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Original poster

Matalan… what’s that all about?

54 replies

Itsokay2020 · 04/04/2022 16:12

Following on from the WHSmith thread, it got me thinking about my recent experience of Matalan. Not a shop I visit often, but I wasn’t expecting to literally walk in, find my items, go to the till, scan the labels, remove the security tags, fold the items and place in my carrier bag. It felt really weird, behind the tills were a wall of storage boxes and the whole place seemed like a hybrid warehouse that allowed the public in, but only if they didn’t need any assistance from staff!

I saw one or two staff members, and it really struck me how lonely it must be to work in retail where shops are run on skeleton staff. I worked in retail back in the mid-90’s whilst at uni and loved it! We always had lots of staff on shift and I loved the interaction with customers (tbf I mostly worked in shoe shops!).

If you work in retail, do you prefer these new business models?

OP posts:

girlmom21 · 04/04/2022 16:17

I like self service generally but not in places like matalan where they put the stupid security tags in random places - and don't put them in all the clothes!

BarbaraofSeville · 04/04/2022 16:21

I've never understood why you're not allowed to buy from them without a membership card. It otherwise appears to be similar to other low priced clothes chains.

girlmom21 · 04/04/2022 16:23

@BarbaraofSeville

I've never understood why you're not allowed to buy from them without a membership card. It otherwise appears to be similar to other low priced clothes chains.

You can now

PurpleFadesToGreen · 04/04/2022 16:24

@BarbaraofSeville

I've never understood why you're not allowed to buy from them without a membership card. It otherwise appears to be similar to other low priced clothes chains.

You don't need a card anymore, I don't have one.

I didn't bother because it's rare I go in there.

Georgeskitchen · 04/04/2022 16:28

Its handy to have a card they send you money off vouchers

Playplayaway · 04/04/2022 16:30

My matalan haven't got proper self service tills yet so you just have to use the original tills and there's just a staff member for returns. It feels very strange. Wilko is the same, just the orginal tills with no weighing of items.

I didn't know you don't need a card anymore so I'm glad I can chuck it out.

BarbaraofSeville · 04/04/2022 16:33

OK, shows how long it is since I shopped there.

I've never had vouchers and it all seemed poor quality and unattractive designs last time I looked. Supermarkets seem to be better and similarly priced.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 04/04/2022 16:35

I needed a card last week,I used my friend's as I haven't got one.

GoodSoup · 04/04/2022 16:38

I’ve got the app, also get vouchers on it which is great. I like their homeware stuff and school uniform.

KeepScrapingBy · 04/04/2022 16:38

There was another thread on this in Style & Beauty board. Apparently M&S are doing this too. It seems to be the way clothes shops are going, but it’s so depressing.

timeforteaforyouandme · 04/04/2022 16:41

Decathlon is the best I think! In ours you drop the items into the till box and it magically knows what you're buying. Well not magic obvs

GoodSoup · 04/04/2022 16:44

It is magic. Totally is.

ilovebagpuss · 04/04/2022 17:33

Self check out gives me the rage. You can bet the staff cuts are not passed on in cheaper goods when you are the staff at checkout yourself. Just more shareholder profits.

latetothefisting · 04/04/2022 17:59

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

I needed a card last week,I used my friend's as I haven't got one.

Really? That's weird, it's been at least a decade since you've needed a card, at least in all the Matalan's I've gone to?

TBF it's one of the rare shops I don't mind using the card - it can't be very great data collection as I only pop in there for some leggings or something a few times a year so doesn't exactly give away all my deepest secrets, plus I seem to get 20-25% off all the time.

I agree their move to self service doesn't really work. Fine if you want to just go in and buy something but nearly every time I go in there they keep trying to get people to use the self service till but nearly everyone is waiting for returns or to pick up click and collect so there's a huge queue for the one member of staff.

MindatWork · 04/04/2022 18:08

I think I was on that other thread - I went in Wilko, Matalan and m&s in one trip and had to scan and bag my own items in every shop . There was a single manned customer service till in each store but there was a massive queue because - obviously - the majority of people don’t want to fanny around taking their clothes off of hangers and removing security tags.

I did (politely) ask one of the staff in Matalan of it was a cost saving exercise and if there was any way to leave feedback. She said ‘oh we’re always here to help if you need it.’ They had one staff member directing customers to tills, one on customer service and another two hovering to ‘assist’ so it barely even seemed worth it!

Loads of fun with a bolting 3 year old….

Sapphirejane · 04/04/2022 18:12

I didn’t know you ever needed a card for Matalan! Certainly not in the one near me but then I haven’t been for about 5 years, I am tempted to go to see this weird self service warehouse

Hospedia · 04/04/2022 18:21

Self check out gives me the rage. You can bet the staff cuts are not passed on in cheaper goods when you are the staff at checkout yourself. Just more shareholder profits.

Same.

Every awlf-serbice tills represents an employee whose "services are no longer required". If a company wants me to scan my own stuff then they can pay me NMW for it.

Always reminds me of Muriel's speech in Years & Years:

"And that doesn't change the fact that it's all your fault. The banks. the government. The recession. America. Mrs. Rook. Every single thing that has gone wrong, it's your fault. Because we are. Every single one of us. We can sit here all day blaming other people. We blame the economy. We blame Europe. The opposition. The Weather. And then we blame these vast sweeping tides of history, you know, like they're out of control, like we're so helpless and little and small... but it's still our fault. You know why? It's that 1 pound t-shirt. A t-shirt that costs 1 pound. We can't resist it. Every single one of us. We see a t-shirt that costs 1 pound and we think, "Ooh that's a bargain, I'll have that." and we buy it. Not for best heaven forfend, but nice little t-shirt for the winter to go underneath, that'll do. And the shop keeper gets five miserable pence for that T-shirt and some little peasant in a field gets paid 0.01 pence... and we think that's fine. All of us. And we hand over our quid and we buy into that system for life. I saw it all going wrong when it began in the supermarkets, when they replaced all the women on the till with those automated checkouts. Yes. But You didn't do anything. did you? 20 years ago when they first popped up, did you walk out? Did you write letters of complaint? Did you shop elsewhere? No! You huffed and you puffed and you put up with it. And now all of those women are gone and we let it happen. And I think we do like them. Those checkout. We want them. Because it means that we can stroll through, pick up our shopping, and we don;t have to look that women in the eye. The women who's paid less than us. She's gone. We got rid of her. Sacked. Well done. So yes, it's our fault. This is the world we built."

Lincslady53 · 04/04/2022 18:46

They started with the membership card as it was a loophole in the old Sunday Trading laws, when it was illegal to open larger shops on Sundays. The membership card enabled them to circumvent these laws. Makro was the same, although they were mainly a wholesaler.

SecretVictoria · 04/04/2022 18:49

@timeforteaforyouandme Uniqlo do this as well! Magic as you say.

I do hate now that everywhere seems hell bent on not having staff

crimsonlake · 04/04/2022 19:02

I rarely shop in Matalan but did pop in and picked up a few bits this weekend. I was aghast at having to scan, take clothes off the hangers, plus tags, then fold, and finally enter my matalan card number. Whose bright idea was this I asked an assistant?? Hell will freeze over before I shop there again.

RealRaymondReddington · 04/04/2022 19:05

I despise self service, our Boots often has staff hanging around at the self service check outs and I just want to tell them to open a flipping till please!

Cervinia · 04/04/2022 19:17

My option of self checkout depends upon which store it is. Wilko’s scanners are super sensitive and it’s very easy. M&S food I absolutely despise and the scanners always seem to be hit and miss.

Pumpkintopf · 04/04/2022 19:21

Like a pp I object to using self checkout. As a student I was paid to work on a checkout, damned if I'm going to do it for free now!

Furrbabymama87 · 04/04/2022 19:21

I like the clothes but detagging your clothes and all that shit is so tedious and puts me off shopping there.

FourChimneys · 04/04/2022 19:22

I have a policy of not using self service checkouts if at all possible. It's important for people to have checkout jobs available, and for some customers it might be the only human interaction they get all day.

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