Self serve tills ... serves them right

I have used them but don’t any more. Most times I’ve had to wait for someone to help as something has gone wrong. I quite enjoy a little chat with a checkout assistant.

The TV report I saw had overhead cameras which caught someone putting through the weight of a fillet steak as carrots and another person paying for vegetables but not putting a turkey (it looked more like a crown) through at all, then walking off with it.

The self-serve tills I have used relied on barcodes so I think you'd have to be quite clever to do the steak/carrot swap thing. Apparently they are working on an adaptation which can tell what colour the item is and reject your selection.

Like some others here, I have been forcibly directed to some of these tills by supervisors, only to need the same person to come and tap zillions of times (tutting at the machine) when it all goes wrong a moment later.

It won't be the clever people who get caught by the new technology. It will be people like me making honest mistakes and accidentally pressing the wrong button.

I've never used a self-service till. I like talking to a person, who can also sort out any problems. Too many self service tills and there won't be anyone to talk to.

Many years ago my DH took a group of students to the Salters factory in Birmingham. They showed them the technology to scan a whole trolley load of goods with a device held over it. They said the technology would put too many people out of business to be taken on.

At one time when our local Sainsbury's was pioneering self scan only "selected people " were invited to join.
( Yes we were asked.)

DH uses self service but I can't stand the woman in the machine, she is too bossy for me.

Self-service

Bluebelle I was also curious as to how the cheating would work. I imagine that one would see that the chicken weighs 1.2kg plonk it on the scale, select carrots and off you go. The only problem that I can foresee is if the barcode on the chicken was picked up by the scanner.

I don't get annoyed by the seld-service tills, I talk back (e.g. "Calm down, I've done nothing wrong" and wait for help to arrive.

Thanks for answering me Springchicken I still don’t really understand do you mean people are putting a chicken on and pinning in ‘carrots’ I would have thought the voice would have said ‘item not recognised’ It seems to say that quite often to me even when things are perfectly correct and also how can you be clever enough to find something just the same weight

MissAdventure I used a poundshop one that used a different voice I thought it was great fun

Do they take away jobs? Or do they remove mundane jobs wouldn’t we still be putting boys up chimneys if we thought like that

I don't like the self service tills and avoid them when ever possible. I think they take away jobs at a time when they are desperately needed. More profit for the shops. Instead of 6 people manning the check outs there's one person to assist 6 at 6 self service tills.

I like our friendly staff in the local supermarket.

I resent being chivvied up by the self serve tills.
Me too SpringyChicken

I get annoyed with it and tell it to be quiet or to 'stop it'! however, I can't shout at it like I shout at the sat nav as I'm in a public place.

Scary, MissA

The self service till in the pound shop here speaks in all different voices.
Elvis Presley "Come on baby, and lay your shopping on me, uh huh".
At Halloween it wailed and spoke in a scary voice.
Its no wonder I sometimes find myself thanking it when I'm finished.

I like the self service tills. I can scan and pack my items in the order I want to and check prices as I go. Far better than staff throwing goods randomly down the moving belt, bruising fruit and then waiting impatiently for me pay or chatting to their friend on the next till while I rush to catch up. I particularly dislike the tills in Aldi where the staff scan items far too quickly. I'm no slouch on the self-service till and yes, there are frustrations with own bags not recognised or occasions when the assistant is needed but overall it's better for me.

There have and always will be dishonest people. People shoplift. Nowadays there's an element of "sticking it" to large corporations which possibly underpins the actions of those cheating at the self scans but I would like to think that most people are honest.

The argument about self-service tills replacing store staff is no different to cash machines having replaced bank tellers or automated petrol pumps having replaced pump attendants. Further back in time, most shops had goods behind a counter and one would ask an assistant for what was wanted. DIY has replaced all kinds of things and people have lost jobs as a result. I'm not quite sure why supermarket staff are singled out for special sympathy and they'll probably be redeployed in other jobs within the store.

BlueBelle, some people are placing expensive items on the scales and entering them as carrots. Then, the bagging area accepts them because they are the correct weight. I read that one supermarket realised what was happening because the total weight of carrots sold exceeded what had ever been put on the shelves.

I resent being chivvied up by the self serve tills.

hate these things and avoid them at all cost.Unfortunately one of our local supermarkets doesn't have REAL stff on after 10pm so we have to use it on the odd occassion when we do a late night shop.I have to keep my OH calm as he's often ready to blow a blood vessel when it plays up constantly.Like someone else we have walked out and left everything at the till and gone to the all night garage for things at twice the price.
I cant see how its possible to cheat them though ,I have enough problems getting them toa accept the correct bar codes for things .

A manager at an upmarket supermarket admitted that eventually they want to get rid of all the girls and fellows at the tills.

I expect the 'shrinkage' they get from customers who cheat the self service tills will be more than compensated for by the money they save by employing real people.

and I'm sure it's all the fault of the EU, really

A manager at an upmarket supermarket admitted that eventually they want to get rid of all the girls and fellows at the tills.

I love the self scan saves so much time I hope they don’t get rid of it in my local store.

I am odd as I actually enjoy conversing with the automated tills.

I always use the self service I wonder how you can cheat it it always shouts at me if the goods aren’t placed properly in the right bags etc i guess anyone can cheat anything if they try

foreign, not foreighn

As someone who has never yet, over many attempts, managed to self serve without at least two members of bossy staff flanking me (because the system and I are both inept - not because I am pilfering) and sometimes giving up the shopping entirely because I can't be bothered reloading it all in the trolley to trundle round to the single teller and enormous queue, all I can say is Ha Ha Ha.

The imperfect solution, apparently, will be to remove the software that makes it difficult for us simple folk (like the machine going loopy if you accidentally nudge it, or your carefully-preserved shopping bag being rejected as a foreighn object) and to install special cameras to catch people putting fillet steak through at the price for bananas.

Supermarkets thought this would reduce the wage bill and have taken too long to admit it is costing them more.

To them, I'd say, re-employ your staff at a living wage and stop blaming the customers.

And to anybody clever enough to fiddle that system, I say WOW ... I can't even get bananas to scan as bananas.

And thanks for helping the supermarkets to own up. Well, almost.