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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

You should need a licence to use self checkouts

158 replies

Oysterbabe · 30/10/2022 11:55

Hear me out.

Supermarket very busy this morning. Queued with my basket for the self checkout, as usual. I prefer them and enjoy the lack of social interaction required. 3 of them were out of order so only 2 working. There was a couple using one and I think it was their first day on the planet. They were just staring, puzzled at the screen. Occasionally scanning something. Eventually complete their transaction then realise they need to buy bags. 5 people completed their transactions on the other checkout while they were doing theirs.

Blowing my own trumpet, but I'm a self service ninja. I think you should have a certain competency level, like with driving, before being allowed to use one. You should be given a basket of items, including some loose fruit and veg and bakery items, and a set time to complete the transaction in order to earn a licence.

OP posts:
dottypotter · 30/10/2022 13:06

Mn should take this horrible, ageist post down they would if it was racist.

Haven't you got anything nice to say OP?

AnApparitionQuipped · 30/10/2022 13:08

dottypotter · 30/10/2022 13:06

Mn should take this horrible, ageist post down they would if it was racist.

Haven't you got anything nice to say OP?

I don't agree with the OP but I don't think she is being ageist - she doesn't mention age anywhere in the OP.

CheezePleeze · 30/10/2022 13:10

OrangePumpkinLobelia · 30/10/2022 13:02

wow did the chicken poster literally just admit to deliberately thieving from elderly people? double scan? What an astonishing bit of lack of empathy there. Indeed quite sociopathic to deliberately prey on the vulnerability of others.

what if chicken's victim was on a really strict budget? what if that totally fucked up their budget? regardless that is quite the most amazing bit of nastiness I have ever seen on MN and I have been around for quite some time.

The chicken said they used to work for a supermarket, so they've probably been sacked.

reigatecastle · 30/10/2022 13:11

AuntieMarys · 30/10/2022 12:54

Sainsburys selfscan is great. Why fill your trolley to take it all out at the till, then repack it?

But don't they do their "random" checks where you have to take it all out anyway? i couldn't be bothered with the jeopardy.

I use self-serve tills most of the time, but aim not to buy age restricted items if I can. The issue as a pp said is if something is too light. Waitrose has some self-checkouts that don't have scales though, so you can bag as you go, which is so much quicker.

As for the person who double scanned elderly people's products, you deserve a criminal record for that.

OriginalUsername3 · 30/10/2022 13:11

God I hate them. I think I'm pretty good at them until you get that one whose scales don't work and I find myself just staring at the stupid thing saying "unidentied item in bagging area" no I just shuffled the bag a bit, we don't need help!

I hate that staff try to push you to it. I had a huge trolley of stuff and a grizzley toddler DS in a huge queue and a member of staff came up and said she'd put it through the self checkout for me, wonderful how helpful! She dumped me at the self checkout and buggered off and just left me there. I was a frazzled mess by the time I'd got through it all and so was DS. I was so close to tears I just wanted to leave all the shopping but we needed it.

CheezePleeze · 30/10/2022 13:12

dottypotter · 30/10/2022 13:06

Mn should take this horrible, ageist post down they would if it was racist.

Haven't you got anything nice to say OP?

Are you confusing the OP with an earlier vile poster?

incheon · 30/10/2022 13:12

Sorry but the main issue is that the shop chose to only have 2 out of 5 tills on. It’s very doubtful that all 3 were out of order, more likely the shop chose to restrict how many were being used. If they were out of order, the shop should look to find and fix faults and stop that from happening again. If all tills were open, you wouldn’t have been in the shop long enough to notice slow people

Booksandwine80 · 30/10/2022 13:14

@dudsville

less than a minute for airport check in? 🧐

TulipCat · 30/10/2022 13:17

I think people who can't be tolerant of other shoppers and don't want to interact with other people anyway are probably better off doing online supermarket shopping. They are spending money just like you are, people shop differently, stop being so judgemental.

Bluekerfuffle · 30/10/2022 13:18

I hate the self checkout. Without fail it cannot do at least one thing each time I’ve used one and I’m left standing there with the light flashing to attract an actual person who can sort it out. This takes a while as there are usually at least three other people standing there waiting for the one person to sort out there incompetent checkout machines as well.

Bluekerfuffle · 30/10/2022 13:22

Arenanewbie · 30/10/2022 12:21

We all can use self service checkouts successfully including DD who’s got additional needs but there are so many things which can go wrong with them without your input completely.

  • frozen/ chilled products extremely difficult to scan
  • label not being flat so difficult to scan
  • scales are not working properly
  • seasonal/ on sale products are difficult to find
  • scanned products are not fitting into the shelf so the checkout refuses to recognise them
  • some individual items weight more then average so the checkout refuses to recognise them (very popular problem with cauliflowers and squashes)
  • your handbag leans for a second and checkout is baffled
  • And don’t even start me on vouchers and discounted products with yellow labels which don’t cover the original label completely.
Our local shop has 3 checkouts, one of them is frozen every other minutes. You can recognise locals easily - they are always choosing one of the other two. So I wouldn’t blame this pair, who knows ….

Don’t forget trying to buy something with an age restriction, which requires someone to come and swipe something to give it the go ahead.

JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon · 30/10/2022 13:23

Meh you have to use them for the first time sometime. I am very familiar with the Morrisons ones, and have used them elsewhere too without difficulty but got flummoxed by one the other day because it looked the "wrong way round" so I had put all my stuff in the area for scanned stuff and couldn't understand why it wasn't working. The assistant probably thought I was a right moron.

keepcalm11 · 30/10/2022 13:24

I find myself answering back -
' Yes FGS, I've already put the item in the bagging area!'
people must think I'm nuts 😂

VladmirsPoutine · 30/10/2022 13:25

I know this might sound over dramatic but it's really sentiment like these which is why society is the way that it is. Why we no longer have patience with people and can get angry in a second. It's why people have no sense anymore when out and about and just carry on as though they are at war with the world.

AnApparitionQuipped · 30/10/2022 13:29

keepcalm11 · 30/10/2022 13:24

I find myself answering back -
' Yes FGS, I've already put the item in the bagging area!'
people must think I'm nuts 😂

"Unexpected item in the bagging area"

Really? What is it? An elephant? A giant cactus plant? A Ford Focus?

No, it's the carrier bag I brought to put my shopping in, which I pressed the screen to say I was using. Totally 'unexpected' - why on earth would that be there?🙄

CuriousCatfish · 30/10/2022 13:30

JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon · 30/10/2022 13:23

Meh you have to use them for the first time sometime. I am very familiar with the Morrisons ones, and have used them elsewhere too without difficulty but got flummoxed by one the other day because it looked the "wrong way round" so I had put all my stuff in the area for scanned stuff and couldn't understand why it wasn't working. The assistant probably thought I was a right moron.

I did the same with the ones in Boots. I swear the assistant rolled her eyes 😂

Anonymouseposter · 30/10/2022 13:38

I don't like self-checkouts. I am 70-I don't know if that qualifies for elderly person.
I would prefer to use a staffed checkout, but my local Morrison's has just increased the number of self-checkouts and reduced the staff ones to two, which are not always open.
At a new M&S locally, no staff are to be found.
I did complain to Morrison's via email and they said they had "noted it".
Since i have little choice can I request a bit of patience with my unidentified items in the bagging area.
I'm sure I'll get used to it but not if people are rolling their eyes and sighing when I first try.
It's a shame businesses feel they can't afford to pay staff.

CuriousCatfish · 30/10/2022 13:43

I do find the staff ,especially the ones in my local Tesco are very helpful when the self checkouts malfunction.

Jampage · 30/10/2022 13:44

Perhaps they were just learning...

Jampage · 30/10/2022 13:44

You could learn too, patience.

PAFMO · 30/10/2022 13:45

Oysterbabe · 30/10/2022 11:55

Hear me out.

Supermarket very busy this morning. Queued with my basket for the self checkout, as usual. I prefer them and enjoy the lack of social interaction required. 3 of them were out of order so only 2 working. There was a couple using one and I think it was their first day on the planet. They were just staring, puzzled at the screen. Occasionally scanning something. Eventually complete their transaction then realise they need to buy bags. 5 people completed their transactions on the other checkout while they were doing theirs.

Blowing my own trumpet, but I'm a self service ninja. I think you should have a certain competency level, like with driving, before being allowed to use one. You should be given a basket of items, including some loose fruit and veg and bakery items, and a set time to complete the transaction in order to earn a licence.

Must be lovely to be so very superior.

PAFMO · 30/10/2022 13:46

VladmirsPoutine · 30/10/2022 13:25

I know this might sound over dramatic but it's really sentiment like these which is why society is the way that it is. Why we no longer have patience with people and can get angry in a second. It's why people have no sense anymore when out and about and just carry on as though they are at war with the world.

Very well said.

stopitstopitnow · 30/10/2022 13:47

Just so I'm clear....you only want people who are competent at using self-service to use them? How exactly do they become competent at using them if you object to them using them? How marvellous that you came out of the womb knowing how to do anything at your first attempt, the rest of us mere mortals have to learn how to do stuff though, sorry about that.

Hawkins001 · 30/10/2022 13:47

I don't mind self service so much, it's more people when they stand in the middle idles blocking them, or they stand chatting when your trying to get items, etc

pigsDOfly · 30/10/2022 13:50

God, there's some vile posters on here.

Good thing these people weren't in my GP's waiting room when I went for my flu jab recently.

I imagine they would have been hammering on the door of the nurses room demanding to know why the nurse was taking so long. Why she was spending time talking to that, in their eyes, annoying disabled old woman, making them wait and keeping them from rushing to the next, oh so important, thing they had to get to.

You're not so important OP that you can't just wait a few minutes for someone to work out how to use a machine they're clearly not familiar with.

Must admit, being an absolute 'ninja' at using a self service till has never been one of my ambitions in life, but each to their own.

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