Why I use supermarket self-checkouts

 

by Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne, Australia

Autistics live in a world that wasn't designed for us, shopping centres and supermarkets being a prime example. In many shops, music is blaring, lights are harsh and bright, shelves are crammed and over-stimulating and crowds and obstacles are everywhere. Although I like shopping, I often need to get out of the shops as quickly as possible to preserve my physical and mental energy for the rest of the day.

The self-checkout gives me, as an Autistic shopper, a break. The self checkout area is much quieter and roomier than the rest of the shop. I am not forced to socially engage with a cashier if I don't feel up to it. I can stand by myself, arrange my own shopping in my own bags and go home. 

Queueing up to pay a cashier is seen by some as taking a noble stand to save cashiers' jobs. Some of us have very tired feet by the end of a shop, especially Autistics who quite commonly have low muscle tone or flat feet. 

Packing groceries into shopping bags is also considered to be work that should be done by a paid worker, but for me, arranging shopping in bags is a something I quite like doing (think - Autistic kids lining things up), and I don't like a cashier taking over this task. 

During covid lockdowns, and for years afterwards, I bought my groceries online. I paid an annual subscription fee, a (paid) personal shopper chose my items and a (paid) truck driver delivered them. This was a practical way for me, as an Autistic, to do my grocery shopping while I was still in the workforce, and it created many retail jobs. 

Obviously, online, home delivered shopping provides many more retail jobs than in-store shopping, even when in-store shoppers pay a cashier at the register. I have never heard an anti self-checkout crusader tell shoppers to go home and do home delivered online grocery shopping, to create even more retail jobs. These advocates (mostly neurotypicals) want to have a chat to the cashier, and other shoppers, in store. They don't want to give up shopping their way, for the sake of retail jobs. 

I would now ask anti-self checkout cusaders to extend that understanding to people who use the self-checkouts. We don't want to give up shopping our way for the sake of retail jobs either. Self-checkouts meet some people's accessibility needs. Will neurotypicals ever understand why I like arranging my own groceries in my own shopping bags, instead of letting a paid worker do this? I don't care really, they can shop their way and I will shop my way.


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