Self-service checkouts. If there’s a queue, do you wait to be called forward by the staff?

[IntentionalError]

And, if so, why?

I have been in several busy supermarkets recently and people just stood blankly at the head of the queue waiting for a staff member to call them to use an available machine. If the staff member is busy, this can result in a queue of frustrated customers & unused machines, which is daft. I have taken to pointing out unused machines to people in front of me if they are not using them. Why do people do this?

😃 😀 😄 or a grabber arm like in those end of pier games which picks them up and deposits them at the next available checkout?

*That's not true.

I work in a small supermarket and it isn't losing people's jobs (we're under staffed anyway!) it just means we can get on with other duties.*
I'll give you a cast iron guarantee that when those self scan tills were installed that you lost hours from your checkout budget.

It's a small supermarket so we do everything (deliveries, stock management, checkouts), they've been great as it means we can stop falling behind on stuff to keep the store running. Definitely not lost checkout hours! Common misconception that people are losing their jobs because of them, we can't get enough staff.

Most supermarkets are oversubscribed for jobs and have very complicated application processes - there have been threads on here where people have asked for help with the questions they ask. If they really needed the staff, they would make the application process easier and take more people on. They clearly don't.

And given how many times people have problems with self-service checkouts (wanting to actually use a bag, needing to buy an age-restricted item) I don't believe that they save as much time in staff hours as people think they do.

And yet the staff member was running beween the SS tills as they went wrong? (Previous page.) She could have been ON a till! A real one, that serves customers & other innovative stuff! ;-)

Reasons I don't always see the free checkout or know which one to go to:

1. Feeling ill and half asleep.
2. There can sometimes be so many and lots of people and noise and it gets over stimulating for me.
3. There will be one that's card only and I have cash.

Feel free to believe staff don't appreciate self service checkouts, but if you have t done the job you won't really understand.

In my local supermarket there is no staff member anywhere near the self checkouts so people just go forward when the previous customer has finished.

I usually ask if they're waiting to pay with cash as 9 out of 10 times that's the delay, and usually results in me being able to step forward.

My local has 6 self service, only ever 4 working and only 1 of those takes cash. Early morning/late evening you'll rarely find a staffed till so can only use self service. Not sure why the lack of cash facilities still available, it made sense with covid but why now? I used to love taking all my loose change in and firing it in the machine for my bread and milk but can't be bothered to wait for a cash till now!

It’s hard to see after a certain point in the bigger supermarket self check outs. And it gets confusing when some of the tills aren’t in service.

My biggest hate is when the self service tills and the manned tills are right next to each other and someone who wants the manned tills gets in the wrong queue and just waits there when there’s a free self service right in front of them.
“erm excuse me, are you in the queue?”
”no love, I’m waiting for a manned till”
🤬then why not turn around and tell me that you cunt #firstworldproblems 🤣

Tbf a lot of the ones near me due to the lay out you can’t actually always see if it’s clear and sometimes you walk over and one isn’t and have to go back looking silly so maybe that’s why people wait?

I'm a cashier in a shop we have a bank of 3 tills. Probably 10 times a day I am holding my arm in the air, saying can I help you, trying to attract the person at the front of the queue to alert them that I'm free to serve them! They're usually looking at their phone/talking on their phone or to whoever they're with and not paying attention. It's often other customers getting impatient who end up tapping them and pointing out that I'm available! It's not just the self checkout where people are unobservant!

@Noseylittlemoo Oh, that must drive you CRAZY.. as a non-smartphone owner I often wonder what everyone is looking at on their phones? My dinophone is used for calls & texts - everything else waits until I get home.

I point it out when this happens and if they then don't go then go past them. Sometimes it's because they are waiting for a cash till to become available, other times they might not have seen it and thank you. Sometimes I wait because our Tesco has some self serves with tiny packing areas and I have a bigger shop - although id communicate this and let people past.

As is often the case the first post nails it!

@LittleBearPad

That poster didn't nail it though, did they?

If you RTFT there are several posters explaining why this can and does happen.

But yeah, let's jump to calling everyone thick

Sense of humour working well I see

No, usually move within five seconds of the space becoming available. Being slow at a self-service checkout if you are able bodied is inconsiderate to those behind you.

It is the poor layout in my local M&S, if the person checking out bring their doppy partner who stands behind them then the next person in the queue cannot see the machines behind them or the exit. That branch of M&S seems to attract couple.

Why is it only elderly people who get confused/ anxious/scared?

Just to be clear, it isn’t.

Sense of humour working well I see

I am supposed to find it funny that people regard me as thick for not performing the way they expert in public?

Thick as champ is a particularly great expression tbf.

I've not worked with them in shops but I have worked in a library where self-service machines were brought in, and a lot of the staff (and customers) weren't keen. I like them as you can get in and out quickly, but then they use RFID and there are no age-restricted items (as long as you're not a 4 year old trying to borrow a YA book).

The tills at Decathlon are good as they also use RFID.

The same reason why theme parks need to guide people to the parking space next to the previous car's. Or people need to be shown how to park on a half empty ferry or Eurotunnel train. People are unobservant and common sense is anything but common.

Tesco are a problem as now half the tills are card only but with one queue. So I wait for a free cash till but am often asked by the checkout person if I am paying by card/cash. The system doesn't work well.