Self service checkouts

[petitecalicocat]

Our local supermarkets have all installed the self service machines & there are more of them than 'manned ' checkouts now .  

Personally i don't mind them but OH hates them & Ive noticed a lot of other people seem to avoid them too .

   Ive overheard someone say they don't like paying the full grocery price & having do the check out themselves , plus what about the jobs that will be lost ...

What do you think about it ?

[chickengrandma-2008]

My daughter is happy to use them but I avoid them.  Nothing to do with having to pay the same price, it's just that knowing my luck I'd bring the whole system down somehow!!!

As to the jobs lost, well I don't like it but that's the way of the world now, unfortunately.  The more work can be done by machines, the more efficient and cheap that labour will be. All buisinesses are there to make profits, not to give people jobs. 

[stroppy*cow]

I don't go to the supermarket often - but those self service checkouts are a nightmare for a wheelchair user! It is almost impossible to reach the credit card slot and key in the pin number, so I avoid them like the plague. If you try to use your own shopping bag they don't work properly, so they almost force you to use plastic carrier bags..

As for less staff, there always seems to be one member of staff per self service checkout just to sort out the problems with them.

[cookiecookuk]

I detest them with a passion.they talk to you like you are 6 years old and almost everytime I have been forced to use them they have had something go wrong then you have to wait for the assistant who looks at you as if you are at fault .I remember once in mo****ons I only had a £5 note and it would not take it.so I called said assistant and she said oh its torn.and walked away.so I walked away leaving my milk and bread.she tried to call me back but I just kept on walking.

[petitecalicocat]

Stroppy thats not good 😞   DH went to asda around 9pm last night & they were the only checkouts open .

An assisant  was there but she couldnt get the thing to work properly either!

[rose2008-2008]

If i go into our small Morrisons they dont even bother putting someone on the proper tills now. I think this is wrong!!!. They are doing themselves out of jobs now. We will be doing everything ourselves or online one day i think. Just Virtual Shops will be around!!!!. Very strange!!!. A lot of people dont like them and people have to be on hand to show them how to do it like in our Sainsburies!!!. Whats the point??

[ed_blackadder_1]

Love them. Quick easy and no incessant chit chat . When I finish work I just want to go home with my bottle of milk a loaf of bread. I dont want to queue fir 10 minutes. As for the jobs more and more companies are making do with less and less staff sadly it's the way things are going sad but true.

[ilove2patch]

I use them if I only have a small basket full with no problems. Alcohol has to be 'approved' though! lol

[merc1_clocks]

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@ilove2patch wrote:

I use them if I only have a small basket full with no problems. Alcohol has to be 'approved' though! lol

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 That must take up a lot of time then Maggie 

[petitecalicocat]

Thats what delayed hubby last night they couldnt get the phone working to approve his bottle of whiskey !

[suzieseaside]

I quite like them (apart from their constant nagging!) but I only like them because my local supermarket makes so many mistakes at the checkout especially with reduced items.  I have to go back to the tills about one in 3 or 4 times I shop and wait again because of mistakes, so I like to be able to check the prices myself as I put them through.

[chrissy101257]

Must admit that I hate them.  I'll only use them if I have to.

[fluffypenquin]

I have tried them but now totally refuse to use them anymore. 

Our local Tesco when it is late in the evening now only have the self service ones open - the first time I got "caught" by this I spoke to a supervisor and said "Sorry, I won't use them I would like somebody to serve me  (I wasn't being awkward, but I am still having problems with my hand and arm and can't pack shopping at the moment) - she said it was self serve or nothing.  So I gave her possession of my trolley load of shopping and said in that case I won't be buying it. 

I felt a bit mean, but they did have staff available, so could have offered me some assistance, but they were not prepared to. 

However, I will also say that a similar thing happened in ASDA and they said it wasn't a problem and got somebody to put my shopping through the self service till for me and they packed it as well.  Not only did they go out of their way, but they got a young man to then take my shopping to the car - I was impressed by their customer service.

[5129frederick]

Don't get me started on that subject!   It is a system which I totally refuse to get involled with.  My daughter seems to love them, but in plain truth it takes three times as long putting stuff through a self-service than doing it through a manned till, with one of the staff constantly having to key in her security pass number and correct things when they go wrong.  That is why I will deliberately sit on the side doing nothing leaving my daughter to get on with it.  In short, people who man the tills are pros - they know what they're doing.  

Basically it boiils down to five words - self-service is no service.

[bhgardeners]

Went in my local Sainsbury the other day rather than drive half a mile to Tesco - 6 deep at the 2 checouts open.  Self service - plenty of empty and working tills - I joined the queue and whinged.

Best was Asda one day.  One item.  Took the lady 10 minutes to sort me out - I mean she actually expected me to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My grand daughter knows exactly how they work.  First you climb onto the shopping basket plate, then you push buttons, then you sit on scanner and scan items(by this time both machine and staff were gettting hysterical) then you let adult pay cash whilst you fall off, whip the change out of the holder and leg it to the charity boxes where you put the green "money"with Grandma in hot pursuiy. At least she knows how to use the d*** thing.

Basically if they want me to use them I want a discount.  After all they will, eventually, sack loads of people to save money.

[petitecalicocat]

Well there seems to be more dislikes than likes on this subject .

  Although i think we the customers who supply their profits,  will end up having to  "put up & shut up " as every supermarket will convert eventually as they have paid for these machines so i cant see them being taken out 

[saasher2012]

Don't like em full stop! Avoid em like the plague.

[aernethril]

I use them most of the time because the convery belt system with the served checkouts ends up shoving stuff down far too fast for me to cope with the packing as I'm on crutches.

I can take my time, scan the stuff in the order I want to pack it - WHY do cashiers always reach half way down the convery belt to scan something out of turn which is so often delicate and needs to be near the top of the shopping??!?!?!?!?.

I don't have impatient customers shoving their stuff right up behind mine and tutting because I have to take my time keying in my PIN, I just go at my own pace, and if I've over shopped, I can easily leave the last items I'm not sure about on the side.

I always manage to need help many times over, so I like to think I keep the staff on their toes and they often have at least three in the larger shops to help with the self service.

And I can always have a bit of 'fun' by leaning on the area where the shopping goes to get me balance and I'm an "Unexpected item in the bagging area".

[captainbovine]

I think it's because checkout staff can't scan two or three of the same items one after the other, they have to put another item inbetween so they don't scan 4 instead of 3 and the customer gets overcharged.

I can't stand those self service tills, avoid them whenever I can.

Spare a thought for the checkout staff who probably don't want to have a huge conversation with a customer either...works both ways!!

[myraandjim]

I won't use them, I used to work on a checkout in a supermarket and got paid for doing so - why would I now want to do the job for nothing?