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)

Why couldn’t the op go get another trolley or just use a staffed checkout.

So people like Ops child who have ND give shit service?

Sainsbury's have got really bad. One manned till open if you're lucky. Often with half a dozen trollies waiting. Massive but also cramped self scan area with one poor member of staff trying to cover it all. They have really ramped back on customer service levels. But it's my nearest full service supermarket so I still go.

And those Deliveroo handsets constantly beeping! Do they not have a mute? How do the staff cope?

Fill in the survey on the till receipt and tell them you aren't happy! All of us.

I worked for them a decade ago and I would hear managers say things like 'We don't want to do X, we have different company values. A lot of this was about things like animal welfare. The way the store has gone downhill makes me wonder if the changes are wider.

I suspect that Sainsbury’s do have the procedure and resource in place ie for a full rescan customer is directed to a till, but this staff member was not aware of that. I think that’s the issue I don’t t think there was ever an expectation by Sainsbury’s that you put the shopping on the floor; but they’re clearly not training staff properly.

OPs child was being served. Did you not read the post?

You said shit service. I’m asking what about those people who work in shops who are ND like ops son.

i think the OP found the solution. But she shouldn't have to. The staff should come over and say "ok you need to rescan the whole lot, here's a 2nd trolley I'll scan it into that" or "ok you need to rescan the whole lot, we'll do it at this closed till"

it is not rocket science on behalf of the people working in the shop. I would not have gone to the back of a queue to use a staffed checkout if the shop wanted a rescan. At that point i'd have given them the lot and said give me a refund and put it all back.

As for pp with the "we didn't negotiate the terms". WTF? The terms in a shop doing self scan are "do this, here are the rules" and if you don't like it? you go to another shop or use another method.

But the op said there was only 1 new staff member to man 20 tills, hardly the staff members fault they are short staffed or whatever. Op needs to take some responsibility. She could have easily grabbed the trolley herself and left her son for a few minutes or asked her son too, I’m sure he would have managed.

I understand your frustration and as someone who works in food retail I get it from both sides- customer is pissed with lack of staff and badly planned out tasks like this needing to be completed and the staff are too. It’s

But your son was fine, he did really well and hopefully the more times you take him shopping (and this type of issue will come up in other shops. Literally had it happen to me in Tesco before) the more used to it he will get and these annoying bumps in the road will come up but be not such a big deal.

I'm confused. What did they ask you to do? Re scan your whole trolley YOURSELF at the self service checkout?

I've only ever done self scan like this at Tesco but if it said I needed a check the staff member did this for me? I would never start taking out my whole trolley full of shopping and put it on the floor. I'd just say okay cool, off you go and rescan it.

Next time just leave the trolley. No need to let a stupid store reduce you to tears and I think your children would learn more from knowing they have the option to walk away. It's less stressful that way.

Abandoning a fully loaded trolley sends a message to headquarters. Sucks for the staff, but neither you nor they are to blame for stupid management decisions and ultimately the store loses money if their already short staffed stores are tied up with having to put back all the products.

I'll read the thread in a minute but wouldn't the most simple solution have been for you, your son or a member of staff to just get another trolley to move stuff into as it was checked?

What about those people? What are you talking about?

Fuck knows. Some PPs are so determined to say OP is wrong for not wanting to tip her shopping all over the floor that they've made up a whole backstory for the shop assistant. He's autistic, apparently, according to them. Probably only got one leg as well. And his pet hamster is poorly. Maybe.

The pp said that ND have the right to work. What if the person serving the op was ND that’s what I’m talking about.

Well you don’t know. Better not to judge. I’m sure when ops son gets a job she would not like people to make judgements on his ability.

You would think this was the most obvious solution.

What if the person serving OP was not?

Why are you making up stories. You read a stranger’s post on the internet about another stranger about an interaction summed up in about 15 words. And from that you diagnosed that this person working in the supermarket was ND.

Quit making up stories.

However, it's better not to judge.

This was obviously an a challenging situation for you as your DC is autistic, although it sounds that they coped well.

I think the fact that that the staff member didn't know how to go about re-scanning your full trolley was disappointing/annoying. I certainly wouldn't have put my shopping on the floor.

Where I shop I've had random scans for 10 items, 20 items and a full weekly shop. The latter was a real pain as I had timed my shop with a train station pick up but at least the lady took me directly to an unmanned till and scanned everything efficiently. Although the other shoppers had to wait at the self service tills why this happened. I get why you have random checks as I'm sure people do steal but they brought this technology in to reduce staff numbers but at the same time don't trust their regular customers.

It really doesn’t send a message to “headquarters”. They either won’t hear about it or won’t care. Really. Just means someone has to return all items to their rightful place or chuck it if appropriate (fridge and frozen items).

I’ll do what I like thank you very much. It’s a perfectly valid question. I suggest you leave the thread if you’re getting so worked over a discussion. It’s controlling behaviour to police someone else.