Unexplained item in the bagging area!

Its enough to drive you to drink !! But if you had a bottle of something in there you'd have had to wait for them to verify your age again !!

Are self service checkouts REALLy an improvement when they throw your stress levels up??

Im not convinced

Refuse to use self service until they start giving me a discount.

Internet shopping is the best £3 a month for as many mid week deliveries as I want. The nearest supermarket is 18 miles away so even if I get a few short sell by dates it is worth it.

I never use self service checkouts, on the grounds that it's depriving someone of a job, and me of a human interaction.
That's not meant to sound pompous or morally superior alea, it was just a thought I had yesterday when MrA used the self service checkout in the Co-op, that soon we will be interacting with machines more than other human beings. It followed on from a thought the previous day that buses might get to their destinations a lot quicker if they still had conductors, and didn't wait for 5 minutes at every stop while passengers fumbled for change it tried to swipe their bus passes properly.
Even when I go to the doctors, I don't have the pleasure or otherwise of speaking to a receptionist, as they now have one of those things where you tap in your details to confirm your appointment.

My DH regularly buys alcohol free beer. He uses the self check out but has to wait to have his age verified. I won't stand with him now, because he kicks off every time about it. I can't say as I blame him really, but it's not the checkout girl's fault.

We usually use self check out. It can be quicker. I do have to bite my tongue when she tells me off........something I tell her what I think of her, she doesn't seem to mind .

Only 3 check outs open, at least 2 people at each with FULL trolleys, DH waiting in the car and Grace due at the vet in 45 minutes-that was the only reason I attempted it.
Never again.

I use the "scan-as-you-shop" in Tescos and now that I am used to it I like it. At first it seemed to choose me every time for a "random check" but it seems to have accepted that I am not trying to cheat. It shows a running total and reminds me when there is an offer on something and I could get three for two, or whatever.

I would be quicker if I scanned each thing as I took it from the shelf and oput it straight into my own bag, but usually I collect several things in the small compartment at the front of the trolley, then stop to scan them and put them away and go on to pick some more. There are usually "scan-as-you-shop" tills vacant so I get through faster than I would if I queued.

I like it for the running total too and I had the same experience early on of having to have the 'random' everything scanned again at a till thing. That seems to happen less often now. I wondered if it also has something to do with when you shop, with perhaps busier times generating more random scans.

All the check outs busy , I go to the self service and call for help , the grinning assistant belts all through with vim ! then he says .. see you next week Mrs o

They drive me mad too. I often have the sort of bag that you have to pick up to get anything inside it and immediately you lift it off and put it back on there are problems. It also assumes that you have empty bags and if I already have a library book and an umbrella and something from another shop I have to scan all the stuff and bag it when I have paid. Takes much longer!

Well yes but....
Self check-outs are still rare in our bit of France snd very little used.
So you have it all to yourself and get the undivided attention of the lady in charge who is delighted to help you. You don't have to wait while the check- out assistant chats to the person in front of you, answers the phone, scowls at you, grunts when she takes your money or just shuts the check-out with no explanation.
You can't put your own bag in the bagging area so that slows it down a bit and if you try to make it speak English every item of fruit and veg is called "dot dat" , but it all adds to the excitement.
We still don't have internet shopping (you can order it on line but have to drive to pick it up).

I envy those that can shop n scan. I use Tesco and Asda and occasionally Morrisons none of these in my area have shop n scan.
I only use self service if I have one or two items otherwise I steer well clear.

In the co-op today only half of the bank of 4 self scanning stations were working. They didn't bother to open extra checkouts to compensate so inevitably queues started to build up
I don't mind the self checkouts at Sainsbury, but that's probably because I'm used to them. Before you start to scan you hit the 'I'm using my own bags' button and it tells you to put them in place. Then off you go! No problem. I do get annoyed with the local Tesco Express though, because any offers, such as two for one, don't appear on the screen until after you hit the 'Finish and Pay' button. It took me a while to get used to that - I wasn't happy hitting the F&P button until I knew my discounts had been applied. The staff on the other tills said they get fed up with it because they're constantly being called and having to explain to customers who don't know about this crazy system

I was waiting in the bank the other day when a rather jolly middle aged man wearing bank ID tapped my shoulder and asked me if I was just paying in. When I said 'yes' he directed me to a self service point and even followed me along and made sure I did it right. I thought it was rather sad that he was teaching me a skill that would do him out of a job.

I never use them, it's giving the customer work to do! I do my best day dreaming in queues.

I refuse to use the wretched things until they are ergonomically designed and aimed to make life easier for the customer.

I shop once a week so use one of the smaller trolleys. I also use only my own bags. I also want to put my bags back in my trolley to get back to the car.

That means if I want space at table height to park all my shopping bags AND my handbag. I want a spare trolley by the bagging area to put each bag into as soon as it is loaded and a system that understands and can handle the concept that if I am using a cloth bag I may pick it temporarily off the bagging area to get something into it before putting it back.

Until all the above is done, I will queue and interact with a till operator.

as they now have one of those things where you tap in your details to confirm your appointment.
I wouldn't use it the other week as there was no hand gel nearby and I thought the screen could be covered in germs.

If you're buying wine or other alcohol then an assistant has to come and verify you are over 18 at the self-scanner anyway. There is always one hovering around for such eventualities in Tesco, or waiting to see what sort of mess the customer makes of the self-scanner; she or he might as well be manning a till!

Sometimes when I'm queuing at a checkout, a staff member helpfully suggests I could use the selfscan. I tell them I don't have any to and they offer to do it for me, so that's fine.

I hate the shops that have only selfscan open, and no actual cashiers. I've been known to walk out and go to another shop, to avoid them.

*I tell them I don't want to

sigh

I use the self scan in Tesco without problems it saves me loads of time every week.

At what was our Co-op now local Asda the automatic till is really stroppy and seems to keep shouting at me.

If I only have a few items I don't put the bags into the bagging area. I just pile up the items after they have been scanned and paid for and then put them in the bags I brought with me. It can get very awkward if I happen to have other goods, often my library books, in the bag before I start shopping.

Self-service has been taken up a notch - thanks to the raft of new machines, complete with scales, at my local Post Office, I am now an experienced Post Office worker.

It has taken a while to train me, because of course it's not just swipe and pay (especially with parcels), but I got there in the end!

I avoid the self service checkouts as something always goes wrong and I end up needing help. I try to choose a checkout by whoever is on the till and have a good natter too. Don't know if it's because I am left-handed but I find that it is much easier using a checkout on the left, get in a tizz with the ones on the right. Couldn't scan my own to save my life. Only use my phone for texting, there's no hope really!

I have got used to self-service tills as I often shop for just a few items on my way to work. The worst of it for me is when something goes wrong and there isn't a staff member in sight to out it right at 6:45 a.m.!
Oh that voice telling you there is an unidentified item in the bagging area!!! They could use that as formal torture ...