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

Most people prefer self service. I do.

Nearly everywhere has counter service not self service for clothing. Primark isn't a supermarket. It's not known for having lots of helpful staff hanging around to offer assistance. Counters humanise it

Our local Wilko had 2 self service tills and one till with a person. The queue for the person was always very long. I loved the self service tills . They had someone watching both so if there was a problem you had instant help. They went bust and now we have a Bargain Buster which only has 1 till in total and that is manned. The queue is huge on a Saturday.

It completely removes the human element. Loses people their income, promotes an ever increasing solitude life for people, discourages people interactions, removes chit chat for lonely people, makes life for older people very difficult, promotes losing cash in society which is an whole other issue to name a few things.

Exactly! If they want people to use them they should offer a discount. I prefer in person checkouts, especially if I have fragile things, as they have paper to wrap them in, which I can't see at the self service tills

How do self service tills make it easier to steal?
If you're stealing you generally don't go anywhere near the tills.
You shove it in your bag and walk out.
(I'm not a former shoplifter...but I am former retail staff)

I pay myself in carrier bags.

Even though I never shop at Primark, I do not want it easier for anyone to steal from them.

I am with you OP, it is not for the benefit of customers even though some people prefer self service.

Why?
What difference does it make?

I don't like the idea of self service in what mainly a clothing shop

I hate the self service but do use it if there’s a queue for the folks. But every time I’ve used it my light has gone off to be checked by staff which involves lifting every item out and cross referencing with the receipt. So annoying!

Primark doesn't have tags.

I can’t cope with removing security tags at these tills. I always have to call someone over to help, which takes longer than getting served in the past. Same at Tesco….one person over seeing 30 tills in two directions and I am having to wave like a demented person every time it screams at me. I have left my shopping before now and gone home.

I know this is about Primark but I bloody love the scan as you go thing on the IKEA app, scan the qr code to get into the tills and then scan the receipt to leave. No one in my local one seems to use it so it’s really quick and I really can’t be arsed with the queuing after walking round there.

There doesnt have to be an advantage, it's fine simply to prefer a manned till as I do.
I can't be faffed with self service and don't care if I have to wait a couple of minutes longer for a person

I haven't been in a Primark that doesnt have manned tills, it would be carnage in the big one near me if everyone was trying to manipulate and scan the mountains of items they seem to buy

Yes Primark is the type of shop that really needs more floor staff.

I have noticed this, too.
It's faster now, but I cannot but wonder where all these young people find their jobs now? There were like 20 of them on every floor beforehand. Multiply x no of shops in the country = lots of savings for the company but lot of unemployment, too.

I want the choice in shops because all that is happening now is that I’m stuck in a long queue for self service and I’m doing all the work myself! Being stuck in a long queue is not quicker.

Primark is focussed on low cost. Employing people is expensive, and your average Primark customer is not going to pay more for better customer service. As taxes on employment increase and automation gets cheaper it's no wonder that all retailers are looking at how to reduce headcount. There's no surprise that unemployment is increasing across Europe - in the UK it is up more than 30% since Labour came into power.

I have to say that I like the Uniqlo system where you just dump a basket of things in the checkout area and it knows (RFID?) what's in the basket - you can check-out in seconds :)

I hate it as it means they employ less people and make more demands on remaining staff.

Love love love self service till quicker and easier cant see any advantage to manned till

Still plenty of young people on the shop floor in my local Primark.

my local Primark doesn’t have self service tills. If there was you’d probably get more human interaction with a member of staff having to help fix an error on the till.
customer service is non existent

To all the people that use these self checkout, do you not see how this seriously affects employment for young people?
I find it so sad and worrying that this is the future.
Primark was a prominent employer for young people who were studying, Saturday was always full of young people earning a bit money, rows of them on the tills and they are disappearing fast.

Sometimes we just need to take a few extra minutes to keep a real person in a job. Not everything has to be done as fast as possible, most of the time you're out shopping for the day, there's no need to optimise every second.

Especially important to the people who have children now who they just expect and assume that there will be a job for their child when they turn 16/17/18 There really won't be and it is will of started with us, at this moment in time, we will all see the horrible effects in 5/10 years time.

Shares in Primark sank 10% last year due to weak sales, shareholders are demanding a stronger performance.

You can’t really change whether a business are doing ‘quite well’ just by looking around a store.