Huh? I don’t understand this comment. Are you saying you think I’m lying? Lol. I mean more power to you if you’ve never experienced these self checkout logjams. I’m fine with them in concept, but the way a lot of the stores I’ve experienced use them makes it kinda unpleasant. Guess it’s regional.

The downside is forcing a bunch of people through self checkout who need a cashier. Whenever you all talk about how great self checkout is, I wonder what mecca you live in. My only experiences with it are long lines and long waits caused by a number of factors:

-Many self checkout lanes closed because they think everyone is stealing and refuse to staff more than one person to watch over you

-Old people who can’t use technology and don’t want to be using the machines

-People who have entire carts and struggle to effectively scan their groceries on the tiny space allocated.

-Machines that scan painfully and artificially slow because they want to weigh every goddamn item to prove you aren’t stealing

-Machines that record you and yell at you for stealing if you move an item slightly awkwardly

Yeah, I understand why it’s currently happening like that, but it’s still annoying to call at 2am and be like, “they were so hard to get on the phone!” Seems to be a recurring problem so might be worth it to have a contingency plan for winners within certain time zones, even if you just quietly inform them a few hours earlier that they should make sure they’re available at that time.

The Nobel committee also hit a roadblock trying to reach Brunkow – both researchers are based on the US West Coast, which is nine hours behind Stockholm – but eventually got ahold of her…

In 2020 the Nobel committee had similar difficulties in contacting the winners of the prize for economics. When Bob Wilson’s phone rang in Stanford in the middle of the night, he unplugged it so the committee had to call his wife instead.

When the committee couldn’t reach his fellow winner, Paul Milgrom, either, Wilson had to go and wake him up.

This is annoying to me. Is there seriously no better way than to call older people in the middle of the night and then act surprised when they are not immediately available?