Tired of waiting in grocery store lines?

Then try this: a computerized, self-checkout stand. It’s fast and better yet, it may just save you from perusing tabloid headlines while you’re stuck behind a full-cart shopper.

It’s called U-Scan Express, and it’s at Fred Meyer’s. With the push of a few buttons and the swipe of a credit card, you’re outta’ there.

Welcome to the new era of grocery shopping.

”It’s faster,” said Fred Meyer’s customer Julia Hicks, after feeding a U-Scan a twenty dollar bill and a few ones. ”You don’t wait.”

Installed in November, the four U-Scan computers at Fred Meyer’s are catching on with customers who want to get in, shop, and get out, said Rose Gramenz, who works as a full-time attendant.

”I have people come back every time to use it,” she said.

The self-checkout stand works like this: after pushing the green ”start” button on the screen, the computer will ask customers if they have any coupons; next, customers begin swiping their items across the scanner, which registers the price on the screen.

If it’s produce, customers enter a code displayed on a chart, after which the scanner weighs the fruit or vegetables. If it’s alcohol or cigarettes, the transaction stops until customers show their identification to an attendant.

After scanning, the items must be placed in grocery bags, which sit on a large scale. The scale ensures the weight of the bag corresponds with the items that have been scanned. If the weight is more, the customer must re-scan. This protects the store against theft.

Finally, customers complete their purchase with payment, which may be done by swiping their debit or credit cards through a machine, feeding bills and coins into the U-Scan or writing a check and giving it to the attendant on duty.

The whole process takes just a few minutes.

Carrying a bag of diapers in one hand and a six-pack of beer in his other, Fred Meyer’s customer Alfred Gaytan said this is his second time using the machine, and it won’t be his last.

”Yeah, it’s not that hard to do,” he said. But a word of caution: ”This isn’t for a woman with children. My wife came the other day with my children, and it was a fiasco.”

They kept playing with the buttons, he said.

Gramenz, who underwent four days of training to learn how to operate and fix glitches in the machines, said the U-Scans are easy to use and mostly reliable. If there’s a problem say a receipt doesn’t print out she can fix it. If not, there’s a technical team in Ontario, Canada, standing by a telephone for support. They can resolve most problems sitting right at their terminals.

While U-Scan has proved to be a fast alternative to standing in traditional checkout lines, not every shopper has warmed up to the idea.

One customer grumbled as she fed her dollar bills into the machine. The last time she did self-checkout, the registered items on her screen would disappear, line by line.

”I’ve been a (grocery store) checker for 20 years,” she said. ”I don’t want to learn something new.”

Some checkers and customers were leery of U-Scan at first, worrying the robots would replace people.

”The biggest freak out is people think it’s going to take our jobs away,” said Jayleen Currie, head cashier.

Even the customers worried about it, Gramenz said.

”A lot of people wouldn’t go through at first because they thought people (Fred Meyer’s employees) would lose their jobs,” she said. But it actually added two full-time, 40-hour shifts.

And though shoppers are using the U-Scans to check out, Gramenz says she’s still talking to customers, answering questions, taking checks, looking at IDs and just being a friendly face.

”It’s fun,” she said. ”I like it because I’m interacting with people and I’m teaching all day long.”