My experience with the debit machines was very positive during my first time shopping at the Park Slope Food Coop since their installation.
Wednesday afternoon is usually a fairly easy time to shop. My work shift is on Wednesdays so I always shop there every fourth Wednesday. D-Week as we like to call it at the Coop.
Sometimes the Coop is almost empty. But there are always a lot of workers stocking shelves and it can be a little congested.
Today aisles at the Coop were very crowded with workers and shoppers and there was quite a long line on the no-express check-out line.
But the express line wasn’t crowded so I made sure to keep my shopping to 15 items or so. 3 Amy’s Cheese Pizza’s, herb salad, tomatoes, two vegan wrap sandwiches, guacamole, free range chicken thighs, lemon cookies, Havarti cheese…
I waited no more than five minutes on the express line and was easily checked through. I used my Citibank debit card and voila it was oh so easy to pay.
I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the screen of the new check-out computers. Big, bold, bright. Easy to read.
My card went through quickly. No fuss, no muss. It felt miraculous. They take NYCE and Cirrus and one other one. Someone on line complained that her card hadn’t gone through a few days ago. It was a non-NYCE or Cirrus bank card from out of state that she said, "Usually works at NYCE locations."
I packed my food in a box and went straight to the door, where a member looked at my receipt and let me go…
It’s funny – I wound up having to pay at the cashier’s because my checkout debit machine wasn’t working. At that point, none of them were. I’m looking forward to when the month is over and everybody’s worked their shifts, and so more people than not know what they’re doing.
I’m Weds. D week too and I did my my first shift (check-out) last night. Aside from the machines freezing up every so often, I think the new system is so much easier! The lines suck but hopefully they will get shorter as the bugs get worked out.