Self Service Checkouts Yay or Nay!

I hate them, and refuse to use them. I worked on checkouts many many moons ago, the social side chatting may be someone's only contact of the day. A machine can't say 'how are you today?' Plain and simply money saving, staff sacking. I once, accidently, entered a complete staff free checkout store - obviously a trial, with a 'suit' watching. When I realised there were no checkout staff I put the basket down and went to leave, he was unamused when I explained and left.

Our local M and S have now installed self service checkouts for all non food items - find it appalling that you have to lie all clean clothing on there with a good chance it can get dirty

Can someone define 'progress' please?

Yay! I tend to use the zapper that lets me scan as I shop for the full shop. Works great for me.

yes, or no

a resounding NO! from me.. I do NOT like them

I always use smart shop in sainsbury in the larger stores. Otherwise I nearly always use self scan as there is always long queues at the manned checkouts I usually find. I like to be in and out when shopping instore myself.

I use both manned check out and self serve depending on the size of my shop.. I gave up using scan and go as I was "randomly" stopped for a rescan so many times it wasted my
time...and was embarrassing and caused me a lot of anxiety in case I had made a mistake.

But when scan and go first came out I was encouraged to use it and given 6 dark green Waitrose packing bags of various sizes and one freezer bag which were of such good quality. Later ones I saw in other trolleys were not as good.
But last week two days running the previous customer, who I didnt see, had not paid for their goods as the machine had not cleared. So goods were shoplifted I assume and I then needed an assistant to reset the machine for me to use. And the assistant didnt seem to record that fact. The camera above the machine would have been able to identify the customer. But maybe in resetting it registered a non payment and the camera shot checked.

I loathe them. I get very stressed when I go shopping, and these self service tills almost always throw something up at me that I have to summon help to deal with, which is a complete waste of time and a total faff.

Also, having unmanned tills (well, apart from the usually bored and teed off person allocated to watch over the area) is lessening the amount of jobs available to local people who might otherwise have manned the checkouts.

Getting older and battling with packing and lifting and paying and invariably lots people calling for assistance, a definite Nay. It mayhem at our Sainsbury's there have been so many complaints.

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

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

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 !!!

Yay
Yay
Yay

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.

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

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

No - hate them.

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.

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.

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 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

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 them

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 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.