Well done Booths

[dnac]

For putting staff back on tills. At last, the return of the human shop assistant. Other stores take note.

But I like having the option of some self service tills too. There is nothing more annoying than having to wait behind people with huge trollies full of groceries, packing them very slowly and chatting with the cashier when you are trying to buy 2 items and catch the hourly bus.

The basket only tills are no better as you can (with practice) put as much in a basket as you can with a small trolley.

We have both at ours. They’ve never taken till staff off 🤷‍♀️

Love self service tills! Personally I think there should be a mix of both.

I like self service too - I don't want to have to make conversation with anyone.
I don't understand why Booths can't just give people the CHOICE of self-checkout or manned tills.

There was never a self service option at our Booths!

In many (non-Booths) stores the number of assistant manned tills has drastically reduced (along with the presence of assistants on the floor) and has been replaced by self service tills. I’m not sure they speed things up. 8 times out of 10 I need an assistant to come and sort out something that won’t go through the till/needs approval, so I end up waiting around anyway for the one, hard pressed assistant to come and sort it all out. What’s so wrong with people in place of machines anyway? We are all sleep walking ourselves to obsolescence.

I prefer the choice, when you only have 3 things it's annoying to have to queue. I used to avoid Aldi for that very reason but they now have self checkouts so I'm going their again. There's 8 self checkouts for the space where 2 manned ones were, still 6 manned ones (if open)

Good for Booths. They’ve listened to their customers. Basket only tills are pointless as @Kpo58 points out. Ten items or less is the way to go.

My preferred option is Aldi where they get you through a staffed checkout at light speed, though I hate it when people try and pack at the till instead of the packing shelf. I really hate being stuck behind ditherers or people taking an age to pack their stuff. I don't want chat with a cashier, I want in and out as fast as possible.

That said, I don't think self checkout works for trolleys, unless it's a scan and go set up.

I don’t get that either.

I’d never use a supermarket that doesn’t have a self-checkout option now. Thankfully no Booths in my local area, and I can’t see any of the others following suit.

Agree op . Hate the self service tills . Too much standing around!

My local Booths has a mix of both. Don't really see the issue with that? If I've only got a few bits it's quicker to use self service than a 10 items or less queue. I have to say Tesco self service tills are very reliable and staff are always to hand but Morrisons are absolutely bloody awful and there's never staff around.

They’ve lost my custom. Since they’ve got rid of the self service tills I’ve not been back.

I quite like self service tills. I generally find that it is quicker when I've only got a few items,say 6 or less. Saves getting stuck behind someone with a loaded trolley who operates at snail's pace. Admittedly if I've got a lot of stuff,I prefer a manned till.

I would not be surprised if the level of shop theft (aka shoplifting) reduces at Booths.

Yes, well done Booths. 😊

I'm not averse to using the auto-tills but Lord they are a faff for anything more than a pre-pack sandwich and a bag of crisps.

Last time, the till kept rejecting barcodes, and then didn't have a code for an aubergine - hardly exotic, Tesco, get a grip - then repeat red lights, wait for assistant, blah blah.

In the end I loaded an entire week's shop back into the trolley and went back to the manned checkouts.

Just let us have the choice. Some manned, some self-service. Then everyone can use what suits them. It’s not difficult.

Not well done at all in my opinion - removing consumer choice is unacceptable.

I thought it was Boots?
Now that would make sense as their self service tills never worked without some kind of issue.

I prefer this too, not Booths but generally at supermarkets

We stopped using our local booths when they took out the self-service tills - never enough staff and too many old people doing a weekly shop - if you want a few bits its an utter shit show. they need to train their staff.

Agreed, OP, self-service till are so highly strung they inevitably need human override, so generally take longer than the staffed tills. The machine at my local rail station is no different - purchasing a ticket takes way longer than from the bloke in the ticket office.

But, hey, this is MN - heaven forbid people should talk to each other, therefore self-service tills are viewed as the best thing since the jet engine.

I like scan and shop , staff on tills is of no interest to me

They removed checkouts at our 3 local supermarkets to fit the self serve tills in, so they definitely took staff off.
They make one at a time hover around the self service tills to help, but moved the hours/departments of other staff.

We are all sleep walking ourselves to obsolescence.

Nonsense & the kind of stuff people have said since the dawn of time.

In my case, for small shops, I greatly prefer self-service, just as for large shops, I want to go to a till. So having an option works well.

A shop that facilitates me being able yo use self-service will get more of my custom, generating more need for staff (it may just be elsewhere than on the tills).

It's not a direct line to self-service tills meaning fewer staff - while they may not be on tills, they may now be assigned to another function.