Woman argues supermarkets should pay customers if they use self-serve checkouts

A woman argues if you're using self checkout, you should be granted a discount.

Julie Domina told USA TODAY that she is beyond frustrated with self checkout machines in supermarkets.

The 50 year old real estate agent noted how often they glitch, adding the technology is difficult for the elderly and visually impaired people to use.

She added that if companies aren’t paying staff to check their items, prompting customers to use these machines, they’re owed a discount.

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“They just aggravate me,” she told the outlet.

“If I'm going to be checking myself out, I want to get a discount because that means you're not paying an employee to check me out.”

But she's not the only one fuming.

Recently, a Facebook group purely for Aldi fans complained about self checkout machines, as people who use them might even be missing out on the best bargains.

"Any discounts don’t automatically apply on the self-checkouts. You have to ask a human employee to take the discounts off manually,” one user wrote in the group.

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"This applies for % off stickers and any multibuys etc. I don’t know if this is common knowledge."

Many reacted to the post, as one wrote: "Staff have to apply the discount on a normal till so def will have to on a self-service till.

"I’ve had a few missed then realised!"

Others insisted that Aldi should put up signs to inform customers about this issue, with one even branding it 'disgusting'.

After complaints, Aldi confirmed that staff members need to manually enter promotions.

Which begs the question, what’s the point of these machines?

While these supermarkets believe they’re saving a buck, research by Finder reported a rise in shoplifting while using self-serve machines.

According to the report, nine per cent of surveyed participants admitted not scanning items before leaving the supermarket.

While ten per cent of Australians confessed to lying when scanning their groceries to get cheaper items.

Finder's Richard Whitten linked the thefts to the rising cost of living.

"Of course, most self-checkout machines can't tell brown onions from portobello mushrooms," he said.

"I suspect a lot of Australians don't regard scanning items incorrectly on purpose to be the same level of theft as running out of a shop with a loaf of bread."