Self serve tills

M0nica

How do they work? I was wearing warm gloves all day and they did not keep my hands warm enough. Not even when inside the British Museum. It took 15 minutes on the train for my hands to warm up sufficiently, with gloves on.

I don’t know the technical reason, but I found this explanation.
The gloves work for me no matter how cold my hands are, but wouldn’t help with your other issues.
Mostly I dictate text messages, or messages on GN. Maybe that would help too.
Basically, the idea behind touchscreen gloves is simple: make the touchpoint out of conductive material to promote the transfer of electricity. This allows for energy to flow between your skin and the touchscreen, just as it would if you had bare hands.

Unfortunately no, my finger tips on my right hand are numb, caused by a back problem, which means I cannot hold a stylus and when I get Raynauds syndrome, which mainly affects my left hand - and when that strikes all the fingers on that finger go numb.

I have a real problem with mobile phones as I also have dyspraxia, which is neural diversity affecting fine motor control and also mental sequencing. I think '123', my fingers ignore me and type '213'. Plus a slight spasm in my finger means some letters/numbers twice. Trying to accurately hit the right icon/letter when texting and the like is so difficult when they are so small, I use text messaging very little.

This problem explains my sometimes eccentric text on GN. I try to proof read, but quality varies from day to day and time of day. I am going to get a tablet and see how many mobile phone facilties can be transferred to that where I hope the bigger screen and bigger keyboard will be easier to operate.

MOnica
Would a stylus pen not help?

How do they work? I was wearing warm gloves all day and they did not keep my hands warm enough. Not even when inside the British Museum. It took 15 minutes on the train for my hands to warm up sufficiently, with gloves on.

www.marksandspencer.com/knitted-touchscreen-gloves/p/clp60692425?intid=mobile_app_pdp_share

I feel for you.
My MIL suffered that way.
You can get touch screen gloves from a few sources-the link above is for M&S where I got mine from.

You can also have difficulties if your fingures are very cold.

I went up to London today and on the train home tried to ring DH to tell him what train I was on. It was a bitterly cold day and despite wearing gloves, my Reynaud syndrome set in and my fingures were white and very cold and no matter how hard I tried, I could not get into my phone, it just wouldn'trespond. I had to wait 15 minutes until my fingers were warm again before I could use my phone.

Older peoples skin isn't as electrically conductive as younger peoples due to the lack of moisture, which causes touch screens to not respond as well for them.

Just using some moisuriser cream on your hands should fix the problem.

Although we usually have most items delivered I needed little when Mr C was in hospital after cardiac surgery as I ate in the hospital. With discharge on the horizon I hurried off for a very early trolley sized shop in Sainsbury before the 90 minute trip to the hospital. No staffed checkouts open so I headed for the self scan. I must have looked as bemused and stressed as I felt, a staff member approached and offered to open a till. Off I went thanking her, she said never a problem, just to ask if there were no staffed tills open. I have a couple of times since and found staff there unfailingly helpful. Perhaps fortunate with our store but always worth asking I think.

I went in a Sainsbury’s in London, all card & self scanners 😩

M0nica
That’s why they should have both manned and self serve tills, including Scan and go.

I cannot risk 'Scan and Go'. I have mentioned this before but between my dyspraxia and ADHD, I have no confidence that I would remember to scan every item. In fact I can be very sure that I would not scan everything.

In principle I like the self-service tills, my main beef is that they are badly designed for the shopper to shop efficiently.

For exmple, if you are using your own bags and they are those floppy fold up ones, it is almost impossible to put the first few items in the bag without lifting it off the base to shake it out. it is meant to sit on the base and be touching it all the time.

This ends with goods being double handled once onto the scanned shopping surface and then into your bag. Even the very few supermarkets with self service tills designed to take a trolley load of goods, the same problem arises and all bags have to stay on the bought shop surface until everything has been scanned. There is also nowhere convenient to put the trolley while you unload or reload into the trolley to take to the car park.

Ths morning, we nipped into Waitrose to buy a magazine. DH scanned it..........and waited until he realised he hd to put it on the scanned goods shelf before he could pay, so he put it down, pad and then had t pick it up again. A minor thing, but so unnecessary.

Alex52

I avoid self service tills. However if I'm asked to use by a member of staff, I just say, "ok, that's fine, where do I collect my cashiers wages". Seems to work every time.

No idea why people think this is a clever retort.
I’ve read others such as I just abandon my shopping if it’s self service only.
Or the more polite shoppers who say, I put my shopping back if it’s self service only.

So making a shop assistant feel uncomfortable is the way to go?
Who knew?

I nearly always use the self-service tills in our local Sainsburys as the assistants helping customers are a very friendly bunch. It's quicker to use the self-service tills in Aldi as I don't buy a lot in there and there's always a helpful assistant on the tills.

twiglet77

My preference is to use Scan and Shop, so I’ve already packed straight into my bags and all I have to do at the end is pay. Second choice is to self-scan at the till. I avoid using manned checkouts 1) because it’s dreadfully time-wasting to handle my shopping three times in store - to load the trolley, unload onto the belt, then load into bags, and 2) I don’t want my food handled more than necessary.

I’ve recently retired from part-time on checkouts at Waitrose, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but SO many people could be in and out very much faster if they scanned their own shopping.

It’s a silly misconception that you’re “saving someone’s job”. All shop floor staff, from 16 year olds to 80+, receive till-training as part of their first week’s induction. Some enjoy it, and if accurate and careful they might prefer to always be on a checkout. Some dislike it and prefer to be in the warehouse or replenishing stock on the shelves. Only the fresh food counters, welcome desk and café are options for more specialised training. Every cashier released from a checkout during quiet enough periods, when self-service tills are being well-used, will be filling shelves so all the customers get a better experience, and will be called to open another checkout if queues start to build. Same number of staff, better deployed, they don’t lose their jobs because self-service tills are there!

Are as many people employed as before there were self checkouts?

I avoid self service tills. However if I'm asked to use by a member of staff, I just say, "ok, that's fine, where do I collect my cashiers wages". Seems to work every time.

silverlining48

I always use cashiers even if they , two of them, are at the furthest end of M&S in Bluewater, for much the same reasons as others on here.
I also use cash, sometimes, because not everyone has or wants to use a card. My own little battle with big business.

Which is why there should be both options, manned and self service, so people have a choice.
Lucky you silverlining48 that you still have a bank or post office close by, where you can readily obtain cash to pay with.

I avoid them as much as I can, unemployment is rising.

I think the owner of each of these machines should have to towards unemployment pay, for every eight hours it is in use.

I always use cashiers even if they , two of them, are at the furthest end of M&S in Bluewater, for much the same reasons as others on here.
I also use cash, sometimes, because not everyone has or wants to use a card. My own little battle with big business.

I avoid self scanners. Will rather stand in a queue where a human is working. I will always pay with cash. These are services that should always be offered.
Going digital is going to cause us all sorts of problems, beginning with data and ending with controlling our bank balances. This may happen quicker than we wish. Imagine standing at the checkout and your card shows no funds available. And then you remember that you drove through a red robot recently, or some similar delict. Beware, this is going to happen. It is not if, but rather when.

I hate them! The shelves at our Sainsbury’s, that you put your shopping on aren’t big enough, it means shopping tipping over. I always go through the tills.
I don’t think that they are any quicker, not for me anyway.

I like scan and go. One lot of packing, in the order I like, pay at the till and go. Even if I get a “we have to check 12 items” it’s still quicker and less hassle.
I think they should retain manned tills for those who can’t, or don’t want to use self service, but it’s a bit selfish to say all self service should go just because you don’t like them.
I wonder how many of us are using card payment instead of keeping the bank cashiers in a job handing out cash.

As others have said,they don’t pay me. I’d sooner that someone was employed to do it. I also like to chat to the cashier.

I remember the days when I would hand a list to the person behind the counter They would get it all and pack it in the bag for me to carry home for my mum. She paid them at the end of the week.
I would sometimes get lolly from the shop owner too.

I think they are OK if you just want to buy a couple of items. But I get annoyed when there are only two or three "manned" tills open and I have a trolley full of shopping. I don't like using the self-service then because there are invariably problems where I have to wait for someone's assistance. I find it stressful.

Never use them I don't get paid to do someone's job.

Never had a problem.