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!

"Unexpected item in bagging area."

It drives me cracked !!!
And just when you hear the above, the store assistant has disappeared, so you are waiting ages for them to fix the malfunctioning machine.
There's a place in hell specially reserved for the inventor and promoters of these vile machines.

Unexpected item in the bagging area. When there isn’t. Only expected items. Then the light starts flashing and the screen freezes. Please wait for assistance. Then you see there is nobody around apart from one person very far away. You try waving a baguette to attract attention but hang on what’s this - they’ve been called to one of 300 other flashing consoles somewhere else

Always something that goes wrong and not enough staff to cover, and the belief that it's taking jobs from people. I also queue to speak to someone at the bank. I am a full time working mum but don't feel so pressed for time I can't wait in a queue for a few minutes.

I love the scan as you shop in Tesco, makes life so much easier, except for the time I never scanned my carrier bag and it was scanned during a random check and I was obviously flagged up as a shoplifter and kept getting checks every time for ages.

I hate self scan, I often shop very late at night and it is the only option. Overnight I had to use one and it kept not recognising items, and there was nobody supervising because of the time.

I've found self scan works well for a couple of items, anything more and it ends up taking longer and normally a lot of frustration.

It just constantly beeps bagging error messages at me. Sometimes on EVERY item. The queue sometimes is actully longer than the main tills. Staff sat on a till are honestly quicker than you standing at self serv.

But machines being developed to do jobs that people used to has happened throughout modern history so I can't get worked up about self service tills as a particular example.

Because using those machines takes people jobs away.

You always have to call the supervisor, the person in front always has to call the supervisor, the person on the next till always has to call the supervisor , ad infinitum … they don't save my time at all, they do increase the step count of the supervisor I suppose.

They confuse the elderly and the vulnerable. They make like more fraught for a parent juggling a baby, a toddler, trying to load, scan, pack and pay, all with minus one pair of hands.

You have to call the supervisor for any restricted item - cigs, alcohol, knives, glue.

They're not quicker, because a) i’m slower at scanning than somebody who works there. I don’t know which side of the packaging the barcode is on, for a start. Or the codes for fresh fruit and veg And b) they always go wrong and need a staff member to unstick them.

Worse than that, though, they put people out of jobs, and it’s not as though the resulting staff cost savings are passed on to the customer. They just go for shareholder profits. Why would I provide free labour for massive corporations?

If I want to work for nothing I’ll do it for a charity not Tesco’s

I’m assuming the people who object to the jobs being lost are also people who commute on horseback rather than in car.

Once wrnt to the suoermsrket at 6am and none of the main tills were open so yhey made me put a £200 shop through self service. The assistant ended having to do it for me so defeated the purpose of not opening a till. She would have been far quicker a proper till.

The world changes, technology changes, jobs need to keep up with that.

Does nobody stream music or movies because it's taken away jobs from CD and DVD sellers? What about the 5+ mobile shops on my local high street employing people? Does nobody think of those poor unemployed landline sales people?

I wasn’t alive when we switched from horses to cars, Paddy, so nothing I could have done about it.

Main reason I don't love them is for broader social implications as boring as that may sound.

A family member has advanced dementia but when she could still be fairly independent a checkout person was a godsend, they'd recognise her and strike up a short conversation and help with packing.

If she had to use a self service checkout she'd avoid it and put things back instead of trying to work it. And that's so sad to know.

Older people in the Uk are increasingly becoming more and more isolated, traditionally people in shops would be the ones you'd talk to and now, not so much anymore.

It could be days that an older person might not be able to talk to someone.

The typical life moaners you speak of are the loudest but it's so important that shops do not completely do away with workers

Music streaming, by and large, is more efficient than previous means of acquiring music. Self-serve checkouts are not.

Also, with other things the person who gets made redundant is out of sight and not so tangible.

Tractors took jobs away from ploughmen (and the plough took jobs away from people too before that), combines took work away from farmhands, cars took jobs away from carriagemen, sewing machines drastically reduced the number of seamstresses required, washing machines did the same for laundresses etc etc.

Technology has been reducing the number of manhours required since the dawn of time. I can't get worked up about it and I can't see anyone rushing to send out their laundry to be done by hand to create employment for (predominantly) women.

They also work perfectly fine for me 9 times out of 10. They're so much quicker.

Confused paddy. What has driving got to do with putting people out of work?

Because people don't know how to use them properly.

The unexpected item in the bagging area is probably caused by you putting your own bag down in the packing area and not telling the machine, therefore it hasn't weighted it.

A few shops near where i work and where i live have self checkout and a regular manned checkout but the person behind the checkout has to deal with the self checkout issues as well, which is ridiculous!!. How is this faster? Or progress? And the checkout person must now have to deal with 2 people simultaneously whilst presumably being paid the same as they were before.

I did a "whoop whoop" to the Asda assistant the other day because I managed to scan my full shop (on the larger/conveyor self checkout) without needing any assistance at all!

The unexpected item in the bagging area is probably caused by you putting your own bag down in the packing area and not telling the machine, therefore it hasn't weighted it.

If only that were actually true. As opposed to it happening with an item you have correctly scanned, and is showing as such on the screen.

I hate them but still use them.

M&S are stupid and loud - especially with the celebrity voices.

Morrisons never work properly and there are never staff around to fix them.

I still find them quicker than normal checkouts though and I'm anti-social as hell so I'd rather faff with a machine than have to talk to an actual person.

I don't like the way it's going with self checkout.
will we have shops totally devoid of personnel at some point?

and: I pay for someone to do the checkout for me. if I got a 20% discount for doing the supermarket's job myself maybe I would consider using self checkout.

I’ve only tried Sainsbury’s self service tills. I get in a muddle and need help several times. Generally I have too much shopping to self check out. If I did have a single item I’d probably attempt it.