RICHMOND WOOLWORTHS SELF-CHECKOUT ASKS CUSTOMER IF SHE'S "OKAY" AFTER FAILING TO SCAN A CUCUMBER

A Richmond woman trying to buy a single cucumber at the Woolworths self-checkout was reportedly asked by the machine whether she'd "like to speak to someone" after the barcode failed to scan for the fourth time in a row.

Sharon Petherick, 54, of Richmond, told The Daily Yarn she'd only ducked in on the way back from the marina and had "about ninety seconds of patience left in the tank". The cucumber, she said, was "a normal bloody cucumber, not one of the fancy ones in plastic".

"I scanned it. Nothing. Scanned it again. Nothing. Then the screen goes all soft and says 'is everything alright?' with a little button. Mate, no. Everything is not alright. I want to pay $2.49 and piss off."

A second shopper, Grant Yealands from Stoke, said he'd watched the whole thing from the next machine over while his own screen accused him of stealing a rotisserie chicken he'd already paid for. "The supervisor was doing three of us at once. Poor kid looked like he'd been in there since Easter."

A Woolworths spokesperson said the self-checkouts were "designed with customer wellbeing in mind" and that the prompt was part of a "friendlier interaction model". Asked whether the friendlier model included actually scanning the cucumber, the spokesperson said they'd "take that on board".

Petherick left the cucumber on the weigh platform and went to the New World. The machine, according to a staff member, is still asking after her.