To think you should get some sort of incentive to use self-check out tills in shops?

[angelos02]

Seems mad to me that you are doing staff's work and you get nothing back. Even just 10% off the total of your bill would be a start.

Hate them.

It's not my fault they failed the audition to be R2D2 and have to work in a supermarket instead.

londonrach I think I have it sorted now - I can get through without having to call anyone. I make sure I don't have anything like alcohol or paracetomol, don't put my bags on the scanner (which I hate, I'd much rather load up as I go along,) etc etc.

And then: I see a protractor being sold for something silly like 11p so decide to buy it. And it's TOO LIGHT for the machine. So I STILL have to call someone over to help! Grrrr. And why don't they have a reset button so you can forget the item you need staff for and carry on? I guess because they don't want you to dump the item. Well on one occasion I dumped my entire shopping and walked out. I know it was bad of me and the staff would have had to put everything back where it belonged. But I was so annoyed!

I prefer self service too.

I do wish that they machine would just believe you so you could put your bag down and say "this is my bag, I'm not stealing anything yet" without calling anyone over.

Otherwise, they mainly do what you'd expect them to do.

If something is too light for the machine to pick up on, I certainly don't declare it. Fucking massive tax-dodging corporations losing a few quid isn't going to make a dent on my conscience.

I suffer sever aniexty my incentive is too get in and get out as fast as possible speaking with as few people as possible

I hate going to Tesco these days. It's ever since I found Aldi.

What I can't stand is the time it takes for the till assistants to scan your shopping. Maybe it's just me, but they always seem to scan at a speed as if they've been sedated. There was one recently that decided to chat loads to her customers. The thing is, she found it impossible to both talk and scan at the same time, so, and I kid you not, she would freeze her whole body save for her gob when talking.

Then, the number of absolute muppets who slowly pack their bags, such that when their shopping has been scanned, they still have half of it unpacked, so I have to watch them slowly bag everything, then root around in their wallet/handbag for a method of payment, then look at the card machine as if it's fucking alien technology that they've never seen before.

...and breathe.

Aldi is a breath of fresh air. The Usain Bolt of scanning.

Agree that most supermarket till operators could learn from those at Aldi and Lidl re speed! Nevertheless even there you still get customers acting surprised at having to pay though, and faffing about looking for their money/card ...seriously, do they do this EVERY TIME they shop??

Re Aldi and the speed with which they scan. I read an American article recently which highlighted interesting facts about their stores (yes, I was bored). It said that each item has a number of barcodes printed on it so that no matter which way a product is scanned it goes through first time without the till operator having to turn it to the correct side before the machine picks up the code. I looked in my cupboards and it was true.

10% is a bit steep but supermarkets have saved billions since the introduction of self scan checkouts. Although they have probably lost an equal amount through theft
I hate them with a passion but I also dislike talking to people

Why do so many people dislike taking to others? I find this worrying for our collective future.

I use them if I can, but in my weekly Tesco shop I use the Scaners. It saves all the bending and trolley loading; unloading at till, then loading into bags... and saves me the human interaction with people

Queues are so much shorter too, although more people are using the scanners now. Tescos will need more self-service tills at this rate

The self service till supervisor in our sainsburys is damn foxy.

Still doesn't make me want to use them, though I do sometimes amuse myself with thoughts of him in my bagging area.

Madison - the handheld scanners pick up the barcode upside down. Not sideways tho - I think the till scanners have mirrors which pick up the barcode from any angle

I hate them. I do believe it takes jobs. The local small tesco often only has 2 people on the shop floor. In the days of yore it would have had to be more. Frequently there is no one behind the till because they are too busy stacking shelves. I insist on being served to preserve jobs.

Janecc

I totally agree. Purely a cost cutting exercise.

When they first came in, I assumed the scanner covered the whole area and sailed through the till with bags of cat litter that I pointed at the machine then just put back on the floor. I'd seen people doing this with trays of beer, etc and I saw them pay, so I thought fine.

It took about 2 years to realise that cat litter never featured on the bill. Now I take it to a human (heavy to lift) and I still don't understand why, in theory, surely you could glide through with a telly if you pay for the other stuff. And yes, the supermarkets are missing a trick - it was left to me to notice and sort out.

A new Asda was built near me recently and apart from the kiosk, they are ALL self scanning! I hated it at first but got used to it now. However in a supermarket with real pp in, I'll always go to them even if it takes longer, force of habit I guess!

Supermarkets are not stupid - they know when you've come in, spent time, and are not paying the usual amount. If I go into tesco and come out with approx 2/3rd my usual self-scanned shop in my usual hour, I will be 'randomly' checked.

What sort of potential employees are most affected by the loss of these jobs? Mums who are trying to fit a few hours work in around the kids schedule I would guess.

Self-service tills are an abomination. I know a few people who havent bought a joint of meat in years, bought loads of spuds though.......

The self scanners you take round tesco are amazing. I can pack as I go. Scanning keeps my 6 year old happy and checkout is super easy. I've not had a check for ages but when I do staff have always been great.

A tip for the self scanners. The lights under the monitor change to red and green. Red means it is weighing and green means it isn't. If you wait until you pack something and it turns green you can then remove bags without it shouting as it checks the weight as soon as it registers a scan then again in short intervals for a few seconds trying to identify the new item. This has always worked for me.

I work in a supermarket and both self serve and customers who use them drive me equally crazy! So many people don't do or follow what the self serve says and then complain when it starts shouting at them.
The scales are so sensitive, if you say you've got 5 bananas and put them in the packing area the system has bananas down as a rough weight which as bananas vary in sizes can be so out that the machine goes crazy and assumes you're trying to sneak something else in. I have a love hate relationship with them.

ptumbi - they don't seem to use hand held scanners in my local Aldi, but my point is that there's no chance of missing a barcode on the built in scanner. For instance, I've just checked a box of Aldi cereal. There are four barcodes, although one starts on the back and stretches right around onto one of the sides, so five out of the six sides have a code on them.

I must say I'm very jealous of those of you mentioning the self scanners that you use around Tesco, my local one doesn't have these!

Supermarkets self scan all well and good, but what about the hell that is wh smiths self scan?

Yes! I can use Sainsbury's, tesco, Morrison, Asda etc just fine, but every bloody attempt at WH Smiths ends with me having to call for help because my boarding pass/paper//water doesn't suit them.

That said, I only use self-checkout now. I genuinely prefer it. And I think stores are losing in shoplifted goods what they save on staff.

Yes to throwing all your loose change in, then paying the balance by card. Also I'm always stressed that my debit card will have insufficient funds, so it takes away the risk of a cashier's sympathetic "oh, your card has declined" and I can just whip out a few credit cards instead!