknown area where the roaches probably live. Hope they have a can opener. Merry early Christmas Mr and Mrs Roach. Finally, I come to my 3 2-liter bottles of diet pepsi. Yeah. Let's go place that on the top of Mount Crumbly. Guess what? stuff on the ground. In the meantime, big, tall guy with his neck gaiter, not a mask, (Scientific research indicates neck gaiters actually spread oral droplets, unlike masks), has left to go up the elevator to the second floor. **Cue scanner malfunction.**
As I stand there, looking for any assistance but not seeing any, I contemplate just walking out and leaving everything there. Soooooooo tempting. But this Longs is convenient and so I hesitate. Along come a short local Longs employee who sees my predicament and immediately and courteously asks me to gather my things and accompany me to the manned register area. [And this is where this girl saved your ass Longs so pay attention and give her kudos.] She's apologetic, gets my items scanned in no time and I'm out the door.
But.....we're not done. So, I get to my car pissed and my wife's who's been sitting there with a view of the elevator asks me what's wrong. I tell her my story and she says a big, tall guy like 5-10 minutes ago, and I say yes. She has a sour look on her face. She says, the guy, comes up and gathers shopping carts, and then he takes all the carts to the elevator and blocks the doorway of the elevator. The elevator doors open and an older chubby lady is in the doorway and attempting to exit but is blocked by the shopping carts and big, tall guy is standing on the other end. What would a courteous person do? Not even an employee of the business that the woman just patronized, no I mean a regular courteous person. Right, they'd move the carts back out of her way so she could exit the elevator. Didn't happen. My wife told me he didn't budge so this poor lady had to squeeze her ass past the carts to exit.
So, after explaining my irritation, I'd like to ask Long's, what exactly is your policy as far as these self-checkout things and when a customer comes to check out with obviously TOO MUCH stuff to fit on the little scanned shelf area? If you don't have one, then you need to get one and need to train your employees on it. If you do have a policy and it's to let people play Jenga or Tetris with their scanned items, then I'd like to know so I can go to Ala Moana Target. read more