Fed up with supermarkets

[SelfScanHell]

Sainsbury's reduced me to tears today.

Our DC has recently finished GCSEs so we decided to move from the usual online shop to taking them to learn how to do a shop in real life. They are autistic and can struggle in busy environments.

It was challenging but we managed to do a whole week’s shop using the ‘smart scan’ (they’ve used it before and prefer it) and got to the check-out. A few hiccups but managed with headphones and music. In the past we’ve had the ‘items needs to be checked’ thing every other time we visit, and just put up with 10 items being checked, never an issue.

Today we had the message, only 1 staff member seeing to about 20 check-outs. Other staff just said ‘sorry I can’t do that’. New staff member eventually appeared and told us the WHOLE trolley needed checking - an overflowing trolley with a week’s shop for a whole family. There was nowhere to do this, nowhere to move the stuff from our trolley, no extra bags, no counter space, just the floor for space to move the shopping to. No suggestions of how this was to be done. I was left standing by the trolley piled with food, next to a confused DC with the staff member just staring at me.

My first instinct was just to abandon the trolley to them. I should have said ‘OK I’ll go for a coffee and you do it’. But I wanted to manage the situation for my DC and felt sorry for the staff member who looked clueless, standing there blankly with no way to achieve this. So off we went to join a new queue for a normal till and do it all over again. Thankfully my DC managed, I’m so proud of them.

After getting the shopping into the car, and DC settled with music, I went back to complain at this new ‘whole trolley checking’ rule without the resource in place to do it. Plus, I’m lucky as my DC managed this time, what about someone else who is standing with a mountain of goods with nowhere to put them. After being given the manager’s email to send a complaint to him, I went back to the car and just started crying. Sometimes it’s just too much. First attempt at a full Sainsbury’s shop for DC has taught them they might be expected to pile their shopping on the floor to be checked (no way that’s happening).

I am tempted to ask if all ND people should avoid Sainsbury’s, but being less antagonistic I’ll ask, AIBU to say:

• If Sainsbury’s have to start checking everything in a packed trolley they should provide the staff and space to do this (not on the floor)

Funnily enough I assumed female but not for any reason I could point to!

Yes, after the staff member just stood there, silent, waiting for me to start emptying the trolley in situ (and I had decided not to just abandon it) I decided a till was the only way to go.
No suggestIon, no support, just giving up and stating at the back of a new long queue without the self scan.

Beginning to wish I’d abandoned the trolley so everyone could tell me how unreasonable I was making the overworked staff put everything back 😂

Oh bloody hell,that sounds awful. I'm so sorry you had to go through this OP. When the self-scanning thing was introduced at my local Asda,I was all for it. But after using it a few times and being frequently chosen for a 'quality check' (in other words, we're making sure you haven't nicked anything) and being kept waiting for ages for a staff member to deal with it,I began to wonder if it was such a good idea.Standing and waiting wouldn't bother me too much but for the fact I have arthritis in my hips and knees and find standing in one spot for more than a minute or two is literally a right pain. The staff are usually too busy dealing with problems on the self-service tills. I did wonder why I kept being repeatedly chosen for a check, and my daughter said it's probably because I swap a lot of items,or put things back and cancel them on the scanning device. Why that would trigger a check,I'm not sure.

That's what the shop lifters do when they know they've been caught out

It just sounds like the staff member was a bit clueless then?

It's not a deep issue with sainsburies, just one staff member who didn't know what they were doing, these things happen. It's not really something to get angry about.

I bet they have your photo now of who to look out for as this is what shoplifters do when their caught out and know they haven't scanned things

Ah right. You used "they" and "them" throughout so I assumed two or more children. Not sure that singular gendered pronouns really compromise anonymity very much!

Especially this time of year lots of new young staff working before going to uni. You dont get much training in a supermarket you just kind of get thrown in

I'm sure it is, but I'm also sure it's what honest shoppers do when they are pressed for time, on the school pick up or whatever. This is why I just don't use them. I got caught with a full re-scan once or twice and it was such a faff it put me off using them altogether.

Interesting POV and feeds into the real life discussion I’ve been having about the ‘higher ups’ who make these decisions from a position of privilege, and not understanding what it’s like coping with additional needs. It highlights the need for diversity and lived experience in management structures, especially for public facing services.

NB staff member was middle-aged male

Well, like anything, you learn from experience. You won't use the self-scan there again.

Five years ago I was stopped by security as I left a self-scan area. I didn't have a receipt, having pressed the option on screen to say I didn't want one. Luckily for me I'd had reason to interact with a member of staff whilst I was paying, and she vouched for me. From that day to this, I ALWAYS print a receipt, no matter how little I have spent. There is no way I am putting myself through that shit again.

You live and learn. There's a lot in your post that can easily be slotted into the "what can we do differently next time?" box.

I shop there regularly - never been an issue. Had many part shop rescans since then. I did say if they could rescan it and put it aside for me I'd come back but had a child to collect. . I really didn't want to abandon my shop of over an hour and a full trolley but after 10mis of waiting for staff I had no option.

I switched away from online when the price hike in delivery coincided with an aldi opening very locally but have recently swtich back as I was forever shopping and it cost a fortune!

You were treated badly. No one should be made to feel that way in the supermarket when they've done nothing wrong.

I always use the handheld self scan in Sainsbury's. It's our nearest big supermarket too. I've not been checked in a long time but what I've noticed is that if you do anything different to normal, it flags you up for checking e.g. doing a big shop in store when you normally use online. You get checked more when you first start using it too. If it's the first time, I think they almost always check you. Another thing I've noticed is that if you change your mind and take anything off, it can sometimes trigger a check. I don't think I've had the full trolly check since the first time I used it though.

It doesn't take away that it was a horrible experience for you and you clearly got a really clueless staff member. You should definitely complain via email as they need to be aware of how it affects people when the staff are badly trained to deal with an awkward situation.

To be fair, unless the customer is being stroppy or making it difficult etc that wouldn't be necessary.

Very few people get full rescans anyway.

Where i work you only get a full rescan if you haven't scanned something. Sometimes its a genuine mistake and one item in a £200 shop or they've scanned something multiple times rather then individually that are different flavours of something. Other times people have "accidentally" forgot to scan 30/40 items

Perhaps the member of staff was ND and struggles with some of their day to day tasks.

Sainsbury’s should be reassured with how many posters are taking time to defend their implementation of a process without the resource to support it.

To re-iterate: a full scan was indicated by the hand-set as soon as we reached the Smart Shop check-out. There had been no staff interaction and I would never treat any staff member (overworked and underpaid, just like in NHS) with anything but respect.

Helpful comments have helped me understand this full re-scan was probably prompted by: a couple of products being bought in multiples eg 6 cartons soya milk; a substitution noted on handset (change of mind); and the fact we don’t normally do our big shop at Sainsbury’s.

My main questions was regarding if Sainsbury’s were appropriate to request full re-scans without the resource to support this appropriately. To be honest, so far I’ve not seen any evidence to change my mind, but there’s still time.

When you sign up to do scan and go you agree to their terms and conditions if you dont agree dont use it. Its as simple as that.

I suppose one way to look at it, is that your DC might learn one day (when out shopping on their own) that this may have to happen sometimes so the fact that it happened with you there is all part of the learning/ first experience/ process for them.

I wouldn’t be happy to piling the shopping on the floor. If this ever happens again and if there are no check outs available I would suggest getting another big trolley and scanning everything from one trolley to the next.

I have an ND child.

in a similar situation I would have built up to this.

so rather than doing a whole weeks’ shopping at once I would have split up the tasks.

so first time in might be buy a mars bar at the self service tills with cash.
then a small item with card

once used to that then I’d start to build up to getting a few items and using bags (the bags often need checking).

Come on....no one is berating the OP but you can't possibly expect tolerance for yourself and not see how could the staff member possibly have flunked this....poor training, first time dealing with this sort of situation, or even the staff member having a disability/ mental impairment too! The world is imperfect unfortunately and you can't expect that everything will go exactly as you expect it to go, unfortunately having a disability does not entitle you to that certainty....

Yes thats why Im now wondering if the staff member has SEN/LD of some description because of the way OP describes them just standing there, not acting, bit clueless. Sounds like that there is something else going on for them.

You need to check your local supermarkets and see when they have quiet hour. This will help your son gradually get used to the process and it won’t be so overwhelming for him. I know it doesn’t help much now because you’ve been yesterday but I work retail and a Sunday wouldn’t be the time I’d pick to get him familiar with shopping. My eldest is autistic and hates supermarkets, if I take him shopping he’s like something from supermarket sweep because his aim is to get in and out as fast as possible so I do understand your situation but unfortunately when they do the checks it doesn’t exclude you because they are picked at random. They should have a proper area for you to put things though, that’s a poor show from them.

Absolutely no-one thinks that it's okay to put the food on the floor. They probably think you've got a tongue in your head and should simply have told the staff that in order to do the re-scan they would have to bring you another trolley. It should have been pretty straightforward to solve.

There should be no need for you to leave your child alone while you fetch it yourself, although this does beg the question how on earth is she going to cope with going away to uni at 18 if she can't stand still for three minutes in a supermarket while you fetch a trolley, or if she can't run and fetch it for you, at 16 years old?

As it was, you ended up going through a normal till so it really wasn't the big drama you are making out. I don't understand why you'd sit in the car and cry over it.

Our local supermarket does 12 items check. Once they wanted me to do queue at the till for a full rescan because the machine broke down, it was relatively big shop with my toddler and baby in the pushchair already tired: I unloaded everything in a shopping trolley and left. Staff member was pissed off but it wasn't really my problem if their equipment don't work.

I did learn a lesson that day and would never use the self-scan system for a whole week shopping. Particularly with my kids in tow.

But I also think it was just a bad idea on your part, and unnecessary. You could have placed your order online minus a couple of days worth shopping, and take your DC out to supermarket for that. Or teach him how to place the order online. Knowing how to do a big shop at the supermarket isn t a necessity anymore.