Waitrose incident.

[SensitiveSallySue]

I am not sure if I am being sensitive or if I should complain.

Every Sunday morning I go out for a coffee and read my book, then do the weekly shop without the children. I like to be back before midday so I can spend the rest of the time with my children, including 9 month old baby. We have every supermarket local to us, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, M&S, Asda, Tesco, and I always use the ‘scan and shop’ to make the shopping as quick and easy as possible. I’ve never had an issue until today in Waitrose. I’ve only used it a couple of times in Waitrose and never for a big shop.

After scanning my entire shop, strategically packing it so it’s easy to unload at home, I went to pay. When I beeped the scanner, it flagged up as needing to be checked. I thought that was fair enough, it happens sometimes, and I haven’t done a weekly shop in Waitrose before using the ‘scan and shop’ option. The worker came over and said she needed to rescan 30/58 items. I thought that was ridiculous, in every other shop they scan a random selection of a few items, not over half your shop. It seemed pointless to me to have even used the option in the first place, but I didn’t say anything and the worker started to empty shopping bags full to rescan items. This was taking ages, but I just stood patiently waiting for her to finish.

Then, she came across one that I apparently hadn’t scanned. I know I did, but it was a yellow sticker packet so I can only assume that it hadn’t registered properly. She repeatedly asked me if I had scanned it, and I repeatedly told her I had but it clearly hadn’t registered.

She told me she would need to rescan my entire shopping trolley, then took me over to a till, and I stood on the end whilst she unpacked every single one of my bags and scanned every item individually. It was completely unsubtle, in front of all of the other customers, and obvious that they were rescanning the entire shop in case I was attempting to steal things. I felt like an idiot and a thief. To make matters worse, I am a small business owner working with children, and had already bumped into several of my clients in the shop. I was absolutely mortified thinking that they may think I am a thief.

I was thoroughly embarrassed and teary eyed, and hastily shoved everything back into bags whilst the Waitrose worker apologised. Half of my shopping is crushed as I was shoving things back into the bags indiscriminately. I promptly paid and left but it has really upset me. By that point, I’d spent around 20 minutes having everything rescanned.

AIBU to think that if Waitrose are going to have a system that is open to abuse, they need to have a solution that doesn’t involve treating customers like thieves? I have never had an experience like this in any other store and whilst I realise they have to protect themselves from theft, surely this is not the correct way to go about. It’s not the Waitrose workers fault, it just seems like a very poor system and they shouldn’t offer ‘scan and shop’ if this is the way they treat customers.

...but I rarely have to queue at self service machines and there are usually only one or two proper tills open.

Please don't call people "workers" - member of staff / assistant is much more pleasant and inclusive!

🙄

Workers is far more inclusive. Anyone who works is a worker.

thanks for this @GreenTeaLikesMe it was a good read.

Enshitification. That's about the size of it.

...but I rarely have to queue at self service machines and there are usually only one or two proper tills open.

@Lifestooshort71

I was talking about scan-as-you-go not self service machines. They are even worse because there is no space at most of them to unpack properly so it is a more awkward bagging experience than on a conveyor belt man check out.
You aren't factoring in the 'unexpected item in baggage area' need to get an assistant which can mean a prolonged wait as one frazzled assistant (worker!) runs between people.

If people keep using the 'proper' manned tills, they open more if there is a long queue in most places I shop. More importantly, like I said before, customers need to vote with thier feet.

Unless I have only one or two items, I always use a manned till because it is quicker, easier and more convenient but I subscribe to the use it or lose it philosophy. The more people insist on using manned check outs the less likely it is that shops will get rid of them all together.

Do read the article @GreenTeaLikesMe linked. It's interesting.

I love scan as you shop - I can pack things in an organised manner so I know which bags need putting away first when I get home.
Yes, I've had a lot of service checks over the time I've been using the system but still feel it saves time.
Sometimes they have to scan every item (this has happened on both a four item shop and a £160 Christmas shop). Sometimes it's just a number of items but can range from about 5 to 30.
The bigger rescans they tend to move you to a different counter with more room to unpack. They used to habe an armchair in this area but apparently it was stolen.
On a few occasions there has been a discrepancy. Once the assistant managed to scan an item twice by mistake. Another time I'd swapped packets of tomatoes because they had a better date, not realising I'd picked up a different variety. Another time, on a rare occasion that DH had come to 'help' he missed scanning a couple of items (milk and okra totalling about £2.50 out of a £200 shop). He got upset about being treated as a thief but the staff are just doing their job.
I occasionally shop in Sainsbury's for a top-up shop (and bread because they do a loaf DH likes). When doing a larger shop there one time, I had an issue with the scanner taking time to register each item. Near the end of my shop I forgot to check that an item had gone through. I was selected for a service check and that item was on the top of a bag so had to have a total rescan.
I was taken to an unopen till and an assistant was called to rescan it using a hand scanner. They unpacked each bag carefully, scanned the items and repacked it. I was told there had been issues with the system but that one item was the only thing I'd missed.
The supermarket staff do not hold it against you. They make mistakes as well. No-one is going to recall that you'd had a check and missed an item. Don't let it change the way you want to shop.

Waitrose staff are, in my experience, the best around, maybe because they don't have to deal with entitled idiots most of the time.

I uses to like self scan as it was faster and easier and I still do it in waitrose and ikea. In morrisons and sainsburys it now takes way longer as either the machines are crap and keep erroring or theres one person trying to help hundreds of people that they deliberately force through self scan, even woth trollies (looking at you ridiculous sainsburys near me).
I've also given up in tesco as the machines have a terrible lag so you never know if things have regsitered and for some reason DP gets a rescan 30/50 items nearly every single time and they dump everything out and then stand there like lemons until you tell them to repack it, when they then pile heavy boxes on top of banannas and eggs etc.

Some supermarkets really dont help themselves, or their staff.

The think 25 question is generated when an age related product is scanned, so not a store managers decision as to what item is allocated this rating. The exception being lottery and tobacco when you have to make the decision to ask for ID before you scan the product.

😂😂😂 if you’re slow and a bit stupid it might take longer but believe me if you’re not, then it’s much quicker. Bar codes are not hidden. You pick up the item whizz it under the scanner that’s sitting on your trolly and pack it away in the bag of your choice without having to rush as you feel your holding up the queue. How can it possibly be quicker to put things in, take them out and then put them in again? You’re not at the mercy of the check out person as to the speed or order you get the items. Even when I’ve put my shopping in the belt in order preference for packing, I’ve had the check out person reach over and grabbed bigger or smaller items first. If you’re careful and scan everything, the occasional check takes seconds. Guess some people will always go along with the conspiracy theory that it’s bad for us!

Nothing to do with stupidity. Some of the machines are calibrated wrong and cant tell when you've put a very light item down. So then you haveto go and find a staff member to reset it. This happens to me in my local morrisons for example when i buy a packet of chillis.

Waitrose ones are much better and I have now trouble in those and so will happily use those. Having said that, i got stuck waiting for about 30 mins behind an elderly couple who they had forced to use self service as the tills were all closed and they were really struggling.

I’m going to accidentally take a few extra carrier bags last night in your honour OP. F the system and down with the man.

No. It really is quicker and more convenient. You didn’t factor in queuing to go through the normal checkout - there are always queues for them but other than the week before Christmas I don’t think I’ve ever had to queue for a self-scan checkout.

You also didn’t factor in that you only put each item down once, as you pack it into your shopping bag. With the old method you have to put it in the trolley, then take it out to load onto the conveyor belt, then pack it into your bag.

I do nearly all my shopping at Waitrose (it’s closest) and don’t remember the last time I got a rescan. At least three years ago.

I know it's mean but this comment has me creased up for some reason.

Seriously...

OP, Waitrose/John Lewis only last week spoke up about record levels of theft in their shops. They said they thought a lot of it was due to 'greed not need' which caused quite a backlash as you can imagine.

So there's probably been an edict from the Boardroom gone out to all their workers 'Partners' that they've got to be estra vigilant against theft and rescan anything that doesn't go through smoothly on the self-scan.

The woman was just doing her job try not to take it personally.

Imagine how my husband and I felt having the same thing happen, 50/70-odd items needed to be checked. Reader, my husband is an employee of said supermarket. That literal branch.

I'm sorry I think you're being way too over sensitive here. Nobody gives a shit of any size about some stranger getting their shopping checked. I'm sure if they'd taken you in the back to check your shopping it would have been more noticeable?

I would have felt the same OP , especially when I had a 9 month old
baby Oh noes, woman has a baby! Makes it even worse!

You get an old-fashioned copper like the ones from Heartbeat to step up, say 'Ello 'ello 'ello, what's all this then?

They then genteelly take OP by the arm and steer her towards the back of the shop where hercule Poirot is there to proclaim her innocence.

Are you claiming that you've managed to 'design a system' which never, ever encounters human error or a PEBCAK?

If so, what are you doing on MN? You should be collecting ALL the Nobel prizes!

I had a visit from my housing association income officer today. Insisting we owe rent when we dont.

Get a load of this.

"OneSanctuary SAP is the name of a multi-million pound software system brought in by Sanctuary in 2016, designed for use by all areas of the business. It has been an unmitigated failure, and is a huge drawback of working for this company.
The issues caused by SAP are staggering and difficult to keep track of. Because SHA tried to implement SAP in a cost effective manner, they ended up vastly under-investing in critical elements. There is no tailoring of the generically presented system ('vanilla SAP'), which is an issue as social housing is a unique environment from a service delivery and CRM perspective, whereas vanilla SAP is more geared towards providing a solution for manufacturing industries. Thus, the system uses corporate nonsensical buzzwords and methods of handling accounts which absolutely do not reflect industry practice.
Here are just some examples of the more specific issues faced by staff:
No rent statements have been issued since it was implemented in August 2016, and if a resident insists on a rent statement it has to be prepared manually in a spreadsheet
The rent and calculations for accounts are hard to use, and often completely wrong. Mostly because the system was never designed to understand housing benefit payments, and this has a very convoluted workaround which a computer cannot make sense of.
SAP cannot interface with Local Authorities Housing benefit systems so payments are missed, lost or misattributed
Direct debits do not work reliably, and for a long time following the implementation did not work at all. Front line staff are now preferring standing order.
The front end system of SAP requires far more testing and money spent on it. Each customer account is a total mess of information, with no discernible way to separate notes left between differing departments, with information left by staff often going into the wrong account entirely. This needs looking at as from a compliance (DPA) point of view the breaches are serious
From a usability point of view, the view of a customers account within SAP CIC does not display appropriate information to the user (as stated before this is likely because the system was never designed to be used by a HA) and the user often has to go trawling around back end systems to find obviously relevant data (e.g tenancy start date, account balance, property type etc). This is a seemingly minor but considerable waste of resources"

Our Horizon

Is that a genuine question? On the assumption that it is, my answer is that 'human error' is very often used as an excuse for poorly designed systems. If I build a high deck and put no fence around, then someone falls off, that's not 'human error' that's poor design. Equally if people keep making mistakes such that an inconvenient checking process that entirely negates the convenience of the system has to be built in (one which, I should add, puts the staff in an awkward position and completely alienates some customers) then that system is badly designed. We've somehow been trained to accept shit from digital systems that we'd never ever put up with in a purely human system.

Ofc it wans't a genuine question.

I'm sorry that your bid to design the John Lewis-Waitrose self-scan systems failed, better luck in the next tender process

I'm really confused by the sarcasm. Have I insulted you in some way?

I understand the OP. It's upsetting and/or embarrassing. Not everyone is thick skinned.

I totally sympathise with you and I am quite incredulous at all the hard-hearted responses - ffs YOU are not the problem for pointing out a process is stigmatising and uncomfortable. It is not a good way to treat customers. I don't think it is unusual either. It happened to me three times in Tesco, all in a row: first time, I had forgotten to scan something - so fair enough, I suppose, they made me put it all through the main checkout. I had done the scanning to save time but whatever. My bad. The very next shop, I made sure to scan everything and was certain I had. It turned out that if you scan two dog treats with different flavours, you have to make sure you scan them both individually and not just do one of them, twice. So, back through the bloody checkout till with my whole weekly shop. That was really irritating. Third time, I made sure to scan everything individually and not forget. Dammit. Computer said NO. Maybe the system had flagged me as a two-time offender but they said "sorry, you have been selected for a full re-scan." I stopped using the scan system after that - until very recently, when it seems that they have instituted a "scan check" that scans half your items, not just a handful.

The supermarkets introduced these self scans to save money on wages, ie. to cut staff and for more convenience for the shopper. They don't seem to have achieved any of that, given how many staff are involved in re-scans etc and are a big pain in the butt. I am really sorry you went through that OP and I am even more sorry you received so little sympathy on here.

For a medium size tesco they are loosing over £1000 per day in theft. This has risen due to cost of living. The blame is firmly put on checkout staff. My advise is never ever do scan and shop now. It used to be quick, not now. Now you have missed an item it will flag up through your loyalty card. You will always have checks. Go to a till talk to a human, take your time, pack as you like. Like the olden days...

This happened to me, I just let them get on with it, I did not feel mortified or worried what people thought of me as I am really not that important. I am always amazed that people think that others are judging them, honestly, no one cares. Get over yourself.