To think Primark shouldn't have got rid of their tills for self service.

Ok, in the vast majority of cases of shoplifting at Primark they are not going through the tills where they need a receipt to exit. This is not the same as supermarket theft, in any way.

Yes they do, they scan a few items and just take the rest. I work in a supermarket and not one of the shoplifters we’ve caught in the last few years has just lifted and walked out, that’s jus not what they do now. They’ll pay about £20 for a £200 trolley, they operate on the fact that most of these places are understaffed and assume that either no one will notice or no one will challenge them.

This doesn’t just happen at self scans, they’ll be brazen enough to go through a manned till and have a lovely chat with the checkout operator with goods hidden under coats or shopping bags.

Self service reduces jobs, cut costs, hits youth employment hardest - I have worked in employment support, so I queue for a real person to help me, as I know how important this roles are.

Local big M&S has gone mostly self scan. I don’t mind it at all.

However in the upstairs of a smaller M&S I visit rather less, I was wandering around looking for somewhere to pay, when I realised that there wasn’t anywhere! You had to go downstairs, to a till or self scan.

As I said to one of the staff, it’s no wonder people shoplift, when you can’t find anywhere to pay!!

Of course it won’t. Shoplifters won’t go through the checkouts.

DS (16) works in Primark, mainly on the tills. He likes the brief chitchat with customers though he says it's fast paced.
I asked him about self service tills and he said none in his branch.
It's a good place to work (straying a bit off point of thread), he's paid the adult minimum wage (£12.31 I think) and they seem to treat staff well (in his branch anyway). It's a part time job for him though, not a career (I don't think...)
I didn't think it was possible for young people to find Saturday jobs but there are lots in Primark.

Yeah, I hate this. Our local M&S only had self-check outs now. It’s a decent sized food hall so some people are doing big shops and haplessly trying to weigh produce, holding everyone else up. Also mi space for buggies and kids on scooters. It’s chaos.

As someone who used to work on a till I don't think you realise how little time we had for "chit-chat".
Sorry but stopping people being lonely isn't the job of sales assistants.

It's inevitable now, and while I do feel that jobs are being taken by a self serve till, realistically what can I do? Most places have them now and I will choose a till if there isn't a mahoosive queue, but self serve is definitely quicker. Maybe because the tills are for refunds and exchanges mostly and they take time to do.

Anyway, I hate going to a shop where I haven't yet used the self serve. Honestly I'm like a mad momma trying to figure out where to put the stuff, on what side, where to pack and I always get it wrong, usually when someone is behind me waiting for my spot!

Really irritates me that you queue for ages to be herded into the tills pen then every second person has their bags rifled through and then you have to scan your bleeding receipt to get out of the pen. Seriously, if I'm going to nick your £2.50 t-shirt im not going through all that rigmarole first!

When I left college many years ago I didn't expect to be a checkout operator at Tesco once a week - but there we are. Occasionally I work at Waitrose, and a while ago I did a very brief stint at W.H. Smiths for a birthday card.

We recently had a scanning pillar box installed not far away, so I'll be working for them now too, I suppose. 🫥

Well on self service you get to move the hanger yourself 😁

My pet hate is when staff stretch the neck of the garment to take the coathanger out from the top, instead of underneath.

They do, in the form of the goods being sold cheaper than they might if more staff had to be employed.

As a neurodiverse person I love self-service tills, there are times when I really struggle to have the energy to interact with people and I hate feeling like I'm being rude to someone working hard. Machines don't care.

Love self service. So much quicker and I can fold clothes the way I want rather than them being shoved in a bag.

Self service queues also move far quicker than stamdard queues, mainly because most of their users prefer efficiency.

The new Zara self service tills are the best. Leave all your items on the shelf and it brings them up on screen - no scanning required. It's brilliant.

I meant in general when I said “these tills”. I don’t shop in Primark. But Zara, etc I can’t get the tags off.

H and M, Matalan and Uniqlo have self service.
Possibly Next too. M+S I think as well.
I buy most of my clothes from Primark and supermarkets so I can't really speak for any other clothes shops.

@Denim4ever @CoralOP shops like Primark NEED floor staff. They are essentially a type of department store and as someone who previously worked in a similar shop you need people on the floor. Not on the tills.
Primark needs to keep their stock tidy, replenished and organised. They need to be able to help customers find products. They need to be watching for shoplifting. None of that can be done if they are stuck behind tills.
You also get more opportunities for talking to and help customers when on the sales floor.
On the tills you have to scan, bag and take the payment - quickly so you can move to the next customer in the queue.
You can't give much assistance when on tills because you can't leave the till to take them to the relevant department to help find a product.
I would much prefer 20 members of staff on the floor with a load of self service tills than 20 staff stuck behind tills and no help on the salesfloor.

All our nearby Primarks still have both, every single time I’ve used the self serve, it’s said a member of staff has to check the number of items before payment , bit pointless having self service if someone is still checking every time you use them, though I do appreciate this may just be my luck rather than the norm

For groceries, but clothes buying rarely offers this option

Sorry clicked Yabu in error but I totally agree with u it’s just manic now, and god help us when there’s a gift card to be used as it’s torture, never work, have to wait on the moany woman coming over to moan what I’ve done or not done, then wait for the receipt to not scan as usual to get the hell out. Hate it.

Love a self checkout and will always choose them first. I used to work on tills so I scan really quickly (there is a knack to it). All I want when shopping it to pay and get out. Our co-op has one manned till that always has a queue and about 6 self service that you don’t have to wait at.

You can also claw the scan and go gun from my cold dead hands. I remember in our massive Sainsbury’s the queues at the tills were right back into the aisles. I just swanned past and was out in a few minutes. My bags are already packed as I go as well.