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Vent: My 8-year-old nephew asked me why the grocery store's self-checkout screen kept yelling at him.

He said, 'It keeps saying 'unexpected item' but I didn't put anything there, it's just mad I'm too slow,' and that made me realize how hostile those error messages feel to anyone, not just kids.
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the_leo
the_leo14d ago
Yeah the "unexpected item" message is actually for when something gets placed in the bagging area that the scale wasn't expecting. But you're totally right about the tone. It doesn't say "please wait" or "check for extra items," it just yells an error. That same system could say "please place your item in the bag" or "scan your next item" and it would feel completely different.
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casey_campbell
Honestly I get why they sound harsh but it's just a computer voice. It's not actually yelling, people are just reading emotion into a recording. The real problem is how slow and buggy those machines are.
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