Guy at Lidl trying to make me use self check out

[Earlynightthen]

I don’t *Have to, do I?

Shopping in Lidl with dd, 6 (very active, all over the place type child)
We had a trolley full, there was one till that seemed to be sort of open..girl on till coming on and off it to do other bits.
The shop was quiet, few other people, with baskets at the self check out.
Guy who works there came over and in a friendly way said would I like to go to the self checkout, I replied politely, no thank you as I had a lot to unpack and trying to watch dd running around etc and continued to the normal check out to put my things on the conveyer belt thing. He continues to me that it was ok, he’d do it with me/show me how to do it. Again, I said it was ok I knew how to do it but it was easier for me to just unpack my things, he carried on and on, until i had to say ‘I dont have to, right?’ He kind of laughed, but looked at me like I was weird.
I managed to gently push past and put my things on and the girl came to pass them through

Was I being weird, or him?!

No because we usually only go in the evening when my partner finishes work and has the car so there was no store manager on duty.
It might be worth finding out her name and going during the day and complaining.

We asked her name as she didn’t have a badge on and I wanted it to put in my complaint via email, she just said it wasn’t relevant. I wrote a factual email stating what had happened and gave a description of the staff member, it would have been easy to identify her as she wasn’t English.

I would like to take it further because it’s made life difficult not being able to go when all the other supermarkets shut early. I’ll give it a try, thank you!

You were right. I always want to complain in almost any supermarket about the lack of open tills. It's just really poor customer service

Because there's not enough space to put your stuff.

There's a camera in your face filming you.

There's always some kind of error message or the touch screen isn't working in a certain place.

You get stared at like you're a thief by the person standing there, or you can't get anyone around at all to fix the so-called error.

There are never any bags or your partner puts the first damn item down before you've put the bag down so then you're stuck having to balance everything on the tiny checkout area and then have to pack it all again.

The checkouts in our Sainsbury's aren't labelled in any sensible way, it has 2 entrances/exits, people queue at both ends and clash in the middle both going for the same one, you don't know which side to put your basket because it's not labelled, and the card only checkouts aren't labelled as such which then causes more problems with the queuing. There's always someone with a trolley stopping everyone getting past, and there are the people who stare intently at the screen for five minutes after every button press so it takes 10x longer than a speedy cashier scanning things through and forcing them to keep up.

People think a staff member offering to help you scan your shopping is harassment now?

Instead of whining on MN or to the staff who are told to encourage the self service tills, please complain to the Head Offices of these companies.

I stopped using my local Lidl after they went on and on to an angry point about using the self checkout.

it shouldn’t matter my reasons (hands don’t work in the cold) if I don’t want to use it I shouldn’t have to.
I also had a £50 note. So enjoyed producing that after he’d forced me to use it

This is me at Sainsbury’s. I refuse to use the self check outs. If there are no manned tills available, I will ask for one to be opened. Sainsbury’s, and all the other big supermarkets, make enough profits for themselves, and their shareholders, and I spend a shed load of money in these shops every week, and yet they expect me to scan my own groceries so that they can save more in profits? No thank you.

^ Well, I rammed the trolley into him and he fell on the floor 😅^

Is this a joke or did you actually do this OP?

If you did I don't care how insistent and rude he was, you assaulted a shop worker, and you've lost your moral high ground entirely!

My worst nightmare is walking into the shop with my trolley, go around and place all items from the shelf into the trolley, then wait in a queue for a number of people to get their shopping scanned by the staff, then unload said items and place them onto the belt, wait for someone to scan them and then place them in the trolley again while being rushed to pack them. It makes no sense. I much prefer to scan each item as I go, place it into the bag in the trolley, pay at the end and get out. Much quicker and less hassle. You can’t pay me enough these days to go through the staffed tills again.

Jesus read the room.

Is this a joke or just the result of skipping reading comprehension in school?

I worked in retail for years and had to do all the daft greeting, upselling etc. However i don't think that the customer should put up with crap from Aldi etc. We are paying for a service and having to put big shops through self-service tills with insufficient staff is not acceptable. Some of the PPs make it sound like supermarkets are doing us a huge favour we should be grateful for.

And saying we shouldn't complain because minimum wage staff will get told off is wrong. It just means that we are supporting Aldi and co.s poor treatment if staff and customers. Agree that complaints should go to managers/ Head Office though.

Good for you @Toastandjam16 . If more people refused to use self-checkout, and insisted on a manned checkout, then they'd have no choice but to put more people on to serve on the checkouts.

@Sortumn It's not weird at ALL to want good customer service. It is not 'good customer service' to be serving yourself at a self-scan checkout, and having to wait for ages sometimes, for someone to come and help because an item won't scan - (and this happens EVERY TIME!) And if you've got dozens of items, it's a bloody nightmare. It's so hard to get everything to fit on the 'shelf.' I have had yogurts fall off and smash on the floor and all sorts of mishaps at the self checkouts!

@CherryFlan Good for you for refusing to go near a self service checkout!

@TotalEclipseOfMyFart Yes you're right, they can be problematic for people with disabilities.

I don't mind the odd self-checkout, like 1 in 8 or so, (as I said, I think they do have their place,) but there should be 7 out of 8 that are manned checkouts!

Completely agree!

@ThatAgileGoldMoose Are you actually serious?

Probably wanted the child out ASAP if they were running about and misbehaving.

@Balloonhearts Not misbehaving at all, being a just turned 6 year old with adhd 👍

You said in your op they were running around. Running around a supermarket is misbehaving ADHD or not

I don't really understand why you told him no? He was offering to do it for you we do the same in my workplace. The girl was obviously needing to stock the shelves badly if he was offering to do a trolley load through the self checkouts

Of course you can pay cash in, some are card only

@Balloonhearts She was excited and running to get things for the trolley and halloween things. There was barely anyone there, she was causing no bother.
Do you remember being a small child?

Some people are very easily offended

Yes what’s next? Will they expect people to load the shelves or help with the lorries. I think their profits are huge and they can employ staff. It’s one thing to put one or two items through a self scan but people often have trolleys and lots of items and it’s a joke to ask them to carry out work as well as buy the stuff. That’s why I feel people should leave a percentage of it unbought if forced into self scanning when it doesn’t suit.

I don't usually like self checkouts but wish out local Lidl had them. I've nipped in for a couple of things then had to wait ages behind people with massive trolleyloads of stuff. Then as soon as they announce that Checkout number X is opening, they're announcing that it's closing.

As they try to work with the bare minimum of things, I'm surprised we don't have self checkouts.

I stopped going to my local Aldi after it became completely self service. It used to be so efficient but with self service it is so slow and tedious. Try to buy wine- approval needed. It doesn't register the weight of parsley- assistance needed. And so on, for everyone. You can't even pack properly as you go as it upsets the scale. Assistance needed.