Sam Neill Rails Against Self-Checkouts, Calls for More Humanity at the Grocery Store

Sam Neill has never been shy about speaking his mind, and this time, he’s taking a stand at your local grocery store. On Sunday, the legendary "Jurassic Park" star, 77, hopped onto social media to air his grievances about the rise of self-checkouts and why he refuses to use them.

"Call me old-fashioned," he began in a video posted to Instagram, "but I refuse to check out my own groceries at a supermarket. I want a human being to assist me. I don't think that's too much to ask." The actor didn’t hold back, emphasizing his belief that self-checkouts are putting people out of work. "Every time I check out something for myself — you got to think like this — I'm doing someone out of a job. And if robots and self-serving is going to do all the work everywhere, who's going to be buying the groceries at the checkout?" Neill asked, voicing what a lot of folks have been grumbling about as those machines multiply like, well, raptors in a kitchen.

Fans flocked to his comments to show support, with one writing, "Agree 100% and would like to add we need more human interactions to regain some of the empathy, kindness, compassion, and politeness that seem to be evaporating the last few years." Another chimed in, "We want human contact and jobs for them not a machine." Clearly, the people have spoken—or at least, typed.

Neill’s honesty isn’t anything new. In 2023, he opened up about his cancer diagnosis, revealing he was battling angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. He described the treatment as "brutal" and admitted he found the subject of cancer boring—now that’s a take you don’t hear every day. At the time, Neill said he was in remission but would need to continue treatment indefinitely. He later reassured fans with a heartfelt apology for causing worry, insisting, "It’s all good, it’s all fine. It’s a beautiful day, I’m off to work and look how gorgeous those geraniums are in the background."

In a world where checkout lanes are starting to look more sci-fi than anything Michael Crichton ever dreamed up, Neill’s plea for a little more humanity—and a little less beeping—strikes a chord with anyone who misses chatting with their cashier. At the very least, it’s a reminder that not all progress has to mean less people and more touch screens.