To be really sick of supermarkets treating paying customers like scum

[OptimismvsRealism]

Sainsbury's traps you in the self service pen of shame until you scan your receipt like a good little girl

Tesco won't take the security tags off your wine until you've not only paid but they've examined your receipt in detail to make sure your wine is paid for - sort of a performance so you remember your place

Waitrose makes a bit song and dance about doing the rescan of self scanning shops (I don't do self scanning because why would I sign up for this extra work?)

Just in Lidl and my wine set off the security alarm even though I've had the tags taken off and the security guard chased me out the door to try to get me to show him inside my bags (er no fuck off pal)

Aldi staff try to look in your shopping bags as you queue

Does anywhere NOT get a kick out of treating their profit drivers like filth any more?

I will probably just have to live off UHPs from the local Greggs at this rate

they need measures that are more discreet. Usual story likely, to expensive for them… but still they keep trading so they must be ok

yes

but it clearly also appealed to shoplifters

It's ALL self service

and is it the technology that puts you off?

Nope. Just have a preference for people friendly places.

Well it's their choice, but I avoid shopping where I feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. Tesco can probably afford to lose a lot of customers with their billions in profits though.

so you’ve not been back to your local tesco since?

I don't use Tesco either. Veg is shit and there's more self service tills than manned ones.

@S0livagant Anerley might not have barriers but it still have the Oyster thingys to beep in and out.
Not really massively different 🤣

I wonder what 1950s Mumsnet would have been like when supermarkets launched the system of baskets and trolleys. Would our Grandmother's been as moany and complainy 🤔

If it's a little country station those bloody barriers DO change the look and are completely out of place

I go there much less often and spend much less there overall.

It's not funny to me. I feel much less anxious in places without barriers and gates.

@S0livagant the thing is at a station like Anerley (which is a London Zone station) you have to beep your Oyster or contactless on the machine to pay the correct fare.
Genuine question - what difference does it make if there's a gate attached to the machine?

That was just an example of a station without gates. Our local stations don't have any scanners. Gates and barriers feel hostile and unfriendly and I feel trapped.

@S0livagant yes but the way modern payments are you often have to beep/scan something to be charged correctly.
So you have to have a machine there. If you have a ticket or payment card how does that make it hostile or unfriendly?
Is it hostile or unfriendly to have an inspector on the train or station who asks to see your ticket?
That's to prove you've paid. Automatic ticket barriers are just the same thing.

I don't mind a machine to beep on and off, or a person, as long as the person is friendly and polite of course. I find barriers hostile. I'm glad I live in a small town where the station is just two open platforms.

@S0livagant well I'm not you and don't really understand your feelings but I really can't see how a barrier is hostile.
They also aren't exactly a new concept.
I remember as a child going to the local pool and you paid and then went through a turnstile.
Those turnstiles were from the 1930s.

YANBU - the in-store shopping experience at most uk supermarkets has all the joy and glamour of a prison visit. It's only a matter of time before they introduce cavity searches before you're allowed to pay over the odds for their ultra processed bread and flavourless tomatoes.

It doesn't matter if you don't understand. It's not a problem for me. I just preferentially shop in friendly places. If a supermarket openly acts like they don't trust me then i feel unwelcome and avoid that place where possible. There are plenty of places I can buy food where I live that are friendly.

If there was a campaign against installing ticket barriers at my local station I'd support that too. They change the look and feel of a place.

yup

but you’ve been back despite the “barriers”

When you’re asked on a train whether you have a. ticket and you’re required to show it… do you kick off?

No, why? I'm not the kind of person who 'kicks off' at all. I'm just ND and might feel anxious.

We all do things we don't like, we just avoid them where possible. They get much less of my custom than they did before. I was doing my weekly shop there at the time.