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!

I refuse to use them. They never ever work properly, they take jobs from people and they are just bloody annoying. One person has to watch over how ever many self service tills and is always dashing around trying to help everyone so they end up having to wait anyway.

I find it quicker and easier to use a manned till plus I like to have a little chat with the person and not just have a really annoying voice droning on about unexpected items etc.

If you buy wine in a supermarket they are pointless because someone still has to come over and if they are already tied up with someone you have to just wait.

I have been in a couple of Pound shops and got to the till to find there are only self service tills and just put my basket down and walked out. I look now as I go in to see if they have manned tills or not

We live in a town full of oldies like me. They aren't popular so you can usually go straight to the front. Then the trouble starts and you wonder why you bothered for all the reasons already stated.
I like to be served by a person and I hate that it's taken jobs away in some stores but if they weren't so bloody sensitive/glitchy I might use them more.
Interestingly, neither Aldi nor Lidl use them despite often having long queues, not enough checkouts open and not providing a 10 items or less or basket only checkout. Any thoughts as to why?

They confuse elderly people who find using them at banks and supermarkets incredibly stressful.

I see my fit and healthy DF getting stressed out by having to go to the bank. He invariably has to get someone there to help him because the consequences of getting it wrong causes lots more stress. The queues are longer because there are less banks and he finds it very embarrassing to have someone talking to him loudly like he is deaf and stupid while a queue of impatient people wait behind. In the past employees were always helpful and courteous but now they bark orders at older people. It also defeats the purpose of a bank employee has to help him anyway.

Only Waitrose have a scan as you shop near me. I am unable to put new notes in Lidl's self scan till.As far as Tesco's self scan they often stop as you fill bags, something to do with the weight system. (Maybe this us due to manufacturers charging the same price for less product)

Don't like M&S ones either. However if you are buying products like wine you have to wait for authority. Quicker? Not always.

I have used Waitrose, Sainsburys, Tescos, Morrisons, Lidl, M&S. Tescos are the worst.

Lidl and Aldi are also excellent at very quickly opening more tills when the queues start to build up.

I love them! I do scan as you go for trolley loads and the machines for baskets, I haven't been to an actual checkout in years! I'm definetly in the minority though, most people at my local one still use the normal checkouts.

I've worked on them - they're a massive PITA, glittchy, fail, suck money away, don't give change, customers punching the screens and getting sweary with them, easy to steal small items from (accidentally and on purpose), leaving paid for items behind....

Now staff are expected to work them and are given another task at the same time (shelf stacking, fronting up, etc) so customers have to wait longer.

They're not fit for purpose.

I don't mind them if I've only got a few bits that shouldn't cause the thing to have a meltdown, although at least half the time it does anyway with its unexpected items blah blah blah, but its a pain if you've got anything age restricted or with a security tag and you have to wait around for ages for a member of staff who is already dealing with 5 other angrily beeping machines. I refuse to use the ones in our local co-op as they cause nothing but trouble, never seen anyone use one yet without needing assistance which means one of the staff behind the counter having to stop serving customers to come out and placate the machine.

I like them, and although they were glitchy when they were first around, they're usually pretty good now.

As long as people still have the option of queuing and being served by a person if they want to, I can't see the problem with them.

It takes jobs away from people.
It takes longer.
Bagging area = madness, MADNESS!

The other day I was queuing and instead of opening another till, a man came to the person-service queue to entice folks away to self-service. I politely demurred, but the couple in front who clearly didn't want to couldn't say no. The man who'd enticed them immediately left them to serve themselves and went back to standing around.

That couple were still trying to scan their few items as I walked past them out the door, having been efficiently served by an actual person.

That's why.

I don’t find them quicker
The wait for someone to authorise alcohol
The constant noise pollution of the electronic voice
The too small ‘bagging area’ that means your bag tips over if you pack it top heavy

M&S and Decathlon are better
Lidl are DIRE.

Petrified of not scanning something and being done as a shop lifter

Less staff jobs

Dont want to!

I like them and always use them. Reading this thread has made me wonder if the ones near me are especially good, though, because they seem to very infrequently go wrong. The only time I recently needed an assistant was when DS accidentally double scanned an item, and the woman came over straight away and sorted it. Other than that, I don't seem to have the issues raised by PP with unexpected items etc. - which did happen a few years ago. I just assumed they had improved them.
It makes shipping much quicker imo

Shopping*

They’re not “pretty good” now: Asda, Sainsburys, M&S and Co Op ones are all still a problem IME. The wait for assistance can be long.

Tesco seem OK but only by v few items there.

BTW I am one of the elderly and neither the banks or self service confuse me.

The supermarkets are making huge profits. Making the customer scan their own shopping is cutting down the workforce.
I always go to a real person if possible. Just because I want that person to be there, not because I have a particular preference for the technology or that I am unable to scan myself.
Our local M+S only has self scan in the food hall. I take my shopping to the clothing section to pay for it.

I will always use them but it puts me off sometimes as if I'm ever buying alcohol, painkillers or using a car park voucher I have to wait ages for staff to come over as they are usually nowhere to be seen, chatting or have loads of people waiting for them

unexpected item in the bagging area

NO.THERE.ISN’T. You then have to wait ages for the one assistant, who has to look after several self serve tills at once, to come and sort it for you. Also that means they have removed manned checkouts to put the self serve tills in so they are slowly reducing staffing levels by not replacing people when they leave.

Several reasons (mostly mentioned above). Firstly a friend of mine lost her job years ago when her store brought these in. Kept the staff on for a while but then said that they were overstaffed. The only change having been the machines two months earlier.

However, I do use the machines from time to time if stores are particularly busy. Of these many occasions over the years, the machines have never worked for me, in any store. Whether it's unexpected item in the bagging area, something needing checking or waiting for staff to do something (so effectively queuing for second time) etc. They're simply not efficient enough yet to work properly. Don't even get me started on shop and scan. I like the idea in principle (should help people manage money too), but every single time we have done it, we are always picked for the store spot check. Every time. Each time they've done it, it takes at least 15 mins of waiting for staff and then laboriously going through everything.

Queuing and speaking to a cashier is much much faster in my experience, so it's my preference. However, with the amazon stores and the like on the rise where you don't even need to go and pay, just scan your card when you walk in, I see the next wave of machines rapidly coming along to shake up the way we shop even more.

I’m not sure why people find them so difficult to use!! I think itsoften stubbornness, and an un-willingness to accept change.....

As far as jobs....there are other jobs out there....I easily found work....oh....and I’m a woman....

Runs to ge5 tin hat!!

My nearest town has more self service than tills in one shop and it's a disaster.

People are always complaining as staff are expected to man the self service as well as do all the other jobs so the queues are massive. There is a till but at "slow times" it's self service only. For example before 8am, after 6pm and on Sunday's you have no option.

At the moment half won't accept cards and haven't for weeks, and don't have a full range of coins in so will reject those not in its coin bank, so it won't accept 2p or 10p for example. And it means your change can be a load of 1p.

Not all items are on the self service scan so get rejected as "unknown".

That you've no choice but to use it even if you have a lot of items which takes ages and they aren't equipped for that amount of shopping so have to split your shopping. Whilst everyone behind you is complaining.

I'm losing my eyesight and find the screens hard to read.

Banks are the worst as they insist personal customers use screens which unless you're the right hight you can't even read them even if your sight is good. With my EDS I cannot select anything on the screen (this goes for shops as well as banks) as my fingers aren't stable enough and it's humiliating to have to ask for someone to do it for me which takes much much longer than just seeing me at the counter/desk.

And everything mentioned above..

50% of the time there's a problem, and every shop has a slightly different system. The only ones I know that consistently work well are in Poundland. I've actually abandoned my basket several times in my small local Tesco, machine gets stroppy and no staff around to sort it out.

And the clever dick, because there's always one, who will say "you need to move with the times love, technology is here to stay!!"

“All your Tesco clubcard points add up” Of course they do, what else would they fucking do? Multiply? Subtract? Divide by the number they first thought of? Fuck off! I’d rather by served by a non-repetitive human being and not put them out of a job.