Self service supermarket checkout.

grannyactivist forgive me if I'm being a bit thick, but I don't get your logic about the Quick Scan not taking anyones job. Surely if everyone used it they wouldn't need the checkout staff

Janthea, ours were only about six months old because the branch only opened late last year but I read it in a national newspaper before I noticed ours had gone...

hate them! grrrrrrr don't think I have ever got through and Asda one yet! without it asking for assistance... and if you happen to have any that should be in every GNetters basket then you have no chance....or paracetomol. I use the ones at Tesco and never have any problem it's just the Asda ones.

Mollie My local Waitrose have just put in self service tills, together with the the Quick Scan tills. I can't imagine they will take them out just yet.

I'm surprised that Asda are adding more as Waitrose have announced they are taking theirs out due to pilfering! There were a few in my local branch and they've disappeared already. I don't mind using them at all but I can see the potential for stealing...

I resent being forced into anything, so stood my ground when a very bossy Asda lady with a huge foam hand on a stick pointed me to the self-service tills. When I said that I would prefer to keep her in work, she actually claimed that she got a bonus for getting shoppers to use them! She then proceeded to talk to me like a frail little old lady and put my goods through self service while I stood stonily next to her a la Les Dawson, arms firmly crossed over my bosom. I really enjoyed the succession of faults and queries and messages about unexpected items in her bagging area. And when I eventually got out of the store I found I hadn't been charged for the big box of Thorntons. I really should have gone back....

I often use the self service tills, but only with a few items. I have a problem now and again but they usually save time.

We were on holiday once in Italy and were queuing in a supermarket. I could see the self service till wasn't being used so I wondered over to have a look at it, as they were firmly new at the time. It had different flags on the screen so I pressed the Union Jack and everything came up in English.

DH and I quickly processed our basket but all the assistants came rushing over as they hadn't heard the till speaking English before! They just watched and chatted amongst themselves and shook their heads in amazement.

Do English tills have other language options I wonder?

I rarely choose to use a self service checkout because I don't want to do the job of an employee. I do however like using the Quick Check scanner at Waitrose because I know they're not doing anyone out of a job and it is quick and easy to use. There is a Waitrose opening in Devon soon that used to be a Co-Op store employing sixty staff. Waitrose are keeping those staff and employing SIXTY MORE to run the same shop. I really don't mind paying the extra to shop at Waitrose because as employers they are brilliant and the quality of the food and customer service are just so good.

They are a pain in the proverbial and I refuse to use them. I'd rather queue for a human check out - which says something!

I use quickscan at waitrose as well.

frone? front.

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.

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

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]

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 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 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 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.

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

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

O M G !!!!

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

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

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!

I like self service tills. Reminiscent of playing shops.