Self Service Checkouts Yay or Nay!

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 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!).

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

If I'm only getting one or two items I'll go to the self scanner area. However, for bigger shops I always go to the manned checkouts. I know the staff at our local supermarket and they all say that the automated tills often cause problems and also that there's a huge increase in shoplifting.
I prefer to speak to humans rather than being bleated at by an electronic voice.

Self service for me every time.

Scan and go isn't always as easy as suggested, you do get random checks where they remove items and rescan them, 14 in the case of Sainsbury's. I have also had the entire shop rescanned on several occasions which defeated the aim of a quick shop, maybe I just look shifty.

A small Lidls had no manned checkouts but they discovered that did not work because I always sought help as I am partially sighted. Now they have one manned checkout and frequently young people with no disabilities are in the queue.

I find some assistants think if they get me started I can continue but I cannot see the screen, end of.

My local large Waitrose is down to 3 manned tills but they can open 2 more if desperate and frequently they are used, to get people moving.

I believe M&S is taking the same route with clothes.

Horses for courses, I suppose. I’ll use them for a few items, but on the whole I prefer a bit of human interaction. I suppose I still get this when using the self serve at our local Sainsburys, but usually on the lines of “Sorry, I don’t know why it’s doing that either”, “No, it’s not you, it’s the system”, “They’ve been doing this all morning” or “I’ll be with you in a minute”. They invariably have just one check out open, and at least two members of staff sorting out the self serve problems. There’s often a man with a screwdriver and a dismantled machine in the mix as well.

I might give scan and go another try. When I’ve used it in the past I’ve spent too long checking that I’ve scanned everything, and just the once - I’m easily distracted.

BTW, I had about 12 different bags of fruit and veg to be weighed ……

This isn’t really relevant to this thread but it does involve a supermarket!
The local supermarket to where we are staying is enormous, stupidly I forgot to get the fruit weighed in the Fruit section, anyway the lady at the checkout found me a basket, MrOops paid for the other shopping and went to the car and I went back to queue to get the fruit weighed.
I put the basket next to the scales where the assistant was standing and waited, she looked at me with her hands on her hips and mimed putting the bagged fruit onto the scales that she was standing in front of, I had to pick up the bag of fruit/veg reach around the large scales put it onto the scales, she then pressed a button and put the label on, I then had to reach around and pick the bag off of the scales and put it into my basket. Then I had to go and queue at the checkout!
Phew!
We are spoilt in the U.K. customer service at its best I think.

Bluebelle precisely. We can stay in our time warp.
I presume people are worried that, like banks, there won’t be humans anywhere to help.
We are trained now to pack our bags and I get very discombobulated when I go to Australia where a lot of stores still do that for you.

Apparently they have cut a lot of staff round here but maybe not elsewhere, I don’t know about the UK. What I don’t like is when the people putting your groceries through stop to chat to the one in front of you - holds everyone up and I suppose these machines don’t do that.

I always use scan and go,I know how much I am spending,have debit card in hand,bags ready pked,tap card on screen job done and out.

I prefer to order my shopping online but on the rare occasion I do venture into a supermarket, I will head for a conventional checkout.
My hearing is OK but I do seem to have difficulty understanding the audio instructions when something inevitably goes wrong.
A few days ago I popped into our local supermarket and was being served by the cashier. I glanced round at the self checkout and saw two young people whe were scanning their goods before I got to the till, both waiting for assistance as something had gone wrong.
I allowed myself a smug moment.😉

Yes! Particularly in Sainsburys for their Smart Shop, reduced and reduced Nectar prices. Zapping everything helps for a quick check put, although do have to get an assistant when wine is involved, or a random spot check is required. I rarely go through a conventional check out these days. Waitrose could do with larger area to load shopping on, too small for a big shop, but I use them for fewer items generally.

I avoid them. I prefer to interact with humans.

I use them if the manned check outs are busy and I only have a couple of items. But I very often encounter a problem and need assistance eg an item won’t scan and I need an assistant to manually enter a code. I seem to have a knack for choosing the temperamental self service checkout and the trolley with the wonky wheel 😡

I don't mind self service tills. As, BlueBelle says, we can't stay in a time warp and, especially as we age, we need to make sure we stay abreast of things.

Having said that, Scan and Go worries me as I am sure I will forget to scan and end up shop lifting!

I like them and always use them if I can.