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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think self checkouts in clothes shops is a step too far

309 replies

Comedycook · 09/11/2023 13:59

Went shopping to get my dd some new clothes today. Noticed H and M had self service checkouts... tills were open too though. Then I went to M&S and tills were only for returns or exchanges and to pay you had to use self service. I tolerate self checkouts in supermarkets but when I am buying clothes, I expect some sort of service. What struck me is that in my local M and S they sell Jaeger...a blouse was £125. I assume their coats would be at least a couple of hundred quid. It really irks me and no way would I spend hundreds of pounds on an item of clothing and have to ring it up a the checkout myself. I think it's really crappy to be honest... anyone else agree?

OP posts:
Original poster
Comedycook · 10/11/2023 13:15

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 10/11/2023 11:24

Other than people waiting on you? And if it is that you enjoy other people waiting on you, maybe you need to have a think about why that is so important to you having a chat with someone who happens to earn less is demeaning and seemingly it’s better to make them redundant and tell them a machine can do their job…..MN logic at its finest!

Yes I actually think it's a weird reverse snobbery. Those calling me a snob are probably the ones who are actually looking down on shop workers because they assume my interaction involves me lording it up. Just because you view that work as demeaning and can't imagine having any interaction with a lower paid worker doesn't mean we all do.

OP posts:
Fizbosshoes · 10/11/2023 13:22

Shops and other services (train stations, airports etc) aren't having self checkouts for the benefit of customer, its for the benefit of their profit or shareholders. The cost benefit analysis must suggest it's cheaper to risk increased theft than have more members of staff.

What happens is that the staff that are retained are probably kept on the same wage, made to feel grateful because they still have a job but spread way more thinly and given loads of extra tasks to do (a bit like during covid when some people had huge expectations of what retail/service/hospitality/school staff should be doing in addition to what they were already doing for no extra pay )

gamerchick · 10/11/2023 13:26

Comedycook · 10/11/2023 13:15

Yes I actually think it's a weird reverse snobbery. Those calling me a snob are probably the ones who are actually looking down on shop workers because they assume my interaction involves me lording it up. Just because you view that work as demeaning and can't imagine having any interaction with a lower paid worker doesn't mean we all do.

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That might have been true if it wasn't for your post above that one OP. Treating a shop assistant like that just because you feel you shouldn't have to show a receipt is pretty poor. They're just doing what they've been told to do and you're abusing them for it. Like a load of other people. Who would work in shops eh 🙄

Original poster
Comedycook · 10/11/2023 13:31

gamerchick · 10/11/2023 13:26

That might have been true if it wasn't for your post above that one OP. Treating a shop assistant like that just because you feel you shouldn't have to show a receipt is pretty poor. They're just doing what they've been told to do and you're abusing them for it. Like a load of other people. Who would work in shops eh 🙄

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Im not rude when I do it. I just do it ..they can then feed up the chain what customers think. But like a pp said, shops are starting to stop making you show your receipt on exit so it probably wasn't all that popular and just got people's backs up

OP posts:
gamerchick · 10/11/2023 13:36

They don't feed it back up, they count up how many times a customer has treated them like shit for doing their job. Going home feeling like crap because of it.

You say you don't think people are beneath you when your posts give lie to that OP. Don't fool yourself.

TuesdayWonder · 10/11/2023 13:50

I hate it in clothes stores! Agree with what previous posters have said about Matalan, if you are going to introduce self-scan at least invest in the proper infrastructure rather than just turning the screen of a standard till round to face the front without any proper space for scanning and bagging!

TheJubileePortrait · 10/11/2023 13:52

Comedycook · 10/11/2023 13:31

Im not rude when I do it. I just do it ..they can then feed up the chain what customers think. But like a pp said, shops are starting to stop making you show your receipt on exit so it probably wasn't all that popular and just got people's backs up

Show quote history

You are rude when you do it, because that IS rude. And no, they aren’t feeding it back up the chain.

They’re either laughing about you to their colleagues, or if they’ve not been there long and they’re still getting used to dicks like you then they’ll be really upset.

Either way, nothing gets changed except their opinion of you.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 10/11/2023 14:31

I was just reading a thread about self-service tills on Twitter which made me think of this discussion again.

Self-serve tills need:

to let you put things in your bag as you go along (all of them, not when they feel like it)

to let you scan more than one of the same item at once (eg type 3 x and then scan one item and it registers three - like a member of staff can on a proper till)

to let you scan more quickly (I have to wait about 5 seconds after every item before Sainsburys tills will let me move onto the next one)

to find a way to let you make age-restricted purchases; and

make sure they register light things if they must have the scales (but better still get rid of them, my local Waitrose and M&S both have scale-less self-serve tills which are much more efficient).

enchantedsquirrelwood · 10/11/2023 14:32

Oh and a back button if you make a mistake.

FiveAndSeven · 10/11/2023 17:18

TheJubileePortrait · 10/11/2023 12:12

No you don’t 😂😂

That’s what you want to do, but you don’t. You know it, we know it. No need to pretend otherwise.

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I don't think so either.
I get the impression that she stands there stamping her foot while shouting ' I'll scweam and scweam until I'm sick ' instead.

Bigcat25 · 10/11/2023 17:46

After checking yourself out, you'll get receipt asking "how they did?" Annoying and silly.

Hilly7 · 10/11/2023 19:52

Passepartoute · 10/11/2023 09:13

Of course the staff realise it does them out of jobs. But what do you suggest they do about it? It's not as if they're hard to replace if they refuse to help with self-service machines.

Self-evidently it isn't "MUCH MUCH SLOWER". 90% of the time in my experience self-service transactions go perfectly smoothly and are way quicker than standing in a queue at a manned till. For the very small percentage when you need help, the time lost is far outweighed by the overall time saved.

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Who said anything about refuse? A simple "Good afternoon, let ME help you with that" would do the job wouldn't it.

90% of the time, what twaddle... give over!

CharlieCoCo · 10/11/2023 20:11

At tkmaxx I had to take the security tag off myself too 🤣

Smallerthannormalpeople · 10/11/2023 20:24

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 10/11/2023 12:13

It’s different because of how you’ve positioned it. I could argue eating in a restaurant is about tasting the food and sitting with friends, you don’t need a skivvy to make that enjoyable, fetch your plate yourself!

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No, it’s different because it’s an entirely different industry. Hospitality is a completely different ballgame to retail. Hospitality is exactly what it sounds like - HOSTING! Retail is a transaction. And if you think you should be being hosted and fawned over while making a simple transaction ‘because it’s a lot of money’ then that makes you a snob. No question.

Jimmyneutronsforehead · 10/11/2023 20:33

Comedycook · 10/11/2023 09:54

There's no snobbery. Businesses do serve people in all manner of ways. How would you feel in a restaurant if there was no waiter and you had to go into the kitchen to fetch your food. What if there was no chef as you had to cook your own food in a restaurant. Expecting a level of service is not snobbery. The whole concept of employment is people doing various tasks for each other .

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I'm actually going to a restaurant next week with the most adorable cat faced robot butler and I'm so excited for it. It may become my new favourite place to eat.

Original poster
Comedycook · 10/11/2023 22:13

Yikes

OP posts:
ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming · 11/11/2023 03:02

Thedm · 09/11/2023 14:21

I’m just waiting for us to start having “Vend-all” stores. Just stores full of vending machines for everything; clothes, shoes, guns in the US. It’s always in sci-fi books and I always thought that would never happen, but it’s coming closer!

The day that happens I will be doing all my shopping online.

As far as I'm concerned, self checkouts anywhere are a step too far, and until the business starts paying me to do their work I refuse to use them.

Copasetic · 11/11/2023 07:14

Matalan pay one member of staff to serve multiple check outs any the majority of people pay without issue. That person’s main function however is to check there is no theft. A surprising amount of people pay for some items and not others.

  • sorry this was in response to the person saying that in Matalan they pay a person to serve the self checkouts etc and was supposed to quote them.
AlocasiaPolly · 11/11/2023 16:20

I had a horrendous experience at Matalan, had an over flowing basket of things for me and daughter, didn't have a clue what I was meant to be doing, struggled to take security tags off things, stole hangers because I didn't realise that I needed to scan the thing to pay to keep them, ended up in right mess with bags everywhere because the station was too small to accommodate all my stuff, and to add insult to injury, I found a security tag that I'd missed on a denim jacket when I went to wear it 3 months later. I no longer had the receipt and ruined it trying to remove it. I'll never shop there again.

RainbowNinja77 · 11/11/2023 16:49

Errr - I don’t see the issue. You spend more money and it should come with people services?

Mumtryingtolivethedream · 11/11/2023 18:33

Comedycook · 09/11/2023 14:52

I'm also capable of pouring myself a drink but I still expect the barstaff to do it in the pub.

Self serve bars wonder if that'll be a thing in the future

SchnauzerLady · 11/11/2023 21:48

I’m in two minds about this one. On the one hand my anxiety loves the idea of not having to talk to anyone, but being disabled I know I sometimes struggle with the self serve checkouts so having someone do it for me is a lot easier. Also I can’t imagine my elderly mother finding it usable either! As long as there’s a choice,and there is a human around if we need it (rather than having to physically go and find someone which is a chore for most but sometimes impossible for me) then I think on the whole there are worse things. I don’t like the idea of people losing jobs to machines but I guess high street stores feel the crunch from internet shoppers so need to adapt to keep solvent.

Mugaloaf · 12/11/2023 07:36

I love the Decathlon scanners. You just have to drop the items into the bag. It's really quick.

I don't think I'd fancy it if I was shopping somewhere nice though.

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