Checkouts in supermarket

M&S Foodstore yesterday, multiple self checkout tills, 1 with a person, as soon as three people were at that one, they opened another.

In our Waitrose a lot of customers seem to prefer to use a manned checkout even if they have to wait. You can’t have a joke with the till in self checkout!

Self scan in Sainsbury's much quicker. To answer Bluebell up thread, if you change your mind and put an item back it's easy to delete it. A member of staff has to check you are over 18 for alchol or a Paracetamol type of product and every so often they do a spot check. In Waitrose, Marks or Boots I also use their self checkouts. I rarely use a manned till these days

I much prefer the manned checkouts. At my local Waitrose I always ask to have more opened if there are queues. It's nothing to do with knowing how to operate them ,I just prefer having someone to consult, chat to or have a joke with. It's also a matter of choice. Waitrose didn't ask what the customers wanted . It's quite evident from the number of people prepared to wait what that was.

Oh yes Booths Good for them for responding to customers’ wishes.
Thank you V3ra.

I'll use a self-checkout if I only have one or two items, but not for a trolleyfull. Invariably if I have a lot of items something goes wrong and I have to wait for someone to come and sort it out.

I'd rather keep the "peopled" checkouts, have a bit of banter with the person on the till if there's time, and be able to pack my shopping without having to scan it as well.

Our Morrisons has recently taken down the perspex screens that were put up for Covid protection. It seems really strange without them and the staff are more vulnerable.

It is horses for courses. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is use a self checkout, other times one needs a staffed checkout.

It would help if there was a standard layout fot self-service checkouts. The Waitrose ones are very odd.

The other thing would be if they actually designed the checkouts and then tested them out on ordinary members of the public.

For example, I always take my own bags, soft cloth bags, but having scanned an item putting them directly into the bag often means lifting it off the scanned goods surface. At which point bells and whistles sound and I need an assistant to come over with keys and codes to reset the till. Once the first three items are in, there isn't a problem you can open the top of the bag without it lifting off the surface, but I then have the same problem again with the second bag.

You end up double handling all your goods, first to put them on the scanned goods surface and then to load them into your bag.

I notice that Sainsbury's is now introducing trolley self service tills. I haven't looked at them in detail but I can already see so many problems.

I would love to use the self scan gadgets but with dyspraxia and ADHD, I know before I start that I would end up not scanning some items, no matter how hard I tried, so I do not even want to risk it.

I’m a big fan of both self-checkout for a small basket of goods, and the hand scanner for a trolley. I use both Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, on alternate weeks. I find it much quicker and no queuing, but I do understand those that prefer a manned till.

I always use self-service tills and have done for years; rarely have to wait for queues. At a branch of the Co-op they do not have self-service; last week one (slow) person on the basket till, and a very chatty lady on the trolley, who persisted in chatting even though my arms were aching holding the 40 pouch box of cat food. I think that is why I prefer to save myself.

I always use the Scan As You Go facility at Tesco and Sainsburys - so much easier with a large shop. Even if I have to wait for a member of staff to verify alcohol or other "over 18" items or have a security check, it is so much quicker than queuing at the manned tills, unloading the trolley and then re-packing it as it all cascades down the conveyor belt and falls over! I realise that the manned tills are better for some shoppers, but not me...

I find the quick-check system in Waitrose, in which you scan and pack as you go, easy and efficient. Much prefer it to queuing at a manned checkout.

Not quite so streamlined if you’re self-scanning each item at the self-checkout tills - slower, and there’s still the hassle of unloading the trolley and packing your shopping in your own bags.

Will never shop at Aldi as they look in your shopping bags to check that you are not shoplifting

I’m a big fan of Waitrose ‘Scan Pay Go’ having used it for over 25 years since it started.
On one occasion, many years ago we had a week’s shopping for free because the gun failed to work at the till, and we had to unload everything and go through a manual till after all.

No triple handling of goods for me, or getting stuck behind chatter boxes at the tills!

AskAlice

I always use the Scan As You Go facility at Tesco and Sainsburys - so much easier with a large shop. Even if I have to wait for a member of staff to verify alcohol or other "over 18" items or have a security check, it is so much quicker than queuing at the manned tills, unloading the trolley and then re-packing it as it all cascades down the conveyor belt and falls over! I realise that the manned tills are better for some shoppers, but not me...

Looking at the trolley load self scan in Sainsburies, it has a large flat area with no sides on which you put your trolley contents, with all the problems of things sliding or rolling over the edge, and the space looks quite small so probably won't take all a trolley's contents. That means you need to get a second trolley the other end to load into - except that first, before putting them in the trolley to take to the car you have to put them on a small area, smaller than the unload area once scanned and if you try and take anything off that until you have got everything on it, the bells and whistles sound. using it would be a nightmare.

As it is on those weeks I have a trolley laod of shopping, I usually shop early so I walk up to a till with an operator, have a large enough space to put all my shopping on,. It has raised edges so things do not slide off. I then push the trolley to the other end of the payment area, set up my bags in the trolley, a matter of seconds, and as the till operator puts the things through the till, I pick them up and put them in the bags in my trolley. Quick, simple, and no double or, even, treble handling.

One of the supermarkets here has introduced more self-service tills but also has a ‘no trolleys’ sign up. Yet another bafflement in life! 🤷‍♀️

What annoys me on the ss tills is if you buy something like packaged herbs or a small birthday card they weight so little that it doesn’t register on the bagging bit which means waiting for an assistant. I like the self scan thing in Tesco’s, though.

It only seems fair to reduce the price if you've done the work yourself? Who is kidding who here?

I often shop in Aldi and have NEVER EVER seen anyone checking shopping baskets Whingy

I can cope with self service tills for a few items, but not for my big weekly shop. I don't think we'll have a choice much longer though.

BlueBelle

I often shop in Aldi and have NEVER EVER seen anyone checking shopping baskets Whingy

I have.. Just before you go out of the door.

I shopped in Aldi for a neighbour recently and was asked to show my empty bags to the lady on till before I filled them. I couldn’t believe it.

I just went to my local Sainsburys and there were long queues at the self scan tills and no manned checkouts.

I had some reduced spring onions in my shopping. As soon as I scanned them the till would let me go no further and said I had to wait for an assistant (I couldn't even put them to one side and carry on scanning the rest.)

When the assistant eventually got to me he said that all reduced items under £1 now have to be manually entered by staff as they are getting customers taking reduced labels off of cheap items and putting them onto expensive items.

I can see their point but where are the additional staff to help speed up the inevitable increased queueing times?

I'm not sure if this is a nationwide thing or just a few stores where thieving is a particular problem (although I suspect theft is rife everywhere now!)

At our local ALDI, there is, or at least there was last time we shopped, a notice asking that bags are placed on the belt, presumably to be checked. No problem!

Interesting that stores there seem to be ramping up self checkout. Here in the US, it became the thing to do about 10 years ago if I remember correctly. Now, all these years later and most stores are removing self checkout all together due to the massive loss that occurred with self checkout.

I hated the move to self checkout when it started years ago, but I like it so much now and miss it where they are taking it away. I know I will get used to going back to full staffed checkout though, it is nice to have someone else bag your groceries.

JenniferEccles

Isn’t there a supermarket chain up north which has all manned checkouts now following customer demand?

I can’t remember the name but it wasn’t one I am familiar with here in the south.

Booths?

I refuse to use self service checkouts and always request a manned checkout. I will ask to see the store manager if a manned checkout is not forthcoming. I regularly email head office to tell them they have not got their clientel correct. We are a small market town with a high elderly population. We have very little in way of employment. No longer have any bother getting a human to man the checkouts!