Self service supermarket checkout.

I do use these (Sainsburys) when I have just a few things or if I am feeling grumpy - Sainsburys staff must be trained to ask the same questions, how are you today, what have you got planned - and I don't like to tell them that I feel like crap and plan to go home and eat a whole tub of ice cream!!

I do find it quicker to use the self service till and so far have had few problems.

I do use the diy tills when I only have a few items, but to do away with manned tills before 9am is not a good idea. It is nigh on impossible to put a trolley full of groceries through the diy till, so this would mean basket only shopping before 9am. I very often get to Tesco (nearest supermarket) between 7.30 and 8am to do my main shop as it's nice and quiet at that time, and I'm an early riser anyway, so a similar move by Tesco would definitely not suit me, nor, I suspect, many others. I do think that customer service counts for very little generally these days, customers are like buses to the main supermarkets, miss out on one, there'll be another along in a minute!

They see me coming and go on strike! I always have to call for help.

I use the diy tills quite often, and I don't mind them for a few items.

However, if you are holding a handbag and a shopping bag, you need another arm/hand unless you put the bags on the floor!

I do shout at the till when IT makes a stupid mistake

I loathe the self service tills; it always takes 2x as long so I prefer to queue at a manned one. There is always a problem with a price or weight and the machine is constantly telling me off for doing this or not doing that (yes, I too shout back at them and use very naughty words ) and I have to have assistance most times. If they have staff helping at the self service tills why on earth can't they man the ordinary tills - it would be so much quicker. The very unhappy staff at our local Asda were encouraging us all to fill in complaint forms as there are to be redundancies.

I always use the self-service tills when I only have a few items. I find them easy and convenient, - but I do worry that staff might lose their jobs because of them, so make a point of NOT using the self service ones if I have more than a few items.
I did once have a big argument with a self-service till in Asda. It kept telling me that there was an 'unauthorised item in bagging area'. I found myself shouting back at it very loudly, much to the amusement of people around me.

I agree totally Gally. I hate them with a vengence and any supermarket which forces me to use them will lose my custom. I would rather queue than use them and judging by the number of times I have noticed people in a queue being asked if they would like to use one, so do lots of others. Occasionally an assistant has done it for me (I have to be REALLY desperate!) and even that seems to take longer.

Shopping is stressful enough without self service tills they drive me mad,I have used them once in Morrisons and ended up with an assistant to help so what is the point ? What will happen in the 24hr supermarkets will they go all self service as well as ? reducing the staff to just a few people ?

The new checkouts being installed seem to have conveyor belts, so don't quite know how they are going to work. Maybe they will make it easier to handle a large shop. I shall give them a try before making my complaint, don't know when they will be in operation.
I like to be behind another customer when emptying my trolley, giving me time to sort the goods into which cupboard/fridge they are to go in, then I can bag accordingly.

I try not to use them on principle but suspect that supermarkets plan manning the tills so that one is tempted by the self-serve ones which they can then say are being used a lot.

We also have those self-scanning ones in Tesco. I hate those with a vengeance as I'm convinced I am conditioned, after 44 years of blinking shopping, to just sling stuff straight in the trolley and then I will be caught trying to shoplift.

I like self service tills. Reminiscent of playing shops.

I use the Waitrose Quick Scan, which is a hand held scanner which you use as you walk around the shop. You just scan your item and pop it in your shopping bag. At the end, you scan to end your shop and then pay. No queuing. Saves loads of time.

I don't like the self service scanner where you have to scan your shopping all in one go at the end. A real hassle!

That's what I was talking about janthea - I think it would require too much concentration on my part.

Our local Tesco Express have just taken their self-service tills back out. Too difficult to control the level of theft, apparently.

O M G !!!!

You do live in an area where there are a high number of deprived families.

Playing shop
jingl sometimes you do so hit the nail on the head

I would not use a supermarket that was self service before 9am. I will not use them at any other time of day either. When assistants try to be helpful and suggest I use them I point out that she is talking herself out of a job. When we are all using the self service they will hire less staff. The tills are ridiculous, they are not faster they are inventions of the devil.

I HATE them!
I refuse to be able to use them - means I always do something wrong....

So I avoid them unless desperate...........

Hate the self service in the library too - I used to think of it as a friendly place, now I don't know the assistants at all! Unless something goes wrong you don't get to speak to anyone.

I refuse to use them. When a supervisor comes and tells me there is one free, I explain that I do not wish to make her (it is usually a woman) redundant. They usually say thanks.

I use the self-service just to prove to myself and others that I am not old and doddery, however, when the Sainsbury's recorded message keeps telling me what to do (I know what to do I am just slow), I hear myself saying 'shut up I am doing it as fast as I can'. On occasions an expletive comes out too.

I don't want to be banned from Sainsbury's for bad language.

By the way I am a dab hand at using the 'do it yourself' blood pressure monitor at the Doctors. I have even been known to show other patients. I wonder if they think I have been employed by the Surgery to represent the older members of the community !

I really don't mind them but I agree with you, durhamjen when it comes to job losses for supermarket staff. On the other hand, I do do all my big shopping online, which I suppose amounts to the same thing... [guilty emoticon]

Sounds like they are beginning to make the surgery self service too.....

I use the scan-it-yourself at Tescos and now that I have got used to it I don't mind it. To start with I was petrified that I would miss scanning something, but now I get one of the trolleys with a separate section at the frone. I put several things into that, then pause and scan them all one by one and transfer them into my bag in the main part of the trolley. Then I move on to select more things.