Self-checkout machines inspire strong opinions, especially from customers determined to prove they understand them better than the nearby employees.

Faced with more than 50 items, one woman rejected assistance and announced that technology had made the staff unnecessary.

Even a helpful promotion reminder triggered another speech about how the machine was smarter than everyone working there.

Read on for the full tale of grocery hubris.

“Machines are taking over!”

For some context, I work in a store where it only has card self-checkouts (cash can be paid, but only when you ask us to help, the counter is usually closed) and we’re planning on changing to cash-and-card self-checkouts in a month.

My main job is to watch customers pay the money (because we don’t have those scanners that beeps when the customers shoplift), help customers who have issues with the self-checkout machines, and clean and maintain our own areas in the store.

There was a customer, an old lady, with at least 50 items with her.

But, this customer had bad behavior…

I asked if she needed any help, but instead went on a rant talking about how annoying the machines were, and that the staff weren’t needed anymore because self-checkout machines were taking over.

She also told me to “go away” before she began to scan her own items.

I just thought she was rude and annoying so I left.

But then, the helpful employee noticed a discount for the woman.

While she was busy scanning her items, I noticed that one of the items had a promotion, 2 for the usual price of 1, so I told her that, and guess what?

Another rant about how she didn’t need help from the staff and she could handle it herself because she was capable enough to use the self-checkout, and the self-checkout was smarter than us, that kind of rubbish.

That’s when the boss got involved.

I shrugged and left again, but my supervisor saw this and asked what happened.

So I explained the situation and she told me to ignore her when she faces any issue with the promo.

This is where things get hilarious…

And my sweet karma came when the machine decided not to let her pay.

Basically, the self-checkouts are incredibly sensitive. If you have a promo 2 for the price of 1, the machine will not let you proceed on to checkout unless you have 2 of the same item.

And the woman’s complicated ways set in.

It would have worked fine if she decided to just get the other item, but she was adamant on removing it, which is something only the staff can do because of a barcode only we have behind our name tags.

So, she had to ask the staff for help just to remove the item, and I just ignored her as I watched her struggle with the machine.

(My coworker who had helped her was really mad when I told her this story because she would have made the customer wait longer just to teach her a lesson on respect)

Has Reddit dealt with a woman like this before in their workplace? Let’s read some comments below to hear more about what they think.

Redditors actually sided with the customer, citing bad technology.

One reader shared a couple cryptic thoughts.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who was passed over for a promotion, so got a job with the competition and quit immediately.

And another said what we were all thinking…

The self-checkout refused payment because the customer had not completed a two-for-one promotion, and removing the item required an employee barcode.

Following her supervisor’s instructions, OP ignored the struggling shopper until another worker eventually provided the human assistance she had repeatedly rejected.

The machines may have been taking over, but apparently their first official policy was requiring staff approval before accepting surrender.