To wonder why people hate the self check outs at supermarkets

[Mumto123monkeys]

It’s driving me a bit mad....people moaning.
I don’t get what’s wrong with them, I’ve heard ‘why would I use them, I don’t work hear’. But surely it shortens the que...

Also ‘I like to speak to people, not a machine’ ok....it’s not difficult to strike up a convo in most places...
and loads of others! Personally, I can’t see the issue! I use both, I prefer self serve-scan as you shop too, if it’s available! It’s much quicker, and the kids love it so helps keep them happy!
I know they can be glitchy, but some shops have got them really good!

@yabbers I had the same in Waitrose, the guy doing it said ‘never caught anyone yet lol’

I don't use them because I am the person that always get randomly selected for the security check.

Every
Fucking
Time

Whilst the M&S ones have annoying voices, they are pretty efficient and most M&S stores have adequate staff to help. Sainsbury's is a nightmare as they always seem to have more tills not working than working and one person manning whether there are 5 tills or 25.

However, it isn't always about staff numbers - I was in an almost empty Sainsbury's the other day and a purchase wouldn't go through. As I only had a few bits I went to the empty till next to it, rang everything through and started packing - then the lady supervising the tills came over and started to harangue me about how I needed to wait for her to come over and reset the till, not move to the next one. DIdn't like it when I said I'd not wanted to interrupt her chat with her friend on the tobacco till and din't want to wait for her to finish it before I left the shop......

Not at my local one - it's a T-o extra. You need to go to customer service, where you have the points added by a human.

I'm annoying then, as I hate the things & refuse point blank to use them. They steal jobs, predominantly from women needing part time work to fit around kids & they are rubbish & go wrong all the time. I've only used them twice when forced by DD who was in a hurry. Machine packed up so ended up taking twice as long both times 😂

I won’t use them because every machine represents a wage that used to circulate around the economy buying all those services we’re supposed to be so good at providing.

In a debt-driven economy built on consumer debt these machines are bad news for all of us.

Also, if I am shopping, I don’t expect to do my own processing and packing. That is the retailer’s job. ‘Self-service’ is just a bit rubbish really, although it’s ‘sold’ as an ‘efficiency’ to benefit the consumer. Haven’t noticed any gains reflected in the pricing.

Some stores, eg marks and Spencer at lunchtime, are so deafening, the nerves of the few remaining staff must be permanently jarred.

HATE THEM WITH A PASSION!

And not a generation divide I'm only 25 but here's why...

1. All my local shops seem to have only cash or only card never both so I queue for ages to find that it inevitably doesn't take whichever one I'm trying to pay with and have to figure out which one will🤨

1. Never weighs own bag when put on the scale... always needs someone to confirm it 😒

1. UNIDENTIFIED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA!! Yes I know... it's my bag which I just weighed and confirmed!!! 😤

1. Can't buy lighters, alcohol, scratch cards or anything on there. Wait for confirmation from staff again. 😖

1. I want to check a price before I buy... not possible... staff needed again... 😠

1. Never any plastic bags on the actual bag standing bit. Have to wait for staff to bring one and scan it for you... 🙄 god forbid you need a second bag.

1. When buying a full basket or more there is never enough space on that tiny weighing thing for all the items but you can't take some off and put them on the floor you have to pile them up like the leaning tower of stuff and balance them with your hip! 😡

1. Shopping scanned and time to pay but you can't pay with vouchers or gift cards or loyalty points or anything. Your standing feeling rushed while everyone tuts at you trying to juggle your leaning tower and purse and money and sanity. Takes forever to process. Literally counts your money in pennies and takes forever to confirm so can't run off before it's done and risk looking like a thief. 😡😡

1. Also!! Why is there always one member of staff manning about twenty Machienes??? There's always at least five flashing for attention at once.

There's probably more but honestly they are starting to give me anxiety whenever I walk into a shop. I'd much rather an actual person who can answer my questions and take my money and help me when I'm trying to juggle everything at once.

Sorry guys... rant over 🥴

I know a number of people who want to be served by a person.

I don't mind them, generally, and I find it faster than going through a till.

Waitrose's ones do annoy me as it suddenly blarts "Please scan an item or press Finish & Pay" while I'm actually scanning things. M&S went through a phase of celebrity voices being 'zany' and, quite frankly, it escapes me how the till staff don't go doolally tap at hearing "HAVE YOU SCANNED YOUR SPARKS CARD" all day at a volume which seems to be aimed at those who've suffered significant hearing loss.

But the worst by far is Lidl. In my local one, the self service tills are often the ONLY tills open so you're stuck in a queue of 10 people with full trollies, when all you wanted was a lettuce and a loaf of bread. And they don't get weights right, so the machine constantly has to be over-ridden by staff, AND the machines are glacially slow - if you scan things too fast (because you want to be able to leave the store in the same lunar cycle as you arrived) it doesn't recognise them. Aaargh!

MitxiK the future is automated - most boring and repetitive jobs will disappear in ten years. This i s a good thing as we will find more interesting things to do. In the last industrial revolution, jobs were lost to mechanisation - and that's how children ended up in the school - they were the ones who lost the jobs and then we needed to find somewhere to put them! At the same time, 24 hour shifts came in and lot of new jobs were created. The same will happen now. I feel sad that some women's aspiration is so low that a checkout counter feels aspirational. We can do better than that.

At our tesco they have staff standing right by the self scan anyway waiting to help, they would be better on a till!

I don’t like using them as i see no real benefit for me

The queuing time is roughly the same, often it glitches and I need to get age verified anyway.

It is completely impractical for a big shop. I really don’t want to scan 50 odd items.

What next? Stacking the shelves?

I don’t think expecting some level of service is really asking that much.

I won’t use them because every machine represents a wage that used to circulate around the economy buying all those services we’re supposed to be so good at providing.

Behind every machine, there's a team of people, from designers, manufacturers, support engineers, software engineers, maintenance etc to design, build and maintain them. None of those would have jobs otherwise!

@Qwertyguerty I totally agree with you. That's one of the reasons I don't like them. The small social interactions are so important when some old people go days without talking to someone. Bookies, clubs and pubs closing have all eroded places for single pensioners to go. Very sad.

"Unexpected item in bagging area"

"Please wait someone is coming to help you"

Ffs!

I prefer them because I'm very shy and not good in social situations. I did use one today and couldn't find the word "cucumber". The assistant came over and asked if everything was OK and patronisingly said "it's under C". I said yes, I've looked there. She tutted, went to "fruit" and said its under C in here. It wasn't. She went to veg and said impatiently "it's right there". If she'd given me time, I would have found it. I didn't ask for help, I wasn't getting stressed, I wasn't looking for help. I was, however, looking alphabetically for it and not expecting it to be on its own, right at the very beginning, before carrots. Everything else was alphabetical.

I love self-service, but the one I really love is the little scanner you take round with you, as it cuts my shopping time down by about half, I reckon. Why would I want to waste time waiting for other people to check out, then loading my stuff onto the belt, then bagging it, when I can shop, scan and bag it myself as I go around?

Well I bloody love them! Swipe, swipe, swipe - done.

I use them but it depends on who many items I have. There is always a problem though and I always have to wait for assistance.

I found out this week that Asda don't trust you if you buy anything reduced. It won't scan and you have to get the assistant to approve it.

Only Asda seem to have this issue - Sainsbury's Tesco and Waitrose all let you scan yellow labels fine.

Behind every machine is a team of people? Maybe, but not in the UK. Nine out of ten of the machines supplied to uk supermarkets come from American giant NCR - and not much evidence of R&D/manufacturing going on in the uk?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCR_Corporation

The point about relatively low paid jobs like those of a checkout operator is that more of the wage circulates in the economy as opposed to being saved and that’s good for all of us. It would be nice if all these (mostly female part-time) workers who are losing their jobs in real-time could be transformed into teams of engineers etc (!?!) but that’s not going to happen to these workers, so the least we can do is keep them in role for the time being by staying away from these machines.

Wow, I hardly ever have problems with self scan. Maybe i’m just lucky? For a big shop, I infinitely prefer scan as you shop. You pack everything carefully as you go and do much quicker overall. Who loves queuing at a checkout and having to put everything onto a conveyor belt, and having to pack under a time pressure? Scan as you shop all the way for me!

Well I use them to avoid queuing but it is remarkable how often something goes wrong (as many PPs have said 'unexpected item in bagging area').

If you have just 3 or 4 items, no alcohol, no pills, and nothing too light in weight, they are good. For a proper shop, just no.

Overall, I like them.

I totally understand why some people might want to be served by a person, and that’s fine. If shops have both, I see it as i’m Getting out of the way reducing the queues for people who want to be served by a person. At my local village Tesco there’s always a queue for the desk and the self scan just standing open... I’m happy to nip over there and pay others prefer to wait... best of both worlds surely? The self scan hasn’t removed any tills either, just been put in a space where trollies used to stand idly before... they’ve actually just added two more tills... that’s got to be better surely? I always pay on my Apple Watch anyway. All dead quick and easy.

The snobbery here’s breathtakingly. We should be pleased these “menial” jobs are disappearing so women can aspire to something “better”. There are a lot of people who want part time, flexible employment, they don’t want careers, just a way of bringing some money in. That’s why B&Q’s policy of employing pensioners was so successful. Many people want an undemanding job, what happens to them if all those jobs disappear?