Self Service Checkouts Yay or Nay!

Yay and Nay.

Yay, when I am in a hurry and only have a couple of items

Nay, when I am shopping for a friend as well as myself and have a trolley with a lot of items in it.

I'm not keen on them .So a nay from me .

Harrigran I must share your shifty look, but only when I’ve bought food from the hot counter. Can a till sense a hot pizza?
If I have to choose between queueing whilst people chat or self serve or even better, scan and go, my choice is always scan and go or self scan. It means I can fit in shopping in lunch hour if necessary.
Whilst there are still manned tills, I think we get the best of both worlds. They’ll keep some open for those who want/need them rather than lose customers.

For food shopping they are usually bearable but for clothes it's a nightmare. M&S machines are particularly rubbish.

I’ll use them when I have only a few things, but there’s frequently some problem. My main gripe is that they so often object to my fairly heavy duty fabric shopping bags - ‘Unexpected item in bagging area’ - even when they’re empty - which is a tedious PITA. Evidently they like only bog standard plastic supermarket bags.

More than just maybe a dozen things, and I go to a manned (personned?) checkout, whether there’s a queue or not. All too often the fairly small Sainsbury’s in the town centre (I do most of my shopping elsewhere) has nobody on the checkouts at all.

I like them. On the rare occasion I am in a supermarket I don’t have many items. I don’t like the idea that people will lose their jobs though.

If there are no manned checkouts open I just walk away and leave my trolley as a protest. Management, if any, will then be aware of the financial loss but also of the need for a staff member to spend time putting everything back. I have also taken the time to put in a formal complaint. For every one who does this there are many customers who just decide to shop elsewhere. Don't let customer service be eroded in a blind pursuit of profits.

I much prefer them. I can take care of any fresh fruits and vegetables in my trolley, and put them down carefully. I don't think supermarket staff are trained any more with handling produce gently (they probably don't have time either!).

I like self-service checkouts and usually use them for day-to-day shopping, as long as I remember to take the right bag with me. As said above, they only like particular light-weight bags and take a lot of persuading that my cotton tote bags really is empty!
For a 'big shop' I prefer a staffed checkout and enjoy a chat as we work.

I like them for smaller amounts of shopping. I don't think I could cope with them for my big weekly shop.
I did once lose my temper with one in Asda when the voice kept telling me there was an unidentified object in the bagging area. I shouted back at it ,"I know", loudly, to everyone's surprise, including mine. I felt so silly.
But yes, for small amounts of shopping they are really great and it saves queueing.

Use Sainsbury’s smart shop in the big supermarket, self service till in the little Sainsbury’s down my road and self service in Aldi’s. M & S Food Halls system are much better now than at their inception.

I always tell the very nice lady who mans the self service area in our local Aldi that I have alcohol before starting checking out so that she can clear that I am old enough 🤣

Never used them in any other shops.

I like them

I never use them. I do a big weekly shop and prefer to go to a manned till.

On the very odd occasion when I have tried using them, I seem to get in a muddle with shop card, credit card, any coupons I have, and feel foolish and dread holding people up.

Much prefer patiently waiting to be ‘served’. Now I’m retired, not in a hurry either.

If my supermarket offered scan and shop, I think I would like that, but they don’t.

I like the opportunity and will use them as long as they also take cash. They are quicker and I can pack my bags in my own time. Waitrose last week, a serviced checkout, very nice man but heck he stopped and chatted with everyone while I was itching to get on my way

Having a choice is the important thing, I’d have thought. I’ll use the SS tills for small amounts although I inadvertently had a free leek from the supermarket recently when using one. I hadn’t bought loose f&v before and the assistant came over, weighed the leek and stuck a label on it, which I then put it in my bag (it was one of those small SS tills). It was only when I checked the receipt when I got home and the leek wasn’t on it that I realised I should scanned the label on it - I think I assumed the weighing machine also scanned and added it to the bill automatically! 😳😳😳

I do find some of them cramped with not enough space for a trolley and bags esp if you have a bigger shop and when you’ve a small child or two with you as well, it’s hard.

I took part in a self-scanning trial many years ago (still have some of the plastic crates from back then!) and liked it. I don’t use it now, mainly because Dh comes shopping with me and I find it so distracting that I forget to scan. He takes the trolley off somewhere or goes to look at stuff we don’t need and it’s all too much to juggle esp if once again there’s also a small child in tow!

I should have said, they seem to have different systems in the US. I’ve rarely seen the conveyor belts we have, instead you wheel the trolley to the checkout, the assistant is placed so she can easily pick up the items, scans and puts down on a countertop, where another person packs your bags. You can pack it yourself, of course. The check outs take up a small amount of space, too. I reckon it takes less than five minutes to check out a week’s family shop.

I have used the self scan since they were introduced, I cannot see the point in putting shopping into a trolly taking it out to put it on the checkout then loading it into the trolly again after waiting for the person in front to do the same.

There was a recent trial locally of scanning using your phone, when finished you simply left the store, I liked it and hope it will become permanent.

No - hate them.

We hate them. Every time DH buys a bottle of wine someone has to be summoned to check his age- 75.

Scan and go for me every time. I rarely encounter problems and it means I can get in and out quicker.

Nay ( tho I use them sometimes) but when you think about it not for our convenience at all, it’s for theirs!
If they paid more check out staff we wouldn’t have to do their job of packing and totting up prices.

Yay
Yay
Yay

I prefer to go to a till. I have noticed how much customer service is diminishing. If you go into a bank or building society you are greeted by various machines which you are encouraged to use -these having replaced the human contact of old. In fact you could say that we are speedily reaching a situation of 'do it yourself' Especially in supermarkets where manned tills are down to just a few, I would think that the money saved on staffing will be passed on to the customer, after all, we have taken on some of the work !!!

I wish it was! Straight into the management's pocket!

I love them. I can park my crutches easily in a niche near them and never feel rushed and that suits me perfectly.