Men at Self-Checkouts

Nina I was very reluctant when local Mr T installed the shop & scan knowing what a pain the self-service tills were but apart from the first few times where we generated an assistant check (to see if were honestly scanning everything in the trolley I assume) its been quick and easy even scanning all our vouchers correctly.

Its a shame that very few people seem to be trying it though. We love it saves any queuing and goods packed into own bags as we go its much quicker.

Nonu You might be interested in Michele Hanson's column in the Guardian in which she also raged against the march of automation and the closure of her local bank.

www.theguardian.com/money/2014/apr/28/rage-against-machines-people-staffing-banks-cashiers

Thanks for that ELOE, she was spot on, I am surprised no other G/Ns have picked up on this. Perhaps it has not happened in their branch yet!

Be afraid though, it IS coming to a branch near you .
What one does, the others follow suit, it is not difficult to do but just seems strange . ^I DON"T KNOW!!!!!!!

I won't use the self service check outs on principle. Students need jobs. So do young mum's, school leavers etc, etc. on the rare occasion I have been forced to use one I've always managed to get an assistant to help me - and told her why. A friend who's a security chap in Asda tells me they make shop lifting easier too.

There was a chap on radio the other day who admitted he uses these to steal. He finds two things he wants which weigh the same and then scans the cheapest one twice He has apparently a list of the weight of all the items he usually buys and says he "saves" a lot of money on his weekly shop that way

Nothing to be proud of , in fact should be ashamed, nothing clever in stealing.

:-) :-)

I heard that too, sunseeker, I think it was the Jeremy Vine show. Another trick was to put loose fruit and veg through at the cheapest possible rate, as the machine can't tell whether it's a bag of avocados or a bag of spuds!

I don't mind self-checkouts. I tend to use them if there are queues where every shopper has piled up trolley. I don't think it will ever get to the stage where they will replace a manned ( can I say that?) checkout.

My granddaughters love them and whizz my stuff through at a rate of knots. They always seem to know where the bar code is too.

I don't mind them at all. My DH, on the other hand, refuses to use them, way too technical and complicated for him, haha.

GrandmaSandra my DH won't use them for the same reasons, but in my opinion, it's just that men can't multi-task (sweeping generalisation) - you know - scan item, put in bag, heavy items on top of soft etc etc ... I prefer to do my shopping solo these days. At least I get my bread home without a French loaf bent at a right-angle

We're with those who avoid self-service tills because of wanting real people who have jobs. The bank machines also sound horrible. One of the reasons I go into the bank is to withdraw money on my card when I want to use small local shops and so do not want £20 notes. If I get the change from the bank, I get it free, whereas if the butcher does it, he has to pay for it. Let's hope the pendulum starts to swing back a bit soon.

Sad to say, WHEN cannot really imagine that happening !!

Same thing is happening in libraries. Instead of a cheerful library assistant greeting you and recommending a book to read, we now have a big black box where we check our books in and out and over half the library staff have been 'let go'.
You can search all around the place and hardly find a member of staff.
Do the powers that be not realise that a friendly word from a librarian might be the only person some lonely soul has spoken to that day?

Is it an age thing though to enjoy a chat with the staff at the check out? I have had some great conversations with Sixth formers working after school,as well as older women and men who are unfailingly cheerful and friendly. Younger shoppers seem much less -- chatty-- communicative!

Not an age thing - I used to have to move often and it was just nice to have a chat with someone, during that interim period when I hadn't yet found any new friends.

I hate those checkouts. My local supermarket advertised a new updated store outfitting - when we went along all they had down was take a formerly pleasant flowery area and swapped it for a large square of self-service checkouts. It was empty! On a Saturday afternoon. everyone was queueing up as normal. There had been self-service tills there before, but only four instead of a dozen. DBH usually likes using them, but he doesn't like the feel of the square area, he says.