Why We’re Fighting About Self Checkout – Best of TANGOTI
There Are No Girls on the Internet
iHeartPodcasts
4.1 • 905 Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bridget and Mike had conflicting and surprisingly strong feelings about self checkout machines. And it turns out, listeners do, too! We got more emails about this seemingly low stakes topic than any other. Why did this touch a nerve?! We don’t know but there’s something there, and we’re here for it. We read some listener emails, which make great points for and against. Are these machines dystopian symbols of our crumbling social connectedness? Or are they convenient devices for buying groceries, and maybe the real dystopian symbols were the capitalist overlords we met along the way? You be the judge!
Self-Checkouts Often Inaccessible to Disabled Shoppers: https://foodinstitute.com/focus/self-checkout-often-inaccessible-to-disabled-shoppers/
LA Times report on self checkouts and loneliness (paywalled): https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-08-28/some-skip-self-checkout-to-combat-loneliness-build-human-connection
TikTok Lawyer explains why you should avoid using self-checkouts in stores: https://scoop.upworthy.com/lawyer-explains-why-you-should-avoid-using-self-checkouts-in-stores-576190-576190-576190-576190
Washington Post piece: Dear grocery store owners: I don’t work for you! https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/31/rick-reilly-self-checkout-rebellion/
Walmart reveals it's tracking checkout theft with AI-powered cameras in 1,000 stores: https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-tracks-theft-with-computer-vision-1000-stores-2019-6
Feeling lonely? Too many of us are. Here’s what our supermarkets can do to help: https://theconversation.com/feeling-lonely-too-many-of-us-are-heres-what-our-supermarkets-can-do-to-help-211126
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:07.2 | This new year swaps someday with today. |
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| 0:29.5 | website builder, guaranteed. Okay, so it's the holiday season, and that means we're all spending more time in stores than |
| 0:39.0 | you'd probably like to be spending. And inevitably, that means coming face to face with self-checkout. |
| 0:44.7 | Now, I hate self-checkout, but producer Mike kind of likes it. So today, we're visiting a conversation |
| 0:52.4 | that we had about our very different feelings on scanning our own groceries and what self-checkout says about convenience, control, and who's really doing the work. |
| 1:06.5 | There are no girls on the internet as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. |
| 1:14.7 | Thank you. There are No Girls on the Internet as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. |
| 1:20.3 | Okay, so Mike, as you know, in our last news roundup, you and I got a little bit heated about our respective thoughts on so self-checkout kiosks |
| 1:28.8 | in retail stores. I was surprised. I thought certainly everybody hates these things as much as I do. |
| 1:35.0 | I was surprised to find that was not the case. You had a different position. So my position was that |
| 1:39.7 | those self-checkout kiosks in Target, Walmart, grocery stores, whatever, |
| 1:44.7 | they generally need to involve a human to work properly. |
| 1:48.6 | I don't think they're that much more efficient or that much more fast. |
| 1:52.2 | And I also didn't think the old system of just human cashiers was that bad, |
| 1:56.2 | although I have come to sort of update that position since hearing the feedback that listeners have. |
| 2:01.6 | So that is my position. |
... |
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