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 love them! So much quicker and no small talk. And when my kids are with me they do it because they find it fun 😁

@Stroopwaffle5000

I love them! So much quicker and no small talk. And when my kids are with me they do it because they find it fun 😁

I hope you check for any queue behind you before letting the DC do it.

Scan as you shop has made supermarket shopping tolerable for me.

@Mammyloveswine

Agree op I hate a self service till! Stress me out so much!

I agree, even more so now Sainsbury’s have added cameras on the tills. Just horrible.

There were cameras on the Boots ones as well. I tried not to look to closely.

I like them, but I would hate to be the member of staff assigned to help.

I'm not a big fan of self service tills and just wanted to share this, which pretty much sums up my feelings!

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2015/nov/21/stephen-collins-on-anxiety-cartoon

Yabu. I’ve literally never chatted to a checkout worker or considered a shop a community hub. I’m there to buy my items and get out again as quickly as possible. Plus it’s rather depressing for people to work a job that they know can be done by a machine.

I would choose to avoid the human checkout at all costs. Self checkouts are the best thing to come to the shopping experience!

@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 don’t see a supermarket as a sense of community, it’s somewhere food comes from. I don’t know anyone in our local ones.

I don’t think it takes away from paying tax as how many are only working part time so not paying tax or much of it. I’ve seen posts where people won’t do overtime or increase hours as they can have the extra in benefits instead so I can see why alternatives could be needed by employers.

They are fast and convenient and no one else has to handle your shopping and there’s no rush to pack.

I agree, even more so now Sainsbury’s have added cameras on the tills. Just horrible.

There are cameras all over the shop anyway though. What difference does one more make?

@unsureofneighbour

I agree, even more so now Sainsbury’s have added cameras on the tills. Just horrible.

There are cameras all over the shop anyway though. What difference does one more make?

The Boots ones you can see yourself in it looking back at you, like a selfie. very distracting!

I use them for the odd small purchase but I generally try to avoid them. I'm completely cursed and they go wrong practically every time I use them. I've become a standing joke in my family due to my ability to break the self checkout.

It varies depending on the shop and its system.

Pay at the pump: much quicker to cut out the shop part and the number of pumps is the same. Genuinely quicker and easier.

Decathlon's normally work well although I did have a stroppy one a while ago when the system was glitching.

Co-op normally have a choice with the kiosk, often a proper checkout and self-checkout. If humans are the quicker option I'll go to them first, but as I often have a handful of items and don't need to take what's often a longer queue, I tend to use self-chevkout more.

Morrisons is bloody awful. For the past year, I've been going late at night when it's quiet and they only have self checkouts going. They glitch over everything and only have one staff member to try and sort them all out. For a trolley, it's just a shit, impractical system. I used to like chatting with the staff and saw the same ones regularly and it is a nice little contribution in society. Much more wholesome than my theraputic rantings at the dumb machines. Yes! I have put all 20g of chewing gum on the belt! No it's not an unexpected item, it's a child! That's entirely predictable!!!

Personally I love them, solely because it's a chance for me to use up the dozens of small coins I tend to accumulate! It's far easier just to chuck all your 1, 2 and 5p coins into the self-service machine than hand them over to the poor cashier to count, with a queue of other impatient customers waiting behind.

I won't use self service tills because they aren't quicker or more convenient. However self scan is a game changer. Scan, pop in the bag and once you've paid at the till you can immediately leave.

However we only really use the supermarket for things we can't easily get from the local shops.

There always were cameras at the self checkout till point anyway. Difference is now they're letting you see what the person monitoring the camera can see so you're theoretically less likely to nick stuff.

So previously when people stole things, they thought they'd got away with it so they kept on doing it. And the person monitoring the camera would build up a collection of footage and then prosecute them, by which point they'd nicked loads of things eg Anthony Worrall-Thomson and it would be a big deal and people would be in loads of trouble. It happened with loads of people who were otherwise honest but foolishly presented with what seemed a low risk opportunity misjudged it. Eg a pp's colleagues who have apparently been stealing flowers. Theory is that if you can see yourself you're aware of the other person who is undoubtedly watching you so you won't end up in that situation.

I use mine in lidl, would happily not, if ques were smaller.
Love Aldi, personal and quick, never rude or unpleasant.
Some of us remember when if you wanted supermarket shopping, you had to go, whether, I’ll or just too tired, at least lots have options, click and collect or delivery.
Progress eh

The Boots ones you can see yourself in it looking back at you, like a selfie. very distracting!

So the problem is just that people can see themselves?

Completely agree. I hate them, have stopped going to the local M&S because they've largely replaced their tills with self-service. I refuse to use them for all the reasons mentioned. While I am something of an introvert who also kind of minds about talking to people, I know that it's good for me (and society) to keep those "small talk" skills in working order!

@unsureofneighbour

The Boots ones you can see yourself in it looking back at you, like a selfie. very distracting!

So the problem is just that people can see themselves?

Well it's not a problem as such. It's just a bit weird. The Boots one was quite a large screen.

I love self service tills. When they talk to me, I talk back to them! It's great fun.

Love self-service tills, so fast.

@Mandalay246 Possibly? a suburb with initals CD? (Not UK).
Service is actually pretty terrible there tbh. They never have enough checkouts open, and I often pop in the night after I have finished my second job so have been working non stop for 12 hours - however as its about 8:30 and a quieter time they just have self service open, never even bothering opening the express. I'm usually pretty tired and don't want to scan my own groceries! Last week I looked pointedly at the 2 girls working there who were talking and they totally ignored me and all the other customers (there weren't that many customers but still.) I really wish the other supermarket that is several km away was closer cos its so much better.

Our Asda has cameras at the SF checkout. Good reason to carry on wearing a mask in my case.