Well done Booths

[dnac]

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

Bad example. The production of washing machines creates jobs. Self serve tills just mean customers are doing the shops’ job for them.

The production, programming and maintenance of self-serve tills also creates jobs, if you want to use that argument. Plus allows staff to be redeployed to other areas.

The same applies to manned tills. It’s highly unlikely that the same number of staff are employed in stores that rely heavily on self serve tills - although, given the frequency with which a member of staff has to be summoned, perhaps I’m wrong.

And the same applies to hundreds and thousands of wash houses up and down the country that created jobs.

Anyway, I doubt anyone else is following suit as my local Sainsbury's has just taken out all but three of its human operated tills and installed another 8 self service ones. So it's got I think 18 in total now, 8 for trollies, 10 for baskets.

Where I live practically everwhere is short staffed (including Booths) so it makes no sense to take away self service because there's no one to fill the staffing gaps it creates.

What were wash houses? I’ve never heard of them?

In most areas of work, increasing use of technology generates more jobs. They are just different. The challenge can be that they are more skilled, which can be challenging for people with lower levels of education / qualifications.

Really. And that’s why there’s been such a well-documented loss of jobs in the retail sectors I suppose, along with a long-term reduction in wages and loss of real employment rights in practice. Demography talks, and such things always happen when there is an over supply of people chasing too few jobs. Women have been forced out of the job market and the sex industry is growing, along with a plethora of non-job ‘influencers’. And so many look to make better incomes out of the finance industry. Education is not a guarantor of paid jobs, nor is an increasing requirement for skills: in fact unskilled and low skilled jobs pay more at the moment, allowing for the cost of acquiring those skills and the political games in play that cause low security.

I like both

Our local Booths has got both and I can't remember queuing for long at any Booths - we've got lots of branches in our area.

Am I the only one who hasn't a clue what Booths is?

Questioning my sanity a little! 😂

It’s a supermarket based in the North of England,

It’s Waitrose on steroids.

I think it's just Windermere and Keswick that are keeping them. The rest have either gone or are going.

A place where laundry was done. Public washouses were ironically self service, but you also had women working in laundries who did washing for clients. The point being that we now use automatic washing machines and there were job losses as a result of technological advances.

It’s a northern supermarket chain. Think Waitrose but even more boujee 😆

Proper posh.

But also on the too good to go app.

Booths do seem to have the politest staff of any supermarket.

I did have to laugh at the report on the 6 o clock news the other day that said. "Shopping at Booths is like any other supermarket, but it has to be said it's an upmarket experience" 😂

Never heard of them, they couldn’t have been very common or widespread. I bet more jobs were created than lost in manufacturing, distributing, installing and repairing washing machines.

I've never been to a Booths. We don't have them in Wales. Am I missing much? I've only heard about them on here.

They’re only in the North West. Cumbria, Lancashire and some parts of Yorkshire. Think there may be a couple around Manchester too.
I love Booths but would never do my weekly shopping there. Far too expensive!
But as supermarket experiences go, it’s a lovely place! Especially if you stop off in their cafe too. They pride themselves on stocking mainly locally sourced top quality produce (which is pricey!).

Think Waitrose but more boujee 😆

You're not missing a thing. I wish we had Waitrose instead.

We’ve got a Waitrose. Our first stop when we go on holiday to Yorkshire is Booths in Ripon, it knocks Waitrose into a cocked hat.

Where I live we don't have a waitrose either 🙄

Hope that doesn't take off over here. Give me self serve any day. Where I shop they've increased the staff and most of the staff have been there for over 15 years since it opened and where my child works there is also an increase in staffing.

I'd like to hear more from supermarket staff on this.

I imagine that having to oversee 20 self service tills and run around sorting issues with customers who are irritable with the tech is a much more draining intense experience than dealing with one customer at a time. Where theres a much nicer rhythm of greet, scan, thanks at the end. Their heads must be fried at the end of a shift manning self checkouts?

10 items or less self checkout is useful to save queues, but above that, I prefer a manned till.