To think this is why the high street is failing?

[MiamiWindMachine]

I’m off on holiday in a couple of days, so thought I’d go up to the big shopping centre for a couple of last minute things.

In the massive H&M, all the tills bar one had been converted to self-service. The ones on the floor I was on were ALL closed. I went down to the lower floor and there was a huge queue, because no one could work out the machines. There was a step to remove security tags, and people couldn’t work out whether this was only for those plastic tags or if there was some flag on the barcodes for lower value items. Someone else was trying to process a return via these tills. When a member of staff eventually appeared, she confirmed returns could only be processed at a manned till. The customer pointed out that there were no manned tills. The staff member had no idea who to ask about it, then disappeared to find someone, so the queue was getting even longer.

I was on the way out about 15 minutes before closing time and went past M&S. I thought “I wonder if the Bureau de Change is still open” and went to check. The woman saw me approach and had a pained look on her face, saying “Arrgghh, I’ve just cashed uuuppp!” I was a bit taken aback, but said “Oh well, never mind. What time do you close, for future reference?” She then reluctantly admitted that she was supposed to be open until 8, but said “But I do start cashing up at around 7.30”. I was about to ask why when she started saying, “It’s fine; I’ll do it, I’ll do it”, like she was doing me a massive favour. I tried to pay on Revolut and she said “We can’t take those cards!”, as if it was somehow obvious. I asked about Apple Pay and she said, “No, it has to be a proper bank card or credit card”. I therefore went to pay with my credit card and she said, “You do know we have to charge a fee for these, don’t you?” I said I didn’t have a choice given she’d rejected two other payment methods.

I then went down to foods to grab a ready meal and some wine. I went to a manned till as I had alcohol and the girl said, “Oh, could you go to the self-service? It’s just that I’m closing this one”. I asked about the alcohol and she said, “I can approve that from here; it’s just that it’s easier for me”.

I feel like we’re constantly told in the media “Use it or lose it” re: the high street; how sad it would be if we lost the personal touch. From what I could see yesterday, one store has done everything possible to eliminate personal interaction, while in the other, the staff are more bothered about their convenience than the customers’. Is it any wonder that people would rather click a couple of buttons to get something delivered?

Re staff numbers, you're completely ignoring the entire new industry employing huge numbers of people to design and manufacture the self service tills, including entire supply chains, those who install them, those who train the staff, those who maintain and repair them, programmers to program them, etc.

It's a shame they can't design and program them a bit better then.

I take it you've never gone to a manned till that had a problem or a checkout assistant who didn't know how to enter a voucher or an underage checkout operator who had to call over a supervisor to put alcohol through the till, or one who couldn't work out how to deal with you handing over £10.14 for a total of £9.14? Or any number of other matters arising because of poor training or incompetence of checkout staff?

Nothing as bad as the dreadful self service till I used yesterday in M&S that wouldn't read all the bar codes, I would have been quicker to queue for the manned checkout, and it didn't work for the assistant either that had to help me. I only had about 6 items.

Maybe they should design them with less multiple choice questions, I don't need to be asked about bags more than once, I'm sure the bag question popped up about 3 times, it's like a test.

The bag question is simply to stop you stealing them. It is annoying.

I had my trusty Seasalt jute shopper so didn't need a bag, the machines hate it though so I have to pile up my shopping and pack afterwards, maybe they should design them to take a variety of bags, it's almost like they want you to use the plastic ones

At least with the self scanning machine you carry around you can put back any item where it won't scan properly and get one that does.
At the actual self service tills it's a manic five minutes trying to get it to do something !
All of it is a faff whatever you do though

As it happens yes I do speak out against big supermarkets. A massive failed campaign happened in a small town I lived in before to stop a large tesco opening. I still where possible, try and use small independent shops. The same with post offices.

Remind me again what happens when I try to put my bottle of wine through the self checkout? What happens when I need to use a barcode and can't figure out how to enter it?

The cash I'm sure the machine can figure out much faster you are correct, that's if I can find a machine that takes cash. Most of the time the ones in Aldi are out of order due to needing emptied.

Your post also brings up the 'use it or lose it' part of our brain. It is shocking at how bad mental arythmitic has become in so many people. Likely down to cashless society.

The easy solution to the under 18 checkout operator would to have a badge, or not to employ under 18s on tills to sell alcohol! It's actually more frustrating because you don't know they're under 18 whereas you know that the machine will definitely call someone over. But you can look for someone who looks older if you want to buy wine or a set of kitchen knives at a staffed till.

They don't need to worry about adding up because the till does it for them.

Just to let you all know: it's about to get a lot harder to get your groceries scanned by a paid human being. Shops and supermarkets will almost certainly respond to this ruling by eliminating as many cashier jobs as possible.

Supreme court rules against Asda in workers' equal pay case | Asda | The Guardian

DD works in a supermarket and is heartbroken by the number of older customers who come to her till, who when she makes conversation with them they will say she is the only person they have spoken with in days sometimes a week. They say that they come in especially because the staff are friendly and they are not forced to use self checkouts which stresses them out. Sadly they are We are gradually eroding human contact from our daily interactions which is vital to those who are older and live alone.

@SilverGlitterBaubles my mom taught me that as a teenager many hundreds of years ago (that’s what it feels like anyway!). That your interaction with a person may be their only interaction of the day. I have never forgotten it. Chatting with “strangers” has been a very useful skill to have developed.

I do use self checkouts, but they invariably reject my shopping bags (‘a colleague is coming to help’ 😩) - heavy cotton ones - so now I only ever pack after paying, which means I take rather longer in a queue.

And I always take my receipt, after once failing to do so in Asda - and being stopped at the door and escorted back to the checkout between two security guards!

There was a small security tag on the back of a pack of steak - of course I hadn’t noticed and the SS till made no alert.
They found my receipt in the bin - talk about a lesson I’ll never forget! But why the fuck is there no system of self-checkout alerts for security tags??