Supermarket Self-Service Checkouts

[Daisy]

Oma commented elsewhere -

We have just been to Aldi
Not one checkout open and all the self service tills were card only .
I told a lie and said I didn’t have a card on me so they had to open a till,
Once we put our stuff on the belt a queue quickly built up behind us , people still want checkouts so why force the self service onto us.

I agree, Oma, I hate the self-service checkouts and try to avoid them at all costs.

On Saturday DIL2 and I went into Sainsbury's for school uniform clothes. No food. There were huge queues at the two proper tills and as the girls were hungry and it was getting late for lunch we used a self-service till. A member of staff had to come and help us for almost every item because the system doesn't recognise the lack of weight of say 3 pairs of socks or undies. When I tried to fold GD2's pinafore dresses it went into meltdown! It would have been funny if it wasn't so frustrating. There were about 5 members of staff hovering round the SS tills who could have been more usefully employed giving customers what they want - a normal check-out.

[Gemini]

Our Aldi doesn't have any self service tills. It's the only supermarket around here that doesn't. Even the smaller ones do.

I'm afraid I actually prefer the self service checkouts and would only go to a manned one if we had a big shop.

I fully understand the drawbacks though. They are far from perfect and when it goes wrong I wish I had gone to a person !
Mostly though for both OH and me the self checkouts are quicker for a few items.

The loss of jobs and the loss of the chat with the assistant a lot of lonely elderly people may rely on worry me however.

Daisy, I press down hard when I have something light like a birthday card, then it seems to register it!
They definitely need manned tills open for clothing !

[Lizzie48]

A lot of supermarkets here have the SS tills, the Lidl hasn't as yet, the one close to me won't because of all the school children and theft, it is bad enough as it is the manager told me. We have stores here, Action, similar to B&M, the ones that had the SS tills are having them removed, same as what the Lidl manager told me, too much theft. I don't mind using them, 9 times out of 10 we get a bag check, same reason, too much theft, I don't put groceries in my bag until I know if there is a check or not. I don't know of any other stores having them as yet, saying that, they could have as I tend to give towns etc a miss.

GD1 works on the check out at the Lidl, when the new one opens in their village it will be her job to see that the other younger ones get to work the tills so I do wonder if they will have self scans or not.

[Plantaholic]

I use self scanning in Waitrose because I can scan my shopping as I go along, can check prices etc. I don’t have to unload it onto a conveyer belt then put into my bags. the co-op only have self scanning where you have to unload your shopping, scan it and put it back in your bags. I will only use those if I only have a few items. They don’t pay me wages to do that.

[Nanto2girls]

I don't know if Aldi and Lidle in our area have self service tills or not.
The nearby Co-op does. Asda have them and Sainsburys in Wakefield have them.
I never liked them.
For the past couple of months i have had Asda shopping delivered.
It makes life easier. They offered me a monthly pass at a decent price so i accepted it.

[Gemini]

Nan2 we still get our main shop delivered too , so rarely do a big shop in person now.

[Clover]

I do an on- line big shop so for any extras I prefer a manned ( or womanned!) checkout but if the queues are long or if people have loaded trollies I do go to SS If there is a long queue there it usually moves quite quickly.

[Oma]

There are lots 9f elderly people living alone who go for a few things each day just so they can have a little chat and human interaction. Taking checkouts away takes there company as far as I'm concerned.
I will use the SS for a few things but for a full shop I prefer a proper checkout .