Sainsbury’s try out in one store.

If I am directed to the self service tills in our Sainsbury’s I always ask if they are going to give me a discount for doing it myself. DH and I don’t have smart phones so wouldn’t shop there with just those checkouts available.

Nope! You're not the only one! I'm no technophobe, but can foresee all sorts of problems with this idea. Will be interesting to watch the programme . . .

That would be me and hubby gone then as well. Not paying on my phone.

Sainsbury's self service tills never work properly. I never get problems with the self service tills in Asda, Waitrose or M&S, but if I use the ones in Sainsbury's, I have to call an assistant sometimes as much as 3 times because the machine doesn't register the goods properly.

It starts off by requesting that if you have your own bags, you place them in the bagging area and press "Start". As soon as I do that, before I begin putting any items through, the machine announces "Unexpected item in the bagging area"...... and I have to call the assistant. And so it goes on.

If other supermarkets can have quick and easy checkouts that don't have all these hiccups, why can't Sainsbury's?

We always use self scanning in Waitrose, but if I pop into Sainsbury’s and go to the self service checkout, I always seem to mess it up and an assistant has to come and sort it out.

If I’m with my nine year old granddaughter, she takes over, and it goes without a hitch!

They would lose my custom too, as I would not like to pay with my phone.

I regularly use self scanning without any problems in both the Co-op and Waitrose (using the “zapper”)

However I have not yet once got through a Sainsbury’s self scan without the inevitable problem in the bagging area
Sad, that’s another raft of jobs down the pan.

I wouldn't go in there anyway because I don't possess a mobile.

It won`t work in my neck of the woods

I already object to being harassed to use Sainsbury's Nectar app as I prefer not to use a mobile phone for shopping. If they introduce only paying by phone they will also lose my custom.

I won’t self serve anywhere, on principle. It takes away the need to employ someone!

I went to a huge Asda recently and the checkouts were all self-service.
I vowed never to go there again.

Sorry, Sainsbury's this is several steps too far. I do not bank using my phone and not everyone has a smart phone anyway.

Or a mobile EllanVannin!

And do they say what people without mobiles should do?

I have had to use self service tills but would prefer to have an assistant serve me.I feel should move with the times but I only need a basic phone so would have to buy a more expensive one .I also have had the same problem with my on line banking ,they have asked me to have facial recognition on a state of the art phone .Oh dear I never thought at 65 I would feel left behind!

A checkout-free Sainsbury's branch has reinstalled its tills after just three months because customers chose to queue at the helpdesk to pay in the traditional way, rather than use the app.

This was in September this year in Holborn Circus.

They obviously haven't taken the hint!!

In terms of Sainsbury's overall operating costs, dispensing with the checkout operators would achieve very little - shelf-stacking, warehousing and administration are much bigger costs. I doubt whether they would even cut any staff, the savings would not justify the aggravation.

But the REAL saving would be in getting rid of all those pesky checkouts. They can get 8 self-service checkouts in the space previously taken up by 2 "ordinary" checkouts. All the gained space could be used to bring in extra franchises (our local Sainsbury's has a branch of Jessop's Photographers) or just extra shelving to increase the number of products carried by each branch.

Will they lose customers? Maybe - maybe not. Conventional thinking is that location is the major factor in people's decision which supermarket to use. Even those of us who don't like this particular example of "progress" will be forced to come back when all the other supermarkets in the area follow suit (and trust me, they will).

lefthanded
(who was a retail manager (but not for Sainsbury's) in a previous lifetime).

The thing with self service is that there are usually two staff members spending their time sorting out bagging areas that have unexpected items in.

They may as well hop onto a till, I always think.

Exactly MissA!

Great point MissA!

Yes - but those two staff members are serving 8 customers. In a conventional checkout setup they would only be serving 2 customers.

They may be serving 8 customers, but not all at once, so customers are waiting for assistance. I know they’d probably normally be waiting in a checkout queue, but at least that keeps people employed.

A Sainsburys store trying this out was on TV last night. It pointed out there was one 'secret till' and the queue for that was very long (not so secret) Apparently 3/4 of sales made were at that till.

Some people even walked out when it was explained they could only pay by phone.

I am asked to use the self scan gizmo every time I visit my local Sainsburys, each time I say no. I also receive emails urging me to download the app onto my phone, something else I won't do.

It seems Sainsburys is trying to "encourage" customers to use the app or self scan checkouts as the last time I noticed fewer checkouts were open (all with long queues) and staff hovering around the self scan and smart checkouts.

I would walk straight out of that Sainsbury's store. (I do have a smart phone but I hate the "self-service" and I always use the "person" checkouts.) Perhaps Sainsbury's have no regard for the older shopper and the "grey pound"?