M&S tills - celeb culture has gone too far

[Unfinishedkitchen]

I vaguely heard about talking tills but never experienced it until today when I was shouted at by some woman who I later read was Amanda Holden.

If you are an M&S marketing person or exec who signed this off you need firing.

I actively avoid watching ITV or celeb anything. Not everyone fawns over celebrities and I’d be surprised M&S customers are the right demographic anyway.

I almost jumped and dropped my first item when she started yelling this morning.

Rant over.

We had this at our local M&S. Soooo irritating!

I can’t imagine what it’s like for the poor staff who have to work anywhere near to self service checkouts.

Yes I agree can't stand them I've heard her and Ant and Dec my god I was talking to it saying shut up!

Agreed it’s so annoying! The Poundland ones go through me too and they seem to change them every few months

If you are an M&S marketing person or exec who signed this off you need firing
All of the decision-makers at M&S want firing - they haven't got a clue about their own customer base or brand

We got Alesha at the weekend. I just didn’t ‘get it’ or what they’re trying to achieve!

Use the mute button on the tills if you don't want to hear.

To be fair, if you don't watch or listen to the celebs, you won't recognise them anyway - so its just another random voice surely?

balloonyellow I hear those bloody Poundland tills in my nightmares. Especially the ones with the squeaky kids' voices.

I just didn’t ‘get it’ or what they’re trying to achieve!

Isn't it just because they are the sponsors of BGT or some such show?
So the stores are using the voices of the celebs from the show for the duration of the programme - from what I have gathered, not actually been in an M&S for a bit.

What? You get a 'celeb' voice coming from the tills?

That sounds intensely irritating. Worse than 'have you scanned your utterly pointlessSparks card?'

I nearly ran out without paying when I heard Amanda...awful!

Strikeout fail.

Oh is that who it was? Made me jump!

What a bloody stupid idea - how old do they think we are?

Begone, heathens - we must all worship at the altar of celebrity.

Yanbu. I don't need the till to tell me it's Amanda. I buy tights in Marks. I am by definition totally unstylish and uninterested in celebrities.

I thought we had Tenesha at our local M&S and had no idea it was a celeb. Maybe it was Alesha ! Whatever it was, it was wasted on me. I could only think how loud it was and thought it was vaguely sexist to use female voices :) - not knowing about Ant and Dec etc

Are they talking through the self service tills?

Who would actually be a good MnS till voice?

John Humphrys?

Brian Blessed?

Princess Anne?

Worse than 'have you scanned your utterly pointlessSparks card?'

Oh no - they ask you if you've scanned your fucking Sparks Card too.

Brian Blessed would be hilarious Johnny. “I SAY, HAVE YOU PUT SOMETHING UNEXPECTED IN THE BAGGING AREA? HAVE YOU??”

I was wondering why the bloody hell M&S had decided to give the self service tills names today while buying lunch! Never realised it was meant to be someone 'famous'

I got Alesha. Who is she?

I don't think I'm very tolerant of these things. The Tesco ones always say "all of your points add up" and I find myself muttering about what the alternative to adding up might be.

@Aragog I’m not sure if they’re sponsors or not as I don’t watch them.

It’s irritating as it’s “Hi, I’m XX” and then they talk about something. I’d rather just the bog standard voice to be honest.

To PP who said you could mute them, I never knew this! I’ll definitely do it next time.

Do they have volume controls on the M&S self service tills? I switch the volume off in tesco! Amanda et al would put me off buying anything.

Yes! Brian Blessed and princess Anne would be funny.

I said, "Shut up!" quite loudly and hit the mute button when Ant or Dec started yelling from my M&S till on Saturday. The till attendant lady looked very sympathetic - imagine having to listen to it all day long!