Jumbo, the Dutch supermarket chain, announced that they will be opening 200 "kletskassa" or chat registers across the Netherlands and Belgium. The checkouts are specifically marked as "kletskassa" for customers who want to chat with the cashier as they checkout.

You will definitely want to find a different checkout line if you're in a hurry.

Or if you're just an introvert trying to avoid small talk, because this is the checkout line where cashiers are waiting to strike up a conversation with any and every customer who comes their way.

I have very mixed feelings on this one.

On the one hand, it's very sweet.

But on the other hand, it's very sad that loneliness has become such a prevalent issue that the Dutch equivalent of a Piggly Wiggly has to step in to solve the issue.

But on the third hand (just go with me here), I appreciate the warning for those times that I'm not feeling super chatty.

The company's CCO, Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd, explained,

"We are proud that many of our cashiers like to take a seat behind a Kletskassa. They support the initiative and want to help people to make real contact with them out of genuine interest. It is a small gesture, but very valuable, especially in a world that is digitizing and getting faster and faster."

Jumbo is specifically adding the chat registers in areas with high rates of loneliness. They first started testing the chat checkouts in 2019, and are expanding because of the positive response they've gotten so far.

I'm wondering why they didn't just think to hire more friendly cashiers to begin with.

I'd personally wait in a ridiculously long line for the self-checkout before being forced to make small talk with an overzealous cashier, but to each his own!