I avoid sainsburys beacuse of the awful self-service check outs

[Pickupapen]

Sainsbury's have the worst self-service checkouts IMO

I thought Sainsbury's branded themselves as one of the 'better' supermarkets but the self-service checkouts at my local store are awful. They constantly find faults, and require checking by an assistant because the computer isn't weighing things correctly or god knows what.

Then when you try to leave, you are locked in and have to scan your receipt - which you weren't told to do at the start, so if you haven't printed a receipt you have an akward argument with the assistant, trying to prove you did pay actually, and who hates you because they have already been over to enter their pin number sixteen times at your checkout!

I just don't go in to Sainsury's anymore! I'd rather spend my life savings in Waitrose, keep my dignity, and not be treated like a criminal

I left my entire shop at the checkout yesterday as the Sainsbury’s check out operator refused to sell me alcohol because I had my child with me.

My experience of Aldi is that if there's there's the slightest hint of a queue at the manned checkouts they will open another one and wave you over.

What’s your point?

I’m highlighting as a paying customer that is my expectation.

It is bizarre that a supermarket would actively hinder its customers from paying for the goods they are seeking to purchase.

Good, hope it took them ages to put it away and they had to write off anything refrigerated. Ridiculous.

No self checkout ever likes my bags - they’re very heavy cotton, so presumably the weight makes the machine think I’ve nicked something.

So now I only ever pack after paying. Which means I take longer for anyone waiting, but tough.

Receipts, though - I always take mine, even if I’ve only spent £2 - after one occasion in Asda, after buying a once in blue moon pack of steak. I hadn’t realised that there was a security tag on the back, so I was stopped at the door and marched back to the self checkout between two security guards, and had to wait - feeling like a criminal! - while they checked the bin for my receipt.
Thank goodness they found it.
That’s why I invariably take my receipt now.

Our local Sainsbury's is well stocked, good layout and friendly staff

And I don't mind self service in eg ALDI, where the tills are efficient at scanning and plenty staff to help

But i hate the Sainsbury's self servce tills with a passion. One staff member only. Tills don't recognise lots of my shopping

Do they not have Smart Shop?

I always use this and it works brilliantly. Scan items and put them straight into your bag.

Putting shopping into a basket/trolley, unloading it onto a conveyor belt / scales and then having to pack it into a bag seems positively archaic now.

I've never had an issue with them.

First time I went to Aldi I was expecting….🙁, but it was okay . As it is very convenient, we persevered.

Now we know virtually everyone on the tills, hear about their holidays, when DH went in for something on his own the lovely Iranian girl hoped I was okay and not ill. We do go at less busy times, but I think a lot of coldness is down to people each expecting the other person to make the initial effort. We have pleasant interactions at Tesco and Waitrose ( and the butcher) .

However, I haven’t set foot in Sainsbury for fourteen years, since our bank card was refused because the bank had detected fraudulent activity and they tried to arrest me! Even though I had photo ID and another card to pay….

My husband refused to scan his reciept, he just walks through the barrier setting off the alarm everytime.

It's embarrassing but I get his protest.

Yes, our branch has that as well. I’ve only recently realised that, on top of lower prices if you have a Nectar card, there are more savings if you do Smart Shop, so I’m going to swap to that.

Why? What’s he protesting? That the shop is trying to deal with shoplifting?

He's not a shoplifter. It's a ridiculous system.

Why should he have to prove he's bought something to leave? What if he hasn't bought anything?

If they want to reduce self checkout fraud, remove them and bring back enough manned checkouts.

But they wont do that will they? Because that requires actual employees, that need a wage. You know jobs for people.

Terrible things, jobs for people.

Plus many times we have used Argos inside Sainsbury's so don't even have a sainsburys reciept to scan.

Haha I do the same, on the odd occasion I pop in for a few bits. The scanner rarely recognises the receipts first time so it’s quick to just push the barrier open. Never been challenged by the staff …they’re too busy for that anyway.

Our local Sainsbury's has really gone downhill in the last couple of years. The self service tills are always filthy, to the point where my fingers got yoghurt and crumbs on them when collecting my coins from the change dispenser. The staff are so unhelpful and are always stacking shelves or packing shopping for Deliveroo drivers rather than assisting shoppers. The checkouts are understaffed and if you have a problem on the self-service tills you wait absolutely ages for help from a sullen employee.

I go to any other supermarket rather than Sainsbury's now as it's such an unpleasant experience.

I do it because, having already done their work (saving them money) by scanning my own shopping I’m not wasting more time on a bit of theatre intended to make you think that they are checking that you’ve done the job they used to do for you correctly! And it is theatre, because a receipt for a packet of crisps will open the barrier regardless of how much stuff you carry through it.

If they expect me to operate as an untrained, volunteer check-out operator then fine. But don’t then start putting performance measures and controls in to make sure I’ve done the job properly. I didn’t want the job. I’m not paid for the job. I’ll do it to the best of my ability, pay and leave. The fact that some people (entirely predictably) take advantage of their cost saving measure isn’t my problem and shouldn’t inconvenience me :)

Exactly.

Buy a 15p pack of noodles but pocket a few mascaras. Scn your 15p receipt.

Hardly stops shoplifters.

And thieves are brazen anyway these days. Just look at the videos on social media. This barrier does nothing but inconvenience real shoppers.

Yeah it's performance security - like airlines controlling the amount of liquid you take on board but allowing you to take on matches and lighters - pointless but designed so you think it's doing something because of the level of inconvenience it causes you.

Agree

I've read the full thread and I don't think anyone has mentioned my Sainsbury's gripe.

I was a fairly early adopter of the scan and shop app using my phone, have been using it for a good few years now. Thank you very much for the extra points and discounts btw - I'm a sucker for such things!

What I find happening with a way too frequent regularity is getting "checked" at the self check out. I would estimate I'm getting monthly checks. There's often no one manning the area these days so there's a delay as you hang about waiting for them to turn up.

They check through your shopping, rescanning between 10-20 items. It happens often enough that I've stopped packing my bags on the way round. Never once have I been found to have made an error (we are all human after all!) I swear the system has it in for me such is the regularity of these checks. And correct, I can't go through the manned tills as either none/queue horrendous.

I think it happens more often when I've picked up a lot of yellow sticker items.

I've asked the staff why I'm getting stopped so often and they just shrug and say it's random. I've never noticed it happening to anyone else though.

My local Sainsbury's did stop the self scan system for the yellow sticker items for a while after a spate of thefts (I was told by staff that someone had walked out with a TV having scanned a yellow sticker) but normal service has resumed as it was taking up too much staff time at the tills.

Wow. How is that possible?

Also agree! I don't know why people are making it so hard for themselves, especially with a big shop. 🤷‍♀️

I hate packing bags after I've paid - seems to take even longer as you say. It's only the Sainsbury's self checkouts that have this problem. Other stores ask straight away if you have your own bags.

We asked the staff member overseeing the self checkout to sort out the bag issue before we started yesterday. I only had 2 bags worth of shopping but it’d have been extra annoying to do it after.