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.

I hate them and will refuse to use them if possible
It's just another marketing ploy to increase their profits which is fine for them but bad news for the community
I like the personal touch

The Waitrose self service tills are very relaxed.

The reasons for your objections are wrong. Machines replacing people does not raise unemployment in the long-term. (It may cause some short-term unemployment because people need to change jobs.) They do cause an increase in total wealth, some of which could be redistributed.

Jobs don't exist so people can have salaries. Salaries exists so the jobs that need to be done get done. Paying people to do things that could be done by machines mean money is wasted. The salaries could have been spent on getting people to do more of the things that can't be done by machines.

Apparently they don't actually make people lose their jobs; they just do different things instead.

I like that it's easy to get a bag without paying for one with them. Fucked if I'm finding, selecting, scanning, packing and paying for shopping and paying for bags as well.

They are a bit miserable though. Whenever one thinks of a fully automated future one imagines that it would look like Tokyo, all seamless and gleaming with the only noise being a series of reassuring beeps. But the self service area always looks desolate, grubby and a bit shit and cluttered, with an accumulation of detritus that it isn't quite anyone's job to give a shit about, with an air of mild confusion.

I disagree. I love self-service tills, other than the occasional hold up when you have alcohol to be scanned they are so much easier and quicker than using a traditional checkout. I love the fact I don't have to make bullshit small talk with someone, I love the fact I don't have someone carelessly throwing my shopping around. I often use the self-service option even if the queue is longer than at the manned checkouts.

The only negative is the aforementioned waiting for a member of staff if you are buying alcohol, or occasional weight issues. The weight problem can be solved by not placing the items directly into your bag. The alcohol issue depends on how efficient the staff are. Generally I find if the staff are efficient at normal tills they are also efficient at the self-service ones, and vice-versa. So either way, it's a slightly better experience using the DIY option.

I think the argument that it costs jobs is largely irrelevant. Low-skilled jobs are always the first to be automated, Luddites can complain but you can't stop progress. Automation is likely to make many jobs obsolete in the next few decades. The solution is not to try to fight progress and efficiency but to tax companies where automation is introduced so as to be able to afford to pay a universal basic income.

Ultimately the ideal situation would be nobody having to work if they don't want to, with a decent UBI of say £25k per annum at current levels. People who are focused on making money can work in areas that are harder to automate, people who currently work to survive can instead spend their time improving their lives, their health, their minds.

Don't fight progress, don't fear change.

I love them as well as the scan and shop which if you’re going to Tesco’s, you have to use them anyway to pay.

I prefer to scan and bag my own groceries because I am usually quicker. I want to get in and out and dislike having to rearrange everything during bagging because the person scanning has decided to pick over what I’ve arranged on the belt how I needed it. They do this almost every time no matter how many times I make it easy to scan the way I’ve done it. I worked at a grocery store, know how to bag groceries so easier for me to just sort it myself.

I always use the machine at the station to buy a ticket, and the 24 hour garage you can only pay at the pump between around 11pm and 7am which is great. Saves so much time.
In face Pay at the Pump should be at every petrol station, all the time.

There was a time when:-

Self service didn't even exist in shops - everything was behind the counter and you asked the shop owner/assistant for it.

There were attendants at petrol stations who filled up your car for you, there was no self service.

If you wanted money out of the bank, you queued and were given at at the bank counter by a person - no cash machines.

Life moves on.

Think of all the millions of jobs worldwide of people designing, building, installing, servicing and supporting all the different "self service" machines we use today.

It's all very worthy to think that by going to a real life cashier you are somehow saving jobs but that's just not the case.
Embrace the change and make things quicker for yourself. I think if people tried Scan as You Shop they would never go back.

I agree @Kazzyhoward, things move on.

@PamTheSpam

I hate them and will refuse to use them if possible It's just another marketing ploy to increase their profits which is fine for them but bad news for the community I like the personal touch

Not true.

Profit per employee or per customer or per square footage of a supermarket isn't that much different to a small independent shop, in fact some smaller shops are more profitable on those metrics.

People get their knickers in a twist when they see Tesco have made £10 million profit (or whatever), but fail to "do the math" to break that down as to "per store", "per employee", "per customer", etc etc.

The only valid comparison would be to add up hundreds of random small independent stores, to accumulate to the same size of Tesco group, and then compare.

They are a bit miserable though. Whenever one thinks of a fully automated future one imagines that it would look like Tokyo, all seamless and gleaming with the only noise being a series of reassuring beeps. But the self service area always looks desolate, grubby and a bit shit and cluttered, with an accumulation of detritus that it isn't quite anyone's job to give a shit about, with an air of mild confusion.

That's a UK thing though (I say this as a fully paid up member of the half-English half-Welsh race), not a self-service thing.

We too could have sleek and aesthetically pleasing if we bothered enough and didn't vandalise everything at the drop of a hat.

@Kazzyhoward , I honestly don't care what profit they make that's their business but I absolutely hate self service tills

@Sparklingbrook

I always use the machine at the station to buy a ticket, and the 24 hour garage you can only pay at the pump between around 11pm and 7am which is great. Saves so much time. In face Pay at the Pump should be at every petrol station, all the time.

It should be because it makes it impossible to fill up and drive away without paying. The pump won’t dispense without a card.

@CounsellorTroi, another added advantage, no nicking petrol.

Love them. The ones in Decathlon are fab, you lot drop the item in a box and it scans. I wish Aldi did scan & shop

I don't like them. I'll use them for one or two items but not for big shops. Then there's "are you using your own bags?" "Yes" "unexpected item in the bagging area". It's my bloody bag!!!

Like everything else, "tech", it's just a matter of practice and confidence.

I'm now very much a "late adopter" of all modern tech. When I was young I embraced it all, I bought one of the first computers, a ZX80 back in 1980. I had a mobile phone in the early 90's. But, as I've got older, I'm more reticent. I now let others be the "early adopters" as they're better placed to be the guinea pigs whilst new "tech" becomes established and the kinks/errors ironed out. I've only just got into music downloads, bluetooth, etc.

But at the end of the day, the more you do something, the more competent you become at doing it. Learning how to do something inevitably means making mistakes, spending more time learning, etc. So the key is to try to learn new things when you have the time, aren't stressed, etc. Not a good idea to try a self service till the first time when you have loads of shopping, the shop's busy and you've only got 5 minutes left of your lunch hour. Far better to "trial" it when you only have a couple of items, the shop's quiet and you've got time.

Trouble is that some people won't engage with new tech until they have to. Rather than trialling it at a convenient time, they just deny it's existence, therefore they don't learn how to use it, and are then caught out when they find that there are no alternatives or that they have to use it at the worst possible time (i.e. busy shop, full trolley, no time, etc).

Tech is here to stay. If you don't want to embrace it, that's fine, but you'll be the one to suffer in the long run. Makes sense not to go rushing into anything new (early adopters usually struggle), but to dip your toe in the water when things become more the "norm", learn how to use it, and then you're ready for when there's no choice.

Additionally I don’t WANT to scan my big shops. I like someone doing it. They get paid to do it. I don’t. - fucking hell. what else do you do that you think you should be pay to do, OP?

I love self-scan with the hand-held scanners, I can pack my own bags as I like, see how much I've totted up as I go, pay at the till with no human interaction at all (except when they need to take a tag off my alcohol!) and leave.

Why anyone would want to put stuff in trolley, take stuff out of trolley at till, put stuff back in bags in trolley and pay and leave - is beyond me.

No, no one is paying me to do my own shopping. What a stupid statement.

And yes, I prefer self-serve and pay-at-pump at the Petrol station too. And I'm old enough to remember when there was a man at each pump to serve you your petrol! All those jobs gone....

@lorca

Additionally I don’t WANT to scan my big shops. I like someone doing it. They get paid to do it. I don’t. - fucking hell. what else do you do that you think you should be pay to do, OP?

I love self-scan with the hand-held scanners, I can pack my own bags as I like, see how much I've totted up as I go, pay at the till with no human interaction at all (except when they need to take a tag off my alcohol!) and leave.

Why anyone would want to put stuff in trolley, take stuff out of trolley at till, put stuff back in bags in trolley and pay and leave - is beyond me.

No, no one is paying me to do my own shopping. What a stupid statement.

And yes, I prefer self-serve and pay-at-pump at the Petrol station too. And I'm old enough to remember when there was a man at each pump to serve you your petrol! All those jobs gone....

I only go to pay at pumps now. I wish they were all like that!

I have social anxiety so I’ve always preferred them personally. I know it’s not very nice of me but I can’t stand small talk, I find it completely tiresome so I’m pleased the self service machines don’t ask me how I am .

There are four modern local Co-Ops in the small towns and villages near where I live/work. They've all got self service tills plus a single "counter" for those who don't want to use them or who want cigarettes, lottery tickets, etc.

I absolutely love shopping in them. I'm usually only shopping for a few bits and pieces and I can be in and out within a minute or two. Far, far better than the alternative shops around here (typical Spars etc) which don't have self service, and you end up queueing for ages as they usually only have 1 or 2 people at the tills.

You get used to the self service tills. They're not rocket science. I imagine there were the same howls of anguish when banks introduced cash machines and closed branches, or when the old fashioned petrol stations turned into self service.

Yes, they occasionally need manual intervention, but other than for removing tags/approving alcohol, etc., it's usually due to the shopper not understanding how to do it properly. That comes with practice. Like any machine.

@Cottonheadedninymuggins

I did a 53 pound shop in poundland yesterday for mostly cleaning stuff to restock up on so large heavy bottles as well as v light cloths etc. Of course the only tills were self scan.

It. Took. Forever. I ran out of room on the scales bit so it kept shouting the assistant. I couldn't put my stuff in proper bags until the end as it had to keep piling up on top of the old stuff. The cloths were so light it kept calling the assistant because it thought I hadn't put them in the bag because they were on top of the stuff. At one point the assistant 'told me off' because she thought I was scanning and then hesitating about putting the item down on the scales. I wasn't! It just wasn't registering!

Never again.

As an aside however I do like the scan and shop. I like it even more when I can use the app on my phone and get round, bag my stuff and get out without (usually) queuing.

The Christmas that they were first introduced (2019) I went in on Christmas eve, got a few last minute bits and got out the shop and got home in 45 mins when the queues at tills were right down the back of the store.

Yes yes to Poundland being a pain. Whoever designed their self serve tills deserves a hot rod up their arse.

Wilkos is the easiest to use. Our local Co-op and Tesco tills are ok nowadays, but used to be tempermental.

I am getting better with self serve, but still struggle with the Post Office ones.

I hate self service tills. Totally agree OP. I dont want to scan £150 of my own shopping thanks! I like saying hello to the cashier and keeping them in a job. Also the machines always have a problem and don't work for me.

If you have a £150 shop then self scan with the app/scanner as you go round the shop is best wherever possible.. Pack your shopping as you go, and don't take it out of the bags again until you get home. Bliss.