Ikea-n’t Keep Explaining This To You

I’m in a large European furniture/home goods store that also has a restaurant and sells packaged food. I’m in the food section stocking up on frozen meatballs and snacks, and the register has a sign asking customers to use the self-checkout at the food counter end.

The self-checkout is a bit tricky for packaged food (the scanner is finicky and there’s no counter to put the items on), and I have about twenty items, so it takes me some time. Several people come by to ask me if they can purchase their packaged foods at the next kiosk, and I say yes; that’s what I’m doing, too. One of the people gets in line behind me and is there about half of my very slow checkout.

Finally, I’m almost done, and poof, the screen goes blue, and the machine reboots. What?! An employee comes by and asks if that happened or if I hit something. I say I was scrolling through my cart to make sure I got everything, and it just happened. The employee steps in to try to fix it, and I go to the next kiosk behind someone buying two items.

As I wait, my previous kiosk comes back online, and the woman originally behind me starts her purchase. The employee is still nearby to make sure the kiosk works again.

Woman: *To the employee* “Excuse me. Can I use this screen to buy this?” *Waving her items in the air*

Employee: “Yes, just scan them.”

Woman: “But the screen has the food options. I don’t want to order. I only want this” *Waves her items again*

Employee: “Yes, you just scan the barcodes.”

Woman: *Looking at the screen* “There’s no scanner!”

Employee: “It’s there.” *Points*

The woman waves her items nowhere near the scanner.

Woman: “It’s not working! There’s no scanner!”

The employee one of her items and scanned it for her to show her.

At that point, my turn came up and I started on my own, so I didn’t see if she actually figured it out. But seriously, you JUST watched me scan all my items. How do you not know how to do this?!