You should need a licence to use self checkouts

[Oysterbabe]

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.

Usually from my perspectives they are easy to use after the first go. Just scan, pay and go, although I understand the machines are tricky, and not everyone is as quick, as long as there are more than one machine operating then for me it's take as long as you need, better your orders correct.

I'm going to take the OP in the humorous vein I think she intended!
I'm 63 and perfectly capable of using self-checkout so I'll get my licence when they are wisely introduced!
I share her pain.
(If I had a disability that made self checkouts difficult I would go through the manned checkout.)

Given that she didn't bother coming back, I'm going to take it in the goady fucker vein I think she intended...

So @Chickenpeppers worked in a supermarket but blames simple old age for lack of ability to cope with self service checkouts? 🤔

The idea that people drawing a pension are naturally unable to cope with technology is deeply flawed considering that if older people didn't invent the technology in the first place, you wouldn't be using it today! 😂

My dad would have been 96 if he was still alive. He was designing software and using computers back in the 70's when I was a teen. Mum worked in Bomber Command during the war deciphering and sending coded messages. Computers held no fear for her!

I’d ban self service checkouts.

I’m still surprised there has not been a “Falling Down” moment. I know I’ve wanted to smash the shit out of the damned machines with a baseball bat, on way too many occasions.

sick of some uppity, uneducated assistant who needs to “check” my purchases. Who then needs me to remind her, several times to hit the ‘clearly over 25’ button because I’ve bought a bottle of wine or whisky, who then me to remind same assistant to remove security tag, then has to wait whilst assistant wanders off to whatever realm she currently inhabits… before I get my whisky back.

so op, what makes your view more important, more correct than mine?

ban self service checkouts. I’ve not used them since 2020. Never will. Scourge of today’s supermarkets.

I'm with you OP. I'm a self-checkout ninja. My very intelligent, and much more generally competent, DP turns into a potato when he tries to use them.

Obviously it's always the machines fault...

Get a hobby

I totally agree!

I refuse to use the self checkouts, as it is just another way of "robotting" our lives, and it takes jobs away from checkout staff.

(And I messed it up EVERY time I tried too so I'm afraid of them...)

FFS there’s always one.

I find it quite sad that we can’t have a lighthearted thread anymore without someone taking offence

I love self service and rarely run into any problems with them at all. Beep, beep, tap my card and go, what's not to like? If something is too light to register I put my phone or keys or whatever I have handy down on the scales and it works everytime. We have an aldi and another supermarket beside each other and if I only need a few things I will often go to the other one and pay a quid extra just for the convenience of no queuing and speed of using the self service.

She used to have one but she doesn't have time for it anymore because she gets stuck in supermarket queues behind incompetent people

I think you may be in need of one too 🤣

Sorry, I am back. I was in the cinema (Lyle Lyle Crocodile. Very good)

I wasn't being ageist. People of all ages are rubbish at self checkout. There were manned checkouts and they'd have been out in half the time had they chosen one.
Maybe instead of licences they could have fast, medium and slows lanes like at the swimming pool. You could move up a lane then once you've figured out how the thing works.

What really makes a difference is shops having the courtesy of putting in self-scan systems that actually work.

M&S & Tesco are shit. Sainsburys scan & shop is good but their general self service is hit & miss.
Aldi is OK once your bag has been approved and Waitrose mostly works.

You know perfectly well it's ageist. Really, do get over yourself.

I try and avoid them as i want people to have jobs and they always say item in bagging area , much prefer dealing with an actual person

@Chickenpeppers so you committed fraud technically , charging customers twice on purpose , would of thought that is a sackable offence and maybe you should re think being in customer service type jobs

I've never had that happen All the assistants I've encountered are very competent at their jobs. You sound like a bit of a twat though with your opinions on 'uppity uneducated' shop assistants,

I bet they didn't want to use the sodding self checkout till either, but due to lack of tills being manned they were forced to.

I am cross that customers are now expected to do the work the staff used to do, and I get even more cross when the stupid self checkout doesn't work properly and you have to keep calling the usually run off their feet assistant to cancel it.

I get even more cross when they come over to override whatever and tell you not to worry - I'm not worried, I'm annoyed.

When they work, they are excellent, but if you get a 'bag check' or the scales don't work or something doesn't scan they are really frustrating.

@Babochan88 I was just joking but missed off the

I've stopped using the self service checkouts at my local Tesco. There's always a problem or something that needs age verification and the employee manning the checkouts is either tied up with somebody else, nowhere to be seen or having a natter with mavis from number 42 who's just popped in to by some veg

@Chickenpeppers

Vile scum.

Ach pop it down however you like.

So you weren’t ageist.

Not being ageist doesn’t stop folk being condescending, self important, smug, ignorant to other people’s needs or indeed a nippy twat.

And yes, I’ve a licence for the last one.

I’ve dealt with the first four often enough to earn it.

Your assumption that shop assistants are not educated is flawed but probably contributes to your overall poor attitude, which in turn will see you receive poor service. Not because they can’t do it well, but because pissing you off in small ways is satisfying and won’t get them sacked, unlike if they called you an arrogant prick and refused to help you.

The model for supermarkets will never return to full checkout banks, self scans have been around for 15 years and will only increase. Accept it and move on with the times.

Its the same people who reach the front of the cash machine queue and only then start hunting around their bag for their card. Or the people at the train station who seem to be ambushed by the ticket barrier and are utterly unprepared.