Men at Self-Checkouts

Not an age thing - I used to have to move often and it was just nice to have a chat with someone, during that interim period when I hadn't yet found any new friends.

I hate those checkouts. My local supermarket advertised a new updated store outfitting - when we went along all they had down was take a formerly pleasant flowery area and swapped it for a large square of self-service checkouts. It was empty! On a Saturday afternoon. everyone was queueing up as normal. There had been self-service tills there before, but only four instead of a dozen. DBH usually likes using them, but he doesn't like the feel of the square area, he says.

Is it an age thing though to enjoy a chat with the staff at the check out? I have had some great conversations with Sixth formers working after school,as well as older women and men who are unfailingly cheerful and friendly. Younger shoppers seem much less -- chatty-- communicative!

Same thing is happening in libraries. Instead of a cheerful library assistant greeting you and recommending a book to read, we now have a big black box where we check our books in and out and over half the library staff have been 'let go'.
You can search all around the place and hardly find a member of staff.
Do the powers that be not realise that a friendly word from a librarian might be the only person some lonely soul has spoken to that day?

Sad to say, WHEN cannot really imagine that happening !!

We're with those who avoid self-service tills because of wanting real people who have jobs. The bank machines also sound horrible. One of the reasons I go into the bank is to withdraw money on my card when I want to use small local shops and so do not want £20 notes. If I get the change from the bank, I get it free, whereas if the butcher does it, he has to pay for it. Let's hope the pendulum starts to swing back a bit soon.

GrandmaSandra my DH won't use them for the same reasons, but in my opinion, it's just that men can't multi-task (sweeping generalisation) - you know - scan item, put in bag, heavy items on top of soft etc etc ... I prefer to do my shopping solo these days. At least I get my bread home without a French loaf bent at a right-angle

I don't mind them at all. My DH, on the other hand, refuses to use them, way too technical and complicated for him, haha.

I don't mind self-checkouts. I tend to use them if there are queues where every shopper has piled up trolley. I don't think it will ever get to the stage where they will replace a manned ( can I say that?) checkout.

My granddaughters love them and whizz my stuff through at a rate of knots. They always seem to know where the bar code is too.

I heard that too, sunseeker, I think it was the Jeremy Vine show. Another trick was to put loose fruit and veg through at the cheapest possible rate, as the machine can't tell whether it's a bag of avocados or a bag of spuds!

Nothing to be proud of , in fact should be ashamed, nothing clever in stealing.

:-) :-)

There was a chap on radio the other day who admitted he uses these to steal. He finds two things he wants which weigh the same and then scans the cheapest one twice He has apparently a list of the weight of all the items he usually buys and says he "saves" a lot of money on his weekly shop that way

I won't use the self service check outs on principle. Students need jobs. So do young mum's, school leavers etc, etc. on the rare occasion I have been forced to use one I've always managed to get an assistant to help me - and told her why. A friend who's a security chap in Asda tells me they make shop lifting easier too.

Thanks for that ELOE, she was spot on, I am surprised no other G/Ns have picked up on this. Perhaps it has not happened in their branch yet!

Be afraid though, it IS coming to a branch near you .
What one does, the others follow suit, it is not difficult to do but just seems strange . ^I DON"T KNOW!!!!!!!

Nonu You might be interested in Michele Hanson's column in the Guardian in which she also raged against the march of automation and the closure of her local bank.

www.theguardian.com/money/2014/apr/28/rage-against-machines-people-staffing-banks-cashiers

Nina I was very reluctant when local Mr T installed the shop & scan knowing what a pain the self-service tills were but apart from the first few times where we generated an assistant check (to see if were honestly scanning everything in the trolley I assume) its been quick and easy even scanning all our vouchers correctly.

Its a shame that very few people seem to be trying it though. We love it saves any queuing and goods packed into own bags as we go its much quicker.

These checkouts are quite funny here in our bit of France. People are very suspicious and reluctant to use them so you always have the undivided attention of the bored attendant. The technology doesn't allow you to put a bag on first so you put it all in the bagging area and then bag it after you have paid. Though the one in our supermarket claims to speak English, no one has translated the fruit and veg so every item says datdata which is a puzzler for tourists. Apart from that it works really well.

In late September, when the new batch of students arrives, the supermarkets here are in chaos. Hordes of young persons who apparently never went shopping with Mummy or Daddy and who have no idea how supermarkets work. Not like my DGS who are all extremely good shoppers, even to the extent of spotting all the special offers and enthusiastically dealing with the self- service check-out. The supermarket behaviour I can't stand is the mainly women who start putting their stuff on the conveyor belt and then go off to finish their shopping, tying up the checkout and holding up the queue.

tanith You are lucky to have shop n scan near you. DD's Tesco had them in Surrey but I've never seen them in Kent.
I think it's a great system.

I would do that with the bags on the scales POGS but the scales won't let me in Sainsburys. "Unexpected item in the bagging area!"
It would make it easier.

I like these, and always use them, now that I have become used to them. They are much better than those lanes which clearly state 'baskets only' or '8 items only', then folk queue here with trolleys full! And, of course if someone does take rather long on one till, it is always possible to move to a vacant one. Packing is easier too, I have three 'stand alone' bags which I put on the scales to start with, then choose what to scan and which bag to put it in, ready for home. NO! I am not that well organised, but I do TRY!

Talking about self service, they have installed self -service machines in our bank and done away with the tellers.

I cannot believe it, I said to the girl well surely this puts people out of jobs and she replied "Oh no it doesn't" could have fooled me!!!!!!

It does not impress me one bit !!

<LE BIG SIGH>

I am sure the OP was written and meant in a very tongue in cheek kind of way Eloethan, well that's certainly the way I took it anyway.

I think the self service ones are good for some people who may be embarrassed about buying certain items!! Condoms/personal hygiene stuff/hemoroid cream etc as you scan them yourself.

morning Eloethan - thanks for helping me begin the day with a positive approach, and for expressing my feeling so much better than I can

In the past, the promise was that technology and automation would bring increased leisure to people. Well, that's certainly happened, but the increased leisure hasn't meant that people's working hours across the board have been reduced but that significant numbers of people have very few, or no, working hours.

Instead of paying the increased taxes arising from the increased profits that are made due to the reduction in staff costs, large national and multi national companies are using every loophole available to cut their tax bills. That "missing" tax could be used to properly re-skill people to do essential jobs such as nursing, teaching, caring, and to carry out infrastructure and housing projects that would again employ large numbers of people.

By the way, if the original post had been written by a man talking about women, or a young person talking about old people, I'm sure many of us would be annoyed.