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To employ checkout staff and do away with self serve?
http://metro.co.uk/2018/03/25/sainsburys-beefs-security-self-service-section-crack-thieves-7415984/
Those machines are hateful things. I rarely manage to complete a shop without needing the assistant to verify the weight of an item or to check I am of legal age.
Maybe.
of course, machines don’t have any employment rights, they don’t need holidays, they don’t have hangovers, etc.
and of course, one operator can effectively operate 4-8 lines at one time.
Depends where you shop.
Waitrose only have one member of staff to “assist” and no visiable security guards (heaven forbid) at my local branch..
The only issue I’ve ever had are those scanner things, I’ve had to get the shopping re-run through once in all the time I’ve been shopping at Waitrose.
Local Co-op has two security guards and about 1.4bn cameras in the shop..
You'll take my self scanner from my cold dead hands, OP.
Can't stand automated checkouts.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper
No.
Otherwise thats what they would be doing.
Another one of it works if you can work it, perhaps a test on the entry lane to weed out those who will be trouble but I bet they were the ones with 15 items in the express lane before
I currently live in a country where non-skilled employees are so cheap that you have your bags packed at the supermarket, trolley filled, pushed to the car if you wish (pregnant wife with pushchair took advantage of that this evening), whilst someone has been cleaning your truck from top to button for £3, before someone else fills it with petrol on the way home so you don't have to leave your car (or even switch the engine off - the thrill of actually seeing the needle rise is still amusing).
Lots of jobs, but they are low paying and pretty rubbish. The guys, almost all Nepali or Indian, get more cash from expat tips than anything, I think! Seriously, they're on about £150 a month (albeit net of food, living, healthcare) each month, but there's still a queue round the block for them back home...
I'd much rather people did other jobs than serve at checkouts, much like I'd rather see combine harvesters than people crushing their backs in fields.
It's progress, and I've got the unfortunate view of life a hundred years ago (!), and all the better.
I stopped using a couple of local shops who didn't have a staffed checkout.
self scan my ar*e
self scan my ar*e
The barcode scanner would struggle to interpret just the one broad line
It just shows how much profit these supermarkets make if they can survive that amount of thieving.
Love self scan. No queues, much quicker.
Plus it's clearly cheaper for the supermarkets, or they wouldn't all be doing it .
just shows how much profit these supermarkets make if they can survive that amount of thieving.
Looking at their published accounts shows you much the same thing, but slightly more accurately 👍
km79, yes theft happens but the stores lose much more in shoplifting than automated till scams
Did anyone read the article about the German guy who tried to pass off some veal liver as a bag of fruit in a supermarket in Munich?
He was fined £183k !!
Bit harsh, but it's based on earnings so he was probably earning a shed load each month?
self scan my ar*e
Unexpected item in bagging area
Unexpected item in teabagging area
He was fined £183k !!
Bit harsh, but it’s based on earnings so he was probably earning a shed load each month?
Was he not a serial offender who could blatantly afford it so they threw the book at him? A punishment that will make him think at least.
I have a feeling that this might be one of those few times ‘efficiency’ gets a boot up the arse.
I actually like the things, I like the handheld ones even more, and yeah I ‘forget’ to the scan the odd thing.
Ultimately though the role of an economy should be to offer everyone the opportunity for ‘a fair days pay for a fair days work’ and all that - not just to replace 6 people with a bank of DIY tills to earn the shareholders a few extra quid so if the supermarkets get rumped for a few quid for being greedy I won’t lose any sleep over it.
Was he not a cereal offender who could meuseli afford it
FIFY
I wouldn’t mind them as much if the savings were passed on to customers.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Must admit that I love Pay at pump when getting petrol though. Mainly because I look like an idiot when I just vaguely point at the car and say “The dirty blue thing” to the person behind the counter. All because I never look at the pump number and forget what make the car is!
I rarely manage to complete a shop without needing the assistant to verify the weight of an item or to check I am of legal age
I purposefully buy something that needs to be authed by an assistant, every single time, out of principle.
Just doing my bit to keep the attendants busy, and not underworked.
Must admit that I love Pay at pump
and squeeze the last bit really slowly to make sure you pump an exact £xx.00 to the penny? to make sure the people in the queue still have to wait? rather than just stopping when it cuts out?
I don't think self scan checkouts are cheaper to run, otherwise Lidl and aldi would have them. With all the theft, constant calibrations of the weighing mechanism etc etc
Depends where you shop.
Waitrose only have one member of staff to “assist” and no visiable security guards (heaven forbid) at my local branch..
I hate the things, my worse experience was in Waitrose. Scanned through some alcohol free beer which to my surprise needed age verification. The attendant was dealing with the members free coffee machine and blanked me for 5 minutes!
Frictionless retail is where it's going, see Amazon Fresh
I don’t think self scan checkouts are cheaper to run, otherwise Lidl and aldi would have them.
It's not compatible with their 3 members of staff in a shop business model, it's cheaper for your traditional supermarkets and the model they are working with. Aldi/Lidil work on a very different model and it's not going to work for them.
Asda in particular seem to be doing everything they can to make the tills as slow as possible to force people in to the self service/self scan
Also and Lidl are quick, much quicker than self service. Any other supermarket just feels like a painfully waste of time as some lethargic till clerk gently moves each item over the barcode reader while watching the clock.
Self scan with handset thing as you go round = heaven
Stupid self scan as you checkout thing = hell
Lidl do have self service, at least my local one does, but as above - it takes longer than a served till. Just handy if there is a massive queue and only 2 checkouts.
My Lidl also has self serve. Time it right and it works great.
I do love the buy one get one free machines. The scanners can't keep up with me, no one ever checks what you're scanning so occasionally something might end up in the bag that I didn't pay for.
The scanners can’t keep up with me, no one ever checks what you’re scanning so occasionally something might end up in the bag that I didn’t pay for.
Must be a different machine to the rest of us as the scales require you to put the item in the bagging area so it can check the weight before letting you scan again.
Self scan in traditional supermarkets is so much faster than going through conventional checkouts IME. I've become so accustomed to quickly progressing through Aldi checkouts that having to do a 'normal' checkout is a painfully painfully slow process. So much faster to self checkout, though a lot does depend on how good the self-checkout tills are. Waitrose ones seem very good, Sainsburys ones are a bit crap, and Asda ones are middling.
Pay at pump I do like. Pull up on the right hand side of the pump while folks queue on the left as they don't realise the hose is long enough to reach the other side of their car. Card in, fill with fuel and away in no time at all while the nodders are still queuing. Lovely job.
"something might end up in the bag that I didn’t pay for."
Shoplifting, it's a victimless crime isn't it?
Big fan of self scan checkouts. I rarely buy more than a basket full at the supermarket so it's quicker and easier for me to use them. Only ball ache is if I have the odd impulse punches dvd or cd. Even with the 'un expected item' chime it's quicker than using the spotty than on the basket Isle.
Would I put one in my own shop 100% no, it's a local village shop and customer interaction is partly why we are still surviving.....
Anyone remember Kwik Save - the cashiers there had to memorise all the prices each week and key them in manually. They were so fast...Those were the days...
The scanners can’t keep up with me, no one ever checks what you’re scanning so occasionally something might end up in the bag that I didn’t pay for.
Where is this fictional supermarket that doesn’t turn off the scanner until it has weighed the item you’ve just scanned ?
Hand held scanner with shopping going straight in to the bags in the trolley and no waiting in mind numbing queues ..whats not to like?
Occasionally delayed for an item check ..usually 5-6 purchases still makes the whole process a lot quicker ..the only time it wasn't was when we did our pre Christmas shop and every purchase had to be checked ..
The whole process must save at least 15 minutes of boredom standing in line ..
I'm a huge fan .
Hateful? First world, or what.
I’d much rather people did other jobs than serve at checkouts
Shelf stacking for Amazon?
They've installed them in my local Poundland. I know, I know but I can buy the same face wipes (for Mrs Z) and my preferred deodorant for much less than half the price elsewhere. The "average" Poundland customer struggles with them and they've closed the other tills.
The attendant has to intervene on nearly every transaction. Grrrrrrrr.
I’d much rather people did other jobs than serve at checkouts
I know a couple of people who quite enjoy working at checkouts. You can chat to people and its an indoor job with no heavy lifting.
Not everbody's cut out to be a brain surgeon.
I think there are settings to change the sensitivity if the kit.
co op in one part of town is very much harder to use than one in a much nicer part of town. The one in the sink estate blocks the scanner at the slightest thing and needs attendant to clear it.
There's some cracking filly on the tills at my local Waitrose, long may they continue!
Hate the self serve machines. Why should I have to obey some plastic junk that can't understand that I have a rucksack not a plastic bag? Click the 'I've brought my own bag' icon, put it on the scales and all hell breaks loose!
I seem to remember Morrisons saying they were going to get rid of them after some campaign or another a few years ago. They seem to be reproducing in my local store. Well, the new offspring are there but they're always broken with a plastic bag on their heads. Do new machines have to go through their teenage years before they work properly??