Having a moan!

[railsquid]

A couple of years ago I nearly had a meltdown at Singapore's Changi Airport because I had to go through their new terminal which is all automatic and for some reason the machine wouldn't weigh my luggage properly no matter what I did. Fortunately I managed to work out what I was "doing wrong", as working out what is going wrong with "machines" (more precisely thinking through permutations of parameters and decision paths embodied therein by the people who made the programs powering said machines) is sort of the day job, but I am really really sick and tired of having to think through this stuff when I'm not on the clock.

Fortunately I live in Japan, which people seem to think is run by robots, but things like self-checkouts are very rare.

[ntpntpntp]

dont worry the 5 checkout staff per store didnt want there jobs

Why not increase the prices 10 fold, can support extra staff then? The list of roles which have been made redundant by technology is massive; it's just another example.

Yep, that's progress for you. Harsh but the shop is there to run a business, it doesn't owe people jobs.

I bet people use a self-service fuel pump when you fill up?   I don't think I've seen an attended pump in all the decades I've been on the road, although there are probably some still out there somewhere.  Do you expect a discount for serving yourself? Or for paying at pump rather than in the kiosk?

[themadhippy]

The cheap supermarkets manage to minimise overheads by

screwing there suppliers for the lowest possible price,otherwise we wont stock any of your products.
Local company was after the contract to provide one of the large chains with there "own brand" product range,to get the contract they had to provide the elcheapo version at less than a penny ,in store it sells for around 30p,the poncy supper dupper expensive that goes for around a quid ,8p per item.if the supermarket decides to do an in store offer they'll pass that reduction onto there supplier.The company involved make more profit from selling there waste products for pig food than from the supermarket.If they decide to end the contract said supermarket would also remove the companys own products from the shelfs.

[Steven B]

I always go for a staffed check-out rather than a scan-it-yourself unless the queues are long. Even for a few items it's always quicker as you're not having to wait for the machine to weight each item before scanning the next one and there's never the problem of having an "unexpected item in the bagging area".

There's also usually only one member of staff looking after the self-service tills. This isn't normally a problem in a small shop where there's three or four of them, but in a large store where there can be a dozen you end up spending ages waiting for someone to accept your unexpected item, authorise an alcohol purchase or otherwise tell the system what it should be doing.

Steven B.

[joe cassidy]

Sorry, I prefer the self-service checkout at my local Carrefour.

It works well there's less queue and the checkouts are more than 1 metre apart.

[Philip.]

Always use the self service checkouts ["Elf service" at Christmas  ] The only drawback is waiting for a human to authorise my case of Estrella 

[joe cassidy]

In France alcoholic beverages are considered to be food items 

You can buy beer/wine in bakeries or butchers' shops.

[thebrighton]

So what if self service tills do save the shop a little money?  Some of that helps to keep overheads (and hence prices) down.   Sorry but I really don't understand this attitude of "I won't use them unless I get a discount".   

My wife works in retail and a couple of months ago the 8 tills in her shop were cut to 2 with 5 self service followed by 4 members of staff being made redundant. They are there purely for profit but if you are happy to become a temporary unpaid employee whilst people are made redundant that's up to you.

[Southerngooner]

Strange, I've never seen beer or wine for sale in any bakeries or butchers around here...unless I've been distracted by the cakes!

Dave

[LASteve]

Horses for courses, really. I enjoy chatting to the checkers at my local market while they scan my stuff, but if I'm in a hurry and I don't have a lot of items I'll use self-checkout. The annoying bit is that if I have alcohol I have to be "age-verified" so I can't use self-service. I use a club card; how hard is it to add "age verified" to my club profile so when I swipe my card I'm good to go at self-check?

[themadhippy]

The annoying bit is that if I have alcohol I have to be "age-verified" so I can't use self-service. I use a club card; how hard is it to add "age verified" to

once they've a camera,finger print reader and iris scanner fitted to prove its you and not some 12 year old whos " borrowed " your card.

[LASteve]

The annoying bit is that if I have alcohol I have to be "age-verified" so I can't use self-service. I use a club card; how hard is it to add "age verified" to

once they've a camera,finger print reader and iris scanner fitted to prove its you and not some 12 year old whos " borrowed " your card.

Or they can just have someone look at me and press the thumbs-up button, pretty much exactly how the checker does it.

[njee20]

So what if self service tills do save the shop a little money?  Some of that helps to keep overheads (and hence prices) down.   Sorry but I really don't understand this attitude of "I won't use them unless I get a discount".   

My wife works in retail and a couple of months ago the 8 tills in her shop were cut to 2 with 5 self service followed by 4 members of staff being made redundant. They are there purely for profit but if you are happy to become a temporary unpaid employee whilst people are made redundant that's up to you.

Sorry, I am. Just like Nick's example I'm also happy putting petrol in my own car, making phone calls without the operator helping, and producing my own documents at work without calling on the typing pool.

[thebrighton]

Sorry, I am. Just like Nick's example I'm also happy putting petrol in my own car, making phone calls without the operator helping, and producing my own documents at work without calling on the typing pool.

Absolutely nothing personal other than replying to your particular post but I'm sure many are of the same opinion and some modernising certainly make things quicker and easier but I wonder how many would have the same opinion if it was their boss that decided their customers could do their job just as well and for free and subsequently make them redundant.

How far are you prepared to go with doing things yourself? Let's use petrol as an extreme example as it has been cited twice.

You're happy to pay at the pump as well as filling your car yourself, fine, but lets take it a step further.

The petrol company sees these economies are working so thinks to themselves how else can they save money. People want petrol and are prepared to do things themselves and it costs us millions every year transporting the petrol from our refinery so how about stopping that so the public have to come to the refinery themselves to fill up. People need petrol so they would have no choice.
We spend millions refining our petrol so lets stop. The public can do it themselves.
We spend millions shipping the oil from overseas. The public can do it themselves.

Yes, I know it's extreme as I mentioned but where will things end? Where is the line when people will say enough is enough?

Going back to supermarkets all I see are long queues at the few remaining tills as people have full trolleys whilst the self service ones remain underused as they are not practical for trolleys and those that are using them are constantly seeking assistance to solve problems.

[Bob Tidbury]

A few years ago a family member was in hospital and we were visiting every day as she was dying from cancer we stayed untill late every night ,
We were running out of everything so on the way home we called in at a large `Tesco 24 hour supermarket  we did  a very large shop with frozen food and every thing  when we got to the till there were three members of staff chatting with each other  ,we waited patiently and they knew we were there ,then two walked away and the one on the till then said you will have to use the self service till `im closing down now .
We went to the self service till and as we had never used one before we asked the young guy if hebcould help js as wd had a full trolley including frozen goods ,HE JUST LAUGHED AND SAID HE WAS FINISHED FOR THE NIGHT .
I was so angry and tired that I turned round and said you WONT  laught when you have to put this lot back on the shelves and I gave the trolley a big shove and sent it carering down the isle  it crashed into a cage  full of stuff waiting to be out on the shelf and everything  fell out and rolled all over the place .
We walked out in disgust and have never been back in that store again .
We went up to Asdas and did the same amount of shopping again this time a very helpfull young man on the till asked us if we needed help packing and called another member of  staff who helped us they chatted with us and asked why we were doing our big shop at half past ten at night when we told them they even pushed the trolly up the hill to the car and unloaded it for us WHAT A DIFERENCE and so friendly and they couldnt have done more to help us .
Bob Tidbury