Having a moan!

[TrevL]

The boss decided we should go to our local Asda for a change.  Wasn't too busy and everyone (apart from a few staff) were wearing masks.
However, when trying to find a checkout, they all had queues six or seven people long.  I prefer going to the manned (womaned?) checkouts, and it seems that everybody in Asda today agreed with me, because, I'm guessing there are about 20 self checkout stations, and not one was being used.
It seems to me the these self checkout stations are a money saving convenience for Supermarkets, but not neccessarily for their customers!

Edit, please feel free to have a moan about anything here.👍

[njee20]

I always use self service unless I've got a massive trolley of shopping.

[thebrighton]

I have never used a self service till and never will until there is a discount for doing so as basically they want me to become a temporary, unpaid member of staff to operate the till for them for their own benefit. I love the bemused faces of staff when they suggest it would be quicker to use the self service till when I point out that if we all did they wouldn't have a job.
It's also amusing watching when I'm queuing as pretty much without fail a member of staff will have to come to the aid of every temporary employee as something always seems to go wrong.
The local Morrisons has just taken out 10 proper tills and added more self service ones leaving 5 actual tills. For heavens sake, most people have a trolley load so how is a small self service till supposed to make things easier? It doesn't, it just creates long queues.

[javlinfaw7]

It gets even more complex tha than that our local Asda has self service tills, self service belts ,self scan pay points as well as normal  tills and a till with access , (not a disabled till as technically they are half the self service tills as they always are waiting repair.) Apparantly since the introduction of the self service tills the amount of carrots sold has  sold has massively increased but the mor expensive weighed  produce has gone down.

[Southerngooner]

We always use self check out if possible, as I don't see the point in queuing unnecessarily. Over here in France they are starting to get them, but the oldies still queue up with their one baguette and expect you to let them go to the front of the queue rather than try out the new tills. They've always got staff on the self checkout as you have to scan a barcode on your reciept before you can get out of the store. Mind you, we move back to the UK next month so I'm sure we will get back into the British swing of things pretty quickly!

Dave

[chrism]

Mind you, we move back to the UK next month so I'm sure we will get back into the British swing of things pretty quickly!

But maybe not in the first fortnight 

[Southerngooner]

Maybe not! Still, more time for model making........

Dave

[dannyboy]

I do not like to use self-service tills. As mentioned by @TrevL and @thebrighton I feel that they are just a way of supermarkets to save a bit of money - if they gave me a couple of Euro on my way out, well that would be different  . I remember one occasion, before lock down when us 'oldies' got our own hour, I had done the shopping, probably 25 - 30 items and I went to the tills, this was about 8.50am. There was a bloke , (I think he is the Manager), talking to a member of staff and when I asked which till was open, he told me that there was not one until 9am and would I use a self-service till please? So I went to the self service tills and asked a member of staff to help me - she ended up putting my shopping through the till for me. 

[steve836]

I personally favour Tescos way of having a gun thingy to scan items as you get them from the shelf. You can then put everything in your bags in the trolley. and go through a separate checkout which only takes a few secs.

[ntpntpntp]

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".   

If we have a large trolley full of stuff it's easier to pile it all out onto the conveyor belt at a manned checkout, sort it onto similar stuff for each shopping bag etc. as it goes through.  For just a bag or two it's quick and easy to use self-service. Whatever route gets us finished and on the way home quicker   (A priority when I'm dragged to Lidl in the evening in the hour before Star Trek is on telly  )   

[themadhippy]

probably 25 - 30 items and I went to the tills, this was about 8.50am. There was a bloke , (I think he is the Manager), talking to a member of staff and when I asked which till was open, he told me that there was not one until 9am and would I use a self-service till please

Id have told him best to stop chatting and get restocking these item in my basket ,bye.

So what if self service tills do save the shop a little money

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

[dannyboy]

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 Nick, I am too cynical to believe that the big stores pass on any savings to the customer. I believe the price that most shops charge is dictated by what a competitor is charging.

[dannyboy]

Id have told him best to stop chatting and get restocking these item in my basket ,bye.

I seriously considered it, but I would then have had to explain to Louisa why I had not got any cat or dog food!  . I enjoy living too much. 

[ntpntpntp]

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 Nick, I am too cynical to believe that the big stores pass on any savings to the customer. I believe the price that most shops charge is dictated by what a competitor is charging.

Which ultimately is still constrained by other costs and overheads of running the stores.  The cheap supermarkets manage to minimise overheads by running with less staff (amongst other things), our local Lidl only ever seems to have maybe 3 staff in the entire store.       

[njee20]

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.

Like Nick I don't get the mentality. I don't believe any savings are directly passed on to the customers, but a reduction in overheads will help to avoid price rises because margins will be bigger. Even if they price at the same price as rivals their overheads will be a massive driver in that.

I'll use the most convenient method, if I'm in a supermarket it's nearly always for a handful of items (big orders are nearly always done online), and for that self service is nearly always quicker IME.