Booths is getting rid of their self service checkouts.

Katie59
I am always most grateful for an offer of help so it would be a thank you from me. 🙂

I don't understand people who are rude to checkout staff or have a huff for some reason, flounce and leave their goods there for someone else to put away.

Never heard of booths

I love self scanning. Get shopping. Put in bag go home. Cuts out loading an unloading 80
With arthritis !

I use my phone as a scanner in Sainsbury's. I prefer it over standing in a queue. In Morrison's, (our local branches haven't introduced scan as you go) I use one of the two self-scan conveyor belts for a trolley shop and the self service tills for a smaller shop. They are basket only. There are always queues at the operator tills. I'm not in a tearing rush, by any means, but I do prefer to keep moving. Standing in a queue is not for me, if I can avoid it.
Just to add, if I am in a queue, I don't huff and puff, roll my eyes or tap my foot.

I hate them, but having said this I have used on occasion when I've been in a hurry, with only a few items and there's been a long queue at the checkouts. Very rarely have I managed a transaction without having to call for help! These machines have minds of their own!
I'd quite happily see them removed. I like interacting with a human when I'm shopping and for many people it's maybe the only time they get out and speak to someone, you can't have a conversation with a machine, well I can as I'm usually swearing at it!! People in the future will have lost the art of conversation I fear 😨

I have stopped shopping in our local Sainsbury as there is only one checkout always with a huge queue and several self checkouts. They never work, you can’t pack as you go and aren’t any quicker in the long run. They are difficult for older people and people with children with them. In my opinion it is bad customer service. Why should you serve yourself? Good for Booths. Customer service is so important especially in todays competitive world.

Going back to other posts about having to put items back when shoppers leave/discard their shopping for what ever reason.
The store I work in does not open the manned checkouts until 9.00 on weekdays.
So why is it that we have the same usual customers coming in, doing their shopping (before 9.00) getting the the checkouts and finding they are not open.

Then they have a rant at me or who ever is on duty.

They know full well they do not open until 9.00 if we are not busy we will offer to put them through the self scans.

But some customers I am sure just come in to make a spectacle of them selves and a little drama.

Also the items we have to put back can take hours and hours.
I can easily manage 15,000 steps in my 6 hr shift it can be exhausting running round with a big trolley shop that someone has left.
Plus if there are chilled/products then many of them go to waste as they have not been put back fast enough.

The customers who suddenly decide when near the checkout that ohhh I don't want that fresh chicken now, or those frozen fish fingers and just dump then on a shelf or try to hide them somewhere. If see anyone doing this I say "do you not want those"! well would you mind passing me them then they can go straight back and not into the waste!

I agree about customer service being important Cambia. For real customer service, there should be a choice.

Your point about
They are difficult for older people and people with children with them
is only true for those in that situation who find them difficult.
You will have read that people on GN have mixed views about liking or disliking either sort of checkout.
Again, there should be a choice, or would all the manned till supporters deny that right of choice to others?

NB Watching in the Sainsbury’s next to a local primary school at home-time, I see most parents (with children) head for the self service checkouts, rather than standing in the queue at the serviced tills.
You say
They never work, exaggeration
you can’t pack as you go People do. They pass the item over the scanner and place it in one of the bags they have put on the other side.
and aren’t any quicker in the long run.
IYO, not in mine, or those who prefer to use them.
There should be a choice, especially in the bigger supermarkets.
Booths, being relatively small and expensive , can afford to just have manned tills, though even they (if you read my post above) have self service in some stores that get really busy.

A thought occured to me - are shops who have replaced staff with self service tills passing on the savings they've made in wages to customers? Have they reduced their prices along with reducing their services?

No idea who Booths are,but seen it on tv. Good for them 👏👏👏👏

Just for those Booths mystifies - mainly north west of England/Cumbria. www.booths.co.uk/

Just as well you put in the link, sandelf - some posters seem to be assuming that because they haven't heard of Booths, there can be no such thing!

Our local large Tesco has had self-service tills for ages, but recently changed them so that there is more space and you can use them for trolley loads of food - but this means that there are only half the number of tills there. This makes things worse for those of us with just a few items as we have a much longer wait. It's a shame that there is no longer a till specifically for small baskets of shopping, they seem to be trying to discourage us from shopping there.

I really like the phone app for self-scanning in Sainsbury's. It works well, it's quicker, with almost no queuing, and I know the total cost as I go round,

Incidentally I've always found that Sainsbury's self-service tills work the least well, to such an extent that I no longer shop there unless I have to. You have to scan your receipt to leave the ss till area in our local large store too, and not everybody takes their receipt with them. The staff spend half their time letting people out.
Our new Morrisons isn't great either, we're hoping that these are just teething problems.

I do wonder why your shop loyalty card can't contain information that you are over 18, so that the assistant doesn't have to approve your alcohol purchases? There is an OAP version of the Boots loyalty card so it should be possible for other companies too.

Aveline

Just back from Boots. It's gone self scanning only. Big queue as do many items needed staff endorsement eg paracetamol etc.
Then to M&S shambles in the self scanning area. Staff rushing about from machine to machine due to problems.
People need people.

I can understand why Boots have gone for self scanning, most customers have only a few items and there are not many large items so a small till area is easier than it would be in a supermarket. I always use these tills in Boots if I have the option, though they don't all have them.

HeavenLeigh

Never heard of booths

Booths, established June 1847. High class grocers. To be found in the North West of England. I loved shopping there as a young married woman.

cc

I do wonder why your shop loyalty card can't contain information that you are over 18, so that the assistant doesn't have to approve your alcohol purchases? There is an OAP version of the Boots loyalty card so it should be possible for other companies too.

They couldn't do that as alcohol has to be 'sold' by someone over 18, which is why an assistant has to authorise the sale. Were you never served at a manned till by an under age assistant? I clearly remember them having to get the person at the next checkout to nod 'authorisation' for them to sell to me. It's the law not the store being awkward. Boots don't sell alcohol so don't have that problem.

My Booths cloth shopping bag carries the logo: 'Cumbria not Umbria'. I don't use the self service check outs anywhere, including my local Ripon Booths.

As I need to use the disabled buggy and can need help to even get things onto the checkout , there is no way I ever use self service. I am a customer spending money in the same way as the ablebodied person so I have no intention of ever using self service. Well done Booths, wish there were more Booths near me right now.

Just to add, if I am in a queue, I don't huff and puff, roll my eyes or tap my foot

Clearly not a fully paid up member of Gransnet then! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.

Our Tesco has self scanners and I much prefer to do that. I have time to pack my bag as I go round the store and very rarely have to wait for a till to complete the payment. In and out in no time and can’t stand having to wait in a queue and then feeling pressured to get my bag packed quickly and move out of the way. Aldi may not yet have self service tills but at least there’s space to move away from the till and pack your bags.

I always use the service option as I'm very inept (and very slow) at self-scanning. I also enjoy passing the time of day with the check-out operators. As a regular in my local Waitrose & Sainsbury I have got to know many of the staff over the years. Self-service is a great choice for many and it's important that there is a choice. Full marks to Booths and good publicity for them!

leeds22

My Booths cloth shopping bag carries the logo: 'Cumbria not Umbria'. I don't use the self service check outs anywhere, including my local Ripon Booths.

Ripon Booths has no self service tills.