Men at Self-Checkouts

I just wish M&S and other supermarkets would ban self checkouts and recruit some nice cashiers. The men are welcome.

I agree Kiora I refuse to use them on principle (sp??) They are doing people out of jobs, plus customers are for ever having to wait for assistance as there's something 'in the bagging area', which completely defeats the object surely!

My OH always makes a beeline for them - must be a man thing?! - and I head off to a Proper Checkout and wait for him to come over, having hit a snag! I try very hard not to wear a smug, 'I told you so' expression. No I don't, I gloat mercilessly

Oh, a gransnet campaign to get rid of the dreadful self service checkouts. M&S is bliss when compared to our local Morrison's where every 2nd item is thought to be an "unidentified object in bagging area, etc"

We have too many unemployed folks. It's so much nicer to know the people who work in your regular shopping emporium, and chat to friends in the queue whilst packing your stuff. the checkout person is always friends, what's not to like

Love self service checkouts!

I would join any campaign to get rid of self service checkouts too. I will not use them, why should I pay premium prices in M&S and do the work myself ?

I do too AKA.

Harrigan just don"t use them , simple as a pimple !

<Le Sigh>

In our local Asda "real people" have been replaced by at least 10 new self service tills...! we already had approx. 8 or 9...surely no need for any more...also if you happen to have alcohol or paracetomol or move your bag for any reason we get "Assistance Required" but normaly the "assistant is so busy helping the other 18 self service tills...!!I have no idea where to lovely ladies n gents have disappeared too that were on the tills.

I will stop using the self service check outs when the assistants stop trying to be my new best friend! They all say the same thing, how are you, what have you got planned for today - its like I said before by the time I get to them I feel like crap and plan to go home and eat a tub of ice cream!!!

I quite like self service tills, if there is a queue they make sense.

I don't think it is a male thing actually.

I followed a woman who had to 'bag' her goods in what looked like specific bags. I don't think it was an OCD thing just what she does. She made sense but hell she was frustrating. You know when you have piled up your shopping on the conveyor belt behind and you can't change tills. Grrrr.

You see the same people at the local tip. They usually wear gloves and tip there rubbish in piece by piece, dump their car in everybody's way and generally be a pain up the backside. I swear it's the most excitement they have all week.

Don't get me started on the talkers, not usually the male of the species.

I must admit I don't like the intrusive 'make the customer feel special' chat.

I don't mind the a) are you all right for bags b) do you need/want any help with your packing, but if they start asking me how my day's been and commenting on my purchases, I feel uncomfortable.

The self-service checkouts are fine, except when you buy alcohol or anything with a security tag and an assistant has to come anyway!

sunseeker I believe our local Asda checkout workers have to recite a script very similar to the one you quote. It's part of their training. I to would rather they keep quiet.
I wouldn't want to have to recite it 100's times a day !!

I avoid the self service unless I only have a couple of items.

We always use shop and scan now its remarkably error free and much quicker than self service. I think everyone male or female have trouble with self service.

My DH always makes a bee line for the self service checkouts too (I think perhaps he wanted to marry a checkout girl in a previous life) and recently I challenged him to a check-off where he self served and I used a traditional "person" what he didn't get was that I gave him...... Bananas (had to be weighed) and wine (assistant needed) ha ha while I had a loaf of bread and beans ...... Victory to the woman!

Gillybob

You devious minx. Should have given him spirits, as mentioned that would have cocked the poor old lad up.

In the past, the promise was that technology and automation would bring increased leisure to people. Well, that's certainly happened, but the increased leisure hasn't meant that people's working hours across the board have been reduced but that significant numbers of people have very few, or no, working hours.

Instead of paying the increased taxes arising from the increased profits that are made due to the reduction in staff costs, large national and multi national companies are using every loophole available to cut their tax bills. That "missing" tax could be used to properly re-skill people to do essential jobs such as nursing, teaching, caring, and to carry out infrastructure and housing projects that would again employ large numbers of people.

By the way, if the original post had been written by a man talking about women, or a young person talking about old people, I'm sure many of us would be annoyed.

morning Eloethan - thanks for helping me begin the day with a positive approach, and for expressing my feeling so much better than I can

I think the self service ones are good for some people who may be embarrassed about buying certain items!! Condoms/personal hygiene stuff/hemoroid cream etc as you scan them yourself.

I am sure the OP was written and meant in a very tongue in cheek kind of way Eloethan, well that's certainly the way I took it anyway.

Talking about self service, they have installed self -service machines in our bank and done away with the tellers.

I cannot believe it, I said to the girl well surely this puts people out of jobs and she replied "Oh no it doesn't" could have fooled me!!!!!!

It does not impress me one bit !!

<LE BIG SIGH>

I like these, and always use them, now that I have become used to them. They are much better than those lanes which clearly state 'baskets only' or '8 items only', then folk queue here with trolleys full! And, of course if someone does take rather long on one till, it is always possible to move to a vacant one. Packing is easier too, I have three 'stand alone' bags which I put on the scales to start with, then choose what to scan and which bag to put it in, ready for home. NO! I am not that well organised, but I do TRY!

I would do that with the bags on the scales POGS but the scales won't let me in Sainsburys. "Unexpected item in the bagging area!"
It would make it easier.

tanith You are lucky to have shop n scan near you. DD's Tesco had them in Surrey but I've never seen them in Kent.
I think it's a great system.

In late September, when the new batch of students arrives, the supermarkets here are in chaos. Hordes of young persons who apparently never went shopping with Mummy or Daddy and who have no idea how supermarkets work. Not like my DGS who are all extremely good shoppers, even to the extent of spotting all the special offers and enthusiastically dealing with the self- service check-out. The supermarket behaviour I can't stand is the mainly women who start putting their stuff on the conveyor belt and then go off to finish their shopping, tying up the checkout and holding up the queue.

These checkouts are quite funny here in our bit of France. People are very suspicious and reluctant to use them so you always have the undivided attention of the bored attendant. The technology doesn't allow you to put a bag on first so you put it all in the bagging area and then bag it after you have paid. Though the one in our supermarket claims to speak English, no one has translated the fruit and veg so every item says datdata which is a puzzler for tourists. Apart from that it works really well.