AIBU to think that self service tills are horrible

[uglyflowers]

In my area there used to be lots of individual shops and a sense of community. Then they built a massive Tesco which put all the little shops out of business. But local jobs were promised instead. Then those staff members’ hours were cut so many were part time and had their living boosted by benefits. And now they are being replaced by machines. Near me they are trialling two completely self service supermarkets. So eventually all the poor bloody ‘key workers’ who risked their health during Covid and who pay income tax etc will be replaced with machines.
And what about shops as community hubs? Can’t be the local library for that since they closed ours down. So those people who are a bit lonely won’t even get their two minutes of chat.
Additionally I don’t WANT to scan my big shops. I like someone doing it. They get paid to do it. I don’t.
I think everyone should boycott them. They won’t use them if we refuse to.

@uglyflowers

Even if you enjoy a self service till, I feel that we will all pay for it in a different way - more unemployed people (often women) and fewer people paying tax and income tax. Plus a negative impact on a sense of community. Surely a few moments’ convenience isn’t worth that?

I'm autistic so non/minimal contact checkouts suit my needs.

Much prefer self service over manned tills. When it comes down to it people will always choose low prices and convenience over customer service/experience

Love them. A supermarket is not a place for sense of community. There are plenty of individual, independent retailers who are, but not when I'm buying my bread and milk.

Never have a problem with using them either, it's not complicated and they've been around over a decade now.

I much prefer them. I am very socially anxious and find it much easier not having to interact with anybody.

Love them. I work in retail and speaking from experience they haven’t cost anyone their jobs in our company since they were installed. They have however freed up staff who would previously have had to fill the shop and man the checkouts on top so that they can spend more time just filling the shop.

It’s not a case of employing more people if we didn’t have self service machines, they are too tight for that. The current start would just have their workloads increased instead.

I appreciate it will be a different experience elsewhere though.

Are there no independent shops at all in your area, OP?

Also the jobs in retail that are dissappearing are all in shops that refused to embrace technology/the Internet and have gone bust.
There are still so many jobs/vacancies in supermarkets, but you just won't be sitting behind a till scanning shopping and making small talk for 8 hours a day

The sainsburys voice sounds so pissed off when she says 'would you like a receipt'. The things I utter from beneath my mask

@TheFoundations

Are there no independent shops at all in your area, OP?

No. They all closed down when a Tesco Extra and an Aldi arrived. The only things left are a charity shop, a vape shop, a tattoo parlour and a betting shop plus about ten takeaways.

Self scans will be used l, and become increasingly common, regardless of whether people “boycott” them. The current retail business model will not suddenly revert back to 1995. By refusing to use them, you just make the job more difficult for the real people involved at shop floor level.

Machines taking jobs from humans, whatever next.

I mean it's ok for the dishwasher, the washing machine, the tumble dryer, the calculator, the tractor, the combine harvester, the automated looms, the hoover, the myriad of factory machinery too numerous to count, the bin lorry, the sewing machine, the computer and so forth...

But automated checkouts?? Alert the church elders! Truly we are seeing the fall of society. I say bring back laundrymaids and the mangle, and have clerks write everything out in ledgers again, that'll create a tonne of jobs.

Love scanning and putting things into my bag straight away as I shop. M&S is the best as you don't even need to go to a till any more, just pay on your phone and walk out. Sainsburys and Waitrose also good in Covid times as you can use your phone to scan.
Things always seem to go wrong for me in Tesco and Asda, end up taking up more staff time on the self checkout than it would on a standard one!

Ugh. I actually tried using the self checkout at our local Morrisons recently. I don’t usually use them but they only had two tills open otherwise and the queues were forever, I only had a few items.

Very long story short, I had some kind of error, every other self service till seemed to have some kind of error as well because the one woman trying to handle all of the problems was very busy and unable to get to me for several minutes. Then the same problem happened again. Etc. She said it was some kind of computer problem they were having.

I’m definitely not blaming her (in case anyone takes it that way), I have a lot of empathy for people in customer service roles. But, I’d much rather just queue for a staffed till so if/when multiple problems do arise, someone is able to handle them straightaway rather than the protracted waits at self service.

I was never very keen on the whole supermarket experience, and self checkout was the nail in the coffin. Since the start of the pandemic I’ve had almost everything delivered and have no plans to return to shopping in them in person. I spend less on impulse stuff if I don’t go in.

I love the self scan at Sainsbury’s. Can pack as I go, never stuck behind attention-starved pensioners in a queue, or people who take ages to pack and pay.

I scan and shop wherever possible; scan and shop if not; begrudgingly use the manned checkout if no self scan option available. So much faster as avoid the queues and all the faff of getting everything on the conveyor belt and packed again. Quicker to pay. No 101 irritating and irrelevant questions. Usually through and out the other side of the scan and shop in a couple of minutes.

Second option should be self-scan, not scan and shop again 🙄

I only go to shops with self service tills. I can't deal with small talk, or people in general.

Last time I went into our local Wilco the upstairs tills were all self service, except they hadn’t altered the till point in anyway to make it easier to get your stuff out of the basket and scan it, no where to put your own bags to pack scanned stuff easily. It was also really badly signed so it wasn’t clear what to do .there was a member of staff to help a row of four tills, but she was more concerned with giving me a card so I could namecheck her on their website!

By refusing to use them, you just make the job more difficult for the real people involved at shop floor level.

And by using them, you may be making the job of buying items more difficult for yourself (if you like self-check out, fine). The shop is there for you as the customer, not the reverse. Selling you the item is not some difficult beyond-their-scope task for someone working in a shop.

I always wonder what people who feel this way do to pay for their shopping. Are you really going into a bank to withdraw cash once a week? Must be great to have a job that allows you to pop out to the bank during their limited opening hours.

As presumably you can’t use an ATM or EFTPOS as they’ve replaced human jobs in banks for years.

I love them. But thinking back, all of the older women who used to man the tills have gone. Anyone over 50, say. It's a bit chilling to realise that.

I'm not a fan.
There's always a bellowing of "There's an unexplained item in the bagging area" that item is usually me 😲
You can't pack and scan, it's then 'an unidentified item' and it's in the bagging area, because there's nowhere else to put the bloody thing.

You always get some smug git scanning his organic museli through thinking his the dogs privates to make it all worse.

The scan things never works and I having to wave the items several times for it to be recognised. I’d rather wait to be served. I absolutely hate self checkouts. And then when something goes wrong you have to wait for an assistant to come over.
However, I went to Uniqlo the other day. You put the clothes in the basket provided and by some sorcery it’s calculates the total bill! I was so shocked.

I don't mind for a few things but what I really hate is that the local supermarket I go to are really slack about them - if there aren't that many people (quiet period) they just have self service on and no manned checkouts, which is frustrating if its then end of the day and I really don't want to scan/pack my own groceries! I've rang the manager (I know I know) who said they're meant to have at least one checkout and express open . .. which they never do. Quite slack actually. Unfortunately its the only supermarket close to me otherwise I'd be going elsewhwere.