Self checkout tills are killing the shopping experience

[Stopsnowing]

My first two jobs )as a Saturday girl) was on the tills. I learned to chat with customers and fold their clothes neatly and handle money responsibly. Sometimes they had queries or complaints or would ask me questions when they couldn’t find anyone on the floor.
I am not a massively chatty person and I have a busy full time job. I am not someone whose only social contact is via shopping but dear God how soul destroying is shopping in places with all or mainly self service tills.
it is deathly quiet and there is no interaction with a human except for one harried person trying to whizz around fixing the scanning issues.
marks and Spencer is fully self service now and if you want to be served by a human you have to join the single long refunds queue. Waitrose had two tills open the other day and when the queues built up and a lady asked them to open another till she was directed to the empty self check outs and was told they didn’t have the staff for another till. When I shop in Aldi or Sainsburys they have one or no staffed till. So anyone who is elderly or who needs help has ti stand and wait and that is not easy.
I am now scanning a whole trolley shop. It takes longer than being served and involves a lot mor e reaching down which some people won’t be able to manage.
the Waitrose lady told me “can’t stop progress”. I said” whir about your job?” She said her job wasn’t affected as they were only not replacing leavers as opposed to sacking people so she would be ok. She seemed to miss the point that if she left her job she wouldn’t be able to find another similar one. My children won’t be able to have a Saturday job where they will get their first lessons in customer service. A huge chunk of jobs has gone forever. Another element of customer service is gone (because these till Roles have not been replaced with staff walking the floors (good luck with that). Social interaction reduced. Another step towards the death of the high street.

This piece rang true for me

https://www.theguardian.com/business/commentisfree/2023/aug/02/want-a-glimpse-of-dystopia-visit-the-self-service-checkouts

The U.K. has become wildly capitalist, any way to make the fat cats fatter! Unfortunately money doesn’t care about humanity.

I always find Adrian Chiles' articles quite despondent. I guess that's his jam.

I think they should be legally forced to keep a certain number of manned tills open according to footfall so that those who struggle with self-scan or don't fancy it can use them.

Personally I like the shop & scan system as it is quicker and I struggle with sensory issues and find by the time I get to the scanning bit I just want to get out the shop rather than listen to beeping.

There has been complaints when retail staff talk to customers, why? I have no idea but it seems to annoy people

I don't want to stand there chatting all day but sure a bit of chat is nice

I am sure they will say they will open a till for those who struggle but they are left there waiting for one to open or in a long queue for one. And the culture of a brief chat is gone cos it is clear they can’t wait to shift it again!
I usually can’t stand Chiles but he is right about this.

Thats what I mean though sorry. It's not good enough to say they'll open one when needed. They need to be legally forced to have eg 1 per 50 customers per hour (or whatever metric they want to use) open

It would good to have the choice of both.

I was just saying how wonderful M&S returns are at my local store though. Scan the barcode, put label on, post parcel through flap. While collecting alternative item from same place. Very good indeed.

I haven't had to queue once since they brought in the self service tills for non-food items.

Totally agree with choice of both but basically there is no choice now.

Remember working on Quickcheck desk at Waitrose at least 20 years ago, I'm surprised it's taken so long for supermarkets to get to this point tbh.
I think there should ideally be a human checkout for people who want or need it but I prefer selfscan or self checkout so I don't have to interact with people.

And queuing up while waiting for other customers to have a "brief chat" (telling the assistant their life story it seems) is one of the things that puts me off shopping afaic.

The main thing that killed shopping for me though was big chain store shopping in the 1980s and 1990s. Traipsing round all day but still not finding what you want because it's so homogenised. I grasped online shopping with both hands - loads of choice and efficient.

Individual independent shops on the other hand offer usually good customer service, you can gave a chat without holding a big queue up and it's a nice experience.

I'll use them if I really want/need what I'm buying and there is no other option. Otherwise nope.

And I do tell them why I'm leaving and that I've piled all the refrigerated stuff in an end chiller cabinet so it doesn't spoil.

Only done that twice though. Where I live supermarkets don't (yet) have self-checkouts as a rule

Good thing Waitrose have a manned till or I'd have bailed on them by now. Their automated tills are rubbish, were clearly developed by a man who's never been in a hurry in his life

1st screen, I hit No Bag

2nd screen 'Place your bag in the bagging area' - Eh? I just said I've got no bag. Put my purse on the panel to shut it up.

3rd screen 'Scan your first item', bleep, 'place your item in your bag' I've got no bag, you gormless piece of tin. - Put bread on top of purse

Hit finish & pay. 'How many bags?' FFS I'VE GOT NO BAG.

Choose debit/credit card. Pick up purse to retrieve card, at which point it gets annoyed, turns its red light on, says return items to the bagging area, and refuses to budge until a staff member arrives.

All for a £2 loaf of bread. What on earth is the point? They are obsessed with bags? I have hands, arms. I'm on my way to Parkrun. I don't need a bloody bag.
It should just be scan, pay, leave. If someone wants to buy a bag, they just scan it in the same way as any other purchase. 🙄

Yes. Our sainsburys didn't have any manned checkouts open yesterday. It's very isolating putting it through myself.
At least Waitrose still have chatty till staff.

I found a self service non till in a clothes shop the other day. I’m used to uniqlo, etc and their self service tills, I can get the tags off myself now. But this one shop on carnaby street just had a tag remover and no till. I rang the doorbell by the counter for help as no staff in sight (small shop, I could easily have just walked out). A fed up looking girl appeared and informed me I had to pay via “the app”. Well I don’t have the app which seemed to irritate her as she had to take me upstairs and serve me!

To be honest, if there were no manned tills at all, and I'd done a full week's shop, I'd just abandon my trolley by the automated check outs and go elsewhere.

If supermarkets treat their customers with contempt, they must expect the same in return.

I love self service tills, and will choose them over a manned checkout any day! I do think you need the option though, as not everyone is comfortable using them.

I often use a self service till if the alternative is queuing. I’m confident with the technology and often in a rush. However, I cannot stand “self service” tills which are just the shop’s previously manned tills that have been “converted”. Matalan and B&Q are two recent examples I’ve observed. They are not fit for purpose and just make me feel like I’m having to work to buy my items.

I think it’s good for them not having to serve customers. It looks like one of the worst jobs ever

I always pick self-service over a manned till. Much quicker, much less faffing and no standing around waiting while Doris looks for her card or Steve tells the assistant all about the price of eggs.

I'm autistic and i bloody love self service tills. I'll always use them if they're available. Shopping may be an "experience" but it's not a good one for everyone.

I hate shopping, when I have to go in person I always use self checkout.

I like the idea of self service but the technology isn't fit for purpose.

Totally illogical and with so many exceptions, every visit needs an assistant to approve a purchase, remove a tag, deal with loose goods or a missing bar code.
Or the whole bagging area - incorrect weight nonsense.

I don't want to chat, I want to get through as fast as possible, and it's quicker to go to a competent manned till.

I am now scanning a whole trolley shop. It takes longer than being served and involves a lot mor e reaching down which some people won’t be able to manage.

Whichever till you use, you still have to get the stuff out of the trolley.

They’re convenient but they’re another little piece of the insidious capitalist and globalist destruction of local communities.

People are hard fucking work, and for the first time in history we are able to live without much interaction at all, if we choose. Doesn’t look like it’s doing much for our mental health though to be honest. I’ve used the same shop for a year and always use self checkout to avoid queues, but if I didn’t I’d at least know the staff by face by now and them me, and we’d probably chat. That’s a nice little meaningful interaction neither of us are getting. Oh, well.

Exactly. And if you find a scan and shop you can put it straight into a bag.

It wasn't unusual for my local Sainsbury's to only have a single manned checkout open before they had self-scan, so you had to queue even when the shop was quiet. Drove me nuts. It's much quicker now.