Posted on by Writer of Words, etc

A question, an irritation, self-checkout and more on the deactivated comments in WordPress

Welcome to the most convoluted title I’ve have come up with yet. Hold on to your hat as you read my post because I am in a ramble-y sort of mood. 😛

Today I discovered something cool at a local coffee shop.

Can you spot it in the picture?

I bought a large coffee, which is the second time I’ve done this in the past week. Rarely do I purchase super-size anything… 😐 (But that’s not the cool thing I’m referring to…)

Despite the two sugar options near my cup, I do not sweeten my coffee. 🙂

I had offered to drive the wayward girl to school with her trombone given the snowflakes were coming down as if the next apocalypse is about to start. While out, I decided to get an errand done I skipped out of yesterday. I needed eye drops among other things, and while I was at Shoppers Drug Mart, for whose brand I had a gift card, I was irritated for the first time of the day. Twice.

Note: it was 8:55 am.

Sigh

Anyway my stuff was all on sale, and so I went to the cashier to pay.

She directed me to the self-checkout machine thingy.

“Can I help you with the self-checkout today,” she offered professionally.

“No thanks,” I told her and expected a debate.

Look, I don’t mind using the self-checkout when I have a couple of things, but I had about ten and frankly, I don’t work there. Just ring it in for me. Every single muscle in my upper body was achy due to boot camp yesterday and I just didn’t feel like doing more than just stand there.

Besides, if I wanted to check myself out I would have walked to the right three steps and done it. But I didn’t.

Boo.

Anyway, that was the first irritation.

I took out my gift card and told her I wanted to pay with that.

“We don’t accept this one here,” she told me.

I looked at it. It said PC on it, which is a brand they sell in that store.

“Nope, the No Frills next door will take it though,” she assured me.

Well, I don’t wanna go to No Frills…and yes, that was the second thing that irritated.

I put my gift card back in my bag and waited for her to finish ringing in my purchases.

“Do you want to redeem your points?” she asked me next. “You have $20.”

Ok, that’s nice. My total price was just over $50 so yes, twenty bucks off is a nice perk.

I said yes. My irritation was waning slightly at that point. 😉

Next question she had for me was whether I wanted the receipt printed or emailed.

Emailed?

Ugh. Last thing I want is more useless email.

She printed the receipt and wrote her name on top. Then she circled the survey thing and told me I could win more points.

I may do this when I get home. 🙂

By the time I finally left the store it was snowing less. There was a Dollerama nearby which I visited next to get a cheap pair of reading glasses and some boxed juice for the wayward child, and finally on the way home, I stopped in for coffee.

Did you figure out the unique thing in the picture above?

They placed linguine in a cup to serve as stir sticks. And got rid of the plastic stir sticks. 🙂

I’m typing this post into mobile at the coffee shop which means that if I publish now, the comments will not be activated.

Paul, one of the IT peeps I mentioned in yesterday’s post, checked with GitHub and said this:

It looks like the problem is because you write your posts in snippets and the comments are being disabled when it saves to draft.

According to GitHub, the issue (comments being disabled) is #10951. That’s a big number. A big number of issues…here is what it says below the  number:

The actual problem is with autosave or update draft. It is now issue #11251 (an even bigger number):

Short version: don’t publish from mobile, open a browser and manually activate the allow comment boxes as I explained yesterday.

So, I will return home now, finish this post, publish it on my laptop so the comments will appear, and then take Molly for a walk. The temperatures are supposed to drop something like 20 degrees in tbe next few hours which explains the pressure pressing on my brain in the form of a headache. I’d rather walk the dog before it gets too cold.

See you in the comments.

37 Replies to “A question, an irritation, self-checkout and more on the deactivated comments in WordPress”

  1. I live in Spain but go to the uk often. No self serve checkouts here at all – I dislike them, not because I think they should employ staff to ring it up but because whenever I do use them they rarely work for the whole shop and an assistant has to come and save me

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  2. Now I know why comments on my site are sometimes deactivated. Thank you for that.
    I’m not a fan of self checkouts. I have an aversion to corporate schemes that put real people out of work.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Pingback: 3 polls about self-checkout machines | Writer of Words, etc

  4. Ooh comments. That’s a novelty 😉

    I wouldn’t read anything into the high issue number. Any significant application will always have a lot of issues — especially when it’s been around for as long as WordPress has. It’s these issues that keep people like me in a job 😉

    There’s a mini-supermarket just outside Brussels station which has self-checkout tills. They’re fine when they work but a nightmare when they don’t. The last time I went in there someone else had scanned a bunch of items and — for whatever reason — not completed the transaction.

    Finding someone who could both clear the transactions that were already on the till and comprehend that I didn’t want to end up paying for someone else’s groceries was such a lengthy and annoying process that I almost gave up as well. I haven’ been back since.

    Also, linguine to stir coffee. I remain unconvinced.

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    1. Well it is what it is with the issues. 🙂

      I didn’t realize until I wrote about it here how much dishonesty exists with those self-checkouts. It must be a nightmare for the retail industry. I need to blog about this I think…

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      1. In my case, I assumed that the previous customer had either changed their mind before completing the transaction or — probably more likely — made a mistake and simply moved to a different till rather than find someone who could fix their issue.

        The problem is that, once you start scanning, there is no way for the customer to undo any mistakes they might make, so you have to either find the Designated Teenager who can cancel the transaction and let you start again, or you can just give up and walk away.

        Now you mention it, though, there is a huge scope for dishonesty. With several tills and no staff to be seen, it would be very easy to scan fewer items than you walk off with.

        I would guess that there is some markup included in the price to cover the increased risk.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. This is interesting as the staff here, in my corner of Toronto, is either just a few feet away at her register, or the self checkout is manned by a designated person who does not leave her post. I.e. Ikea, major grocery chains, etc…

        This raises an interest in the international community. I may do a poll and invite a collaborative effort to look into this phenomenon a little further…

        Hmmm…

        Liked by 1 person

  5. I use self check out a lot, but not when I have an abundance of items, or when I’m tired etc. Yeah I notice the prices are not cheaper when you do self check out, and this makes me ponder why I should do the work?

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  6. The linguine is cool. I don’t sweeten my coffee either and almost never stir in my milk.
    I love self-checkout as my goal is to talk to as few people as possible (I am only joking a little – I have to talk to people a lot at work and find it exhausting). But reading the comments makes me realize I am *way* too honest! LOL

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    1. Someone mentioned a Gluten allergy may prevent people from approving pasta stir sticks… That coffee shop is not a chain, so they can try many things until they find the perfect solution.

      I did go to an A&W with my daughter last week and she ordered a drink that came with a straw. We noticed it was cardboard, not plastic.

      In terms of the self checkout, I’m gonna write another post. Seems there are a LOT of experiences going on…:)

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