Budget chains and self-service checkouts

[Blindtraveler]

But note my post above, if you buy your rail ticket from an ATM, what's the difference?

I dont! Quite apart from the fact my disability makes all tjese self serve machines rather challenging/impossible I know for a fact that even if I had full 2020 vision I would never be able to walk past an open booking office to use the machine stuck in the way between it, the platform and the only vaguely sensible way to the toilets!
As it stands if I need an Oyster topup in London I will try and use a paypoint store or somewhere with a human being sitting at a desk. If Iv got a supermarket member of staff assisting me with my shopping and its anything more than 1 or 2 items Il state my prefference for a manned tillpoint. I begrudgingly collect pre booked rail tickets from a machine with assistance from someone but if the office is quiet or im using it anyway then I will ask them, and if my local station wernt quite frankly hopeless at advances, splits and what have you the problem of pre purchase collection would go away all together. If theres no office or no time to use it and I already have what I need for the journey Im making but need for example a walkup single or rover I'll ask the guard of a train Im using!

 

[Tim R-T-C]

I like them, no requirement for human interaction. But I only really do small shops at supermarkets, big shops order online.

In many cases, like self-check-in machines at airports, the self-service-checkouts seem so prone to errors and confusions, you end up needing several members of staff on hand and the whole process can take far longer.

I think they are best suited for small, convenience shops at supermarkets - basket only for example - the problems and awkardness of scanning a whole large shop is a great way to limit them to small purchases only!

 

[Blindtraveler]

Good point that, lets program them to have an automatic hissy fit if more than 20 items are scanned.

 

[GB]

Self service tills -- the devils hand in the supermarket. As DarloRitch said above taking jobs away.

Has it taken jobs away or just repositioned them?

 

[Busaholic]

Poundland in Penzance has just introduced a bank of 4 or 5, replacing cashier tills that were seldom manned (or womaned). So now we're down to six cashier tills, with a maximum of two actually open at any one time. I always look through the window to see what the queues are like before entering, because there's only half a dozen things I buy regularly there.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Isn't there some irony then if you buy your rail ticket from an ATM?

Not if the station doesn't have a ticket office. My sisters local station doesn't have a ticket office but has a self service ticket machine.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Weigh something as a cheaper thing, or put an expensive light item through after a cheap heavy item, and the scales alarm won't trip. And the harried staff won't even notice, because they've got eight or ten tills to watch.

Self-service tills aren't so very different from an honesty box...

Morrisons are particularly bad for this. My wife and I have observed people doing exactly as you have described in their Twickenham store and more often than not they are not detected.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Morrisons are particularly bad for this. My wife and I have observed people doing exactly as you have described in their Twickenham store and more often than not they are not detected.

The ones in Sainsbury's at Euston don't even *have* the scales. Does mean there won't ever be any unexpected items in the bagging area, but equally does mean that they are no doubt a massive target for shoplifting. I guess they've decided that because of the huge throughput there the loss is worth it for the increased transaction speed.

 

[Searle]

The ones in Sainsbury's at Euston don't even *have* the scales. Does mean there won't ever be any unexpected items in the bagging area, but equally does mean that they are no doubt a massive target for shoplifting. I guess they've decided that because of the huge throughput there the loss is worth it for the increased transaction speed.

In many Tesco Expresses there are new card only self service checkouts without any scales; City Road (London) and Guildford to name a couple have these.

Also some of the newer refurbished Lidl's have self service checkouts, I think St Neots has one.

 

[EM2]

I do think the German approach of super fast scanning and customers packing away from the tills which the German discount chains have introduced over here is the most cost effective method.

You say they introduced it, but in the late '70s/early '80s, there was a local chain in the East Midlands called Hillards, which used the same approach.
There was a small difference, in that each checkout already had an empty trolley at the end, so you emptied your shopping from your trolley onto the belt, then repacked your shopping into the empty trolley, paid your bill, then pulled your now-empty trolley to the end for the next customer to fill, before heading to the packing bench.

 

[jon0844]

I can see more supermarkets going for handheld and mobile app scanning, so there's no checkout at all. Sainsbury's trialled an app where you could pay on the phone and walk out, but the 'final' system in place now requires you to go to a terminal like other stores.

The risk of cheating there is random scans, sometimes of every item, other times a set number of scans with the member of staff able to pick at random.

I do think one day they'll let you scan, pay and walk out without going to a machine but perhaps will then do random stops at the door. I can't imagine any store just accepting theft as better than employing staff.

Initially perhaps, but once most staff are gone it won't be acceptable or affordable anymore and they'll have to clamp down.

 

[DarloRich]

Isn't there some irony then if you buy your rail ticket from an ATM?

I buy it on my computer actually but take your point ( when the ticket office is closed - which they often are these days )

Has it taken jobs away or just repositioned them?

They must have done - I wouldn't mind so much if the companies bribed me by passing on the cost savings but they never do.

 

[Howardh]

I can see more supermarkets going for handheld and mobile app scanning, so there's no checkout at all. Sainsbury's trialled an app where you could pay on the phone and walk out, but the 'final' system in place now requires you to go to a terminal like other stores.

The risk of cheating there is random scans, sometimes of every item, other times a set number of scans with the member of staff able to pick at random.

I do think one day they'll let you scan, pay and walk out without going to a machine but perhaps will then do random stops at the door. I can't imagine any store just accepting theft as better than employing staff.

Initially perhaps, but once most staff are gone it won't be acceptable or affordable anymore and they'll have to clamp down.

With Brexit in mind, it's clear machines are taking over from real people, but are these EU machines taking the jobs our British machines could be doing?

 

[Dai Corner]

Has it taken jobs away or just repositioned them?

There may be fewer staff on the tills but there are more picking and delivering online orders. Ordering online for collection or delivery is probably the best way to support supermarket workers' jobs at the moment, if that is what you want to do.

 

[Geezertronic]

Every time I go to our local B&Q, there is always some guy using the self service checkouts for a large item - the normal tills are open so not sure what the obsession is with taking large items to the self service tills

 

[GB]

Every time I go to our local B&Q, there is always some guy using the self service checkouts for a large item - the normal tills are open so not sure what the obsession is with taking large items to the self service tills

Its easier to take large items (well at least long items) through the self service tills at B&Q as there is a tall area to store them in the bagging area. Not so with normal tills.

 

[jon0844]

If they have a handheld scanner (like Ikea) then I'd say it's very easy to find the barcode on a large item without taking it off the trolley. Just remember to organise things so the barcodes are easily found beforehand (force of habit now; I even do that on checkouts where they have scanners that don't care which way around a product is).

As an aside, I do wonder why more products don't have multiple barcodes as some Aldi/Lidl products do. Makes it even quicker when self scanning!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yes, B&Q have handheld scanners.

 

[Crossover]

Many years ago, a local supermarket - possibly Tesco - had wide bagging areas after the scanner, with a hinged partition that allowed shopping to go to either side of the packing area, and which allowed you to finish packing without bringing the queue to a total halt, while the next customer's shopping went to the other side. It always seemed a sensible design, presumably why they did away with them!

I'd forgotten about those! I wonder if the checkouts are smaller now such that there isn't space for such a divider now

In many Tesco Expresses there are new card only self service checkouts without any scales; City Road (London) and Guildford to name a couple have these.

Also some of the newer refurbished Lidl's have self service checkouts, I think St Neots has one.

Dewsbury Lidl was rebuilt pretty much a year or so ago and it didn't go any self service. Mirfield will have a new build store in a few months so it'll be interesting to see whether t gets them

 

[dgl]

Weymouth Lidl has also been refurbished about a year or so ago (new colour scheme, fridges, freezers, checkouts/tills) yet no self service tills, will be interesting to see what the new Aldi in Chickerell is like when it's finished and whether or not it has self service checkouts.

Sent from my Lumia 625 using Tapatalk

 

[PaulLothian]

I'd forgotten about those! I wonder if the checkouts are smaller now such that there isn't space for such a divider now

When they upgraded the checkouts, I think they added a couple more in the same space by making them all slimmer, and as all of them operated more slowly, we reckoned the throughput of customers actually slowed down!

 

[GusB]

I vaguely remember checkouts having those movable dividers too, although I can't remember which supermarket(s) had them.

One of the Safeway stores I worked in was ex-Norco, and they had a weird checkout layout with three conveyors - one on the right for the customer to put their shopping on, and two on the cashier's left-hand side, one at a lower level. The idea was that we packed as we scanned. It was certainly slower, but it was popular with the customers as they didn't have to worry about unloading their trolley and then rush to the other end to pack their bags.

We didn't have it in our store, but they were trialling self-scanning in other stores for a while. Shop'n'Go, I think it was called. I tried it a couple of times, but gave up in the end because I always had to get re-scanned at a normal checkout anyway.

 

[johntea]

The strangest place I've seen them is WHSmith, hardly as if the cashier is that busy in the first place as why you would ever buy anything from there is beyond me!

 

[jon0844]

The strangest place I've seen them is WHSmith, hardly as if the cashier is that busy in the first place as why you would ever buy anything from there is beyond me!

I detest WH Smith and find it mad/sad/bad that even the self scan tills try and upsell you a bar of chocolate and other crap.

Really the shop of last resort. And in many cases, even when thirsty, I've opted to stay thirsty than give them a penny (well, many pennies).

 

[martinsh]

Many years ago, a local supermarket - possibly Tesco - had wide bagging areas after the scanner, with a hinged partition that allowed shopping to go to either side of the packing area, and which allowed you to finish packing without bringing the queue to a total halt, while the next customer's shopping went to the other side. It always seemed a sensible design, presumably why they did away with them!

They still have these in Latvian supermarkets (all of them)

 

[Cowley]

Yes, B&Q have handheld scanners.

Do they work as well as the stuff they sell?
I reckon that ninety percent of what they sell is inferior to alternatives available elsewhere but because they have such a popular brand and can afford massive advertising campaigns they can get away with selling shoddy merchandise to muggles at inflated prices.
There are a few things they're good value on, but not many.
(B&Q trade point card holder, only used when really needed (usually a Sunday))

 

[Bletchleyite]

They still have these in Latvian supermarkets (all of them)

Also usual in Switzerland.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Do they work as well as the stuff they sell?
I reckon that ninety percent of what they sell is inferior to alternatives available elsewhere but because they have such a popular brand and can afford massive advertising campaigns they can get away with selling shoddy merchandise to muggles at inflated prices.
There are a few things they're good value on, but not many.
(B&Q trade point card holder, only used when really needed (usually a Sunday))

I must admit I do find Wickes superior in quality terms, though often more expensive.

 

[northwichcat]

I detest WH Smith and find it mad/sad/bad that even the self scan tills try and upsell you a bar of chocolate and other crap.

Really the shop of last resort. And in many cases, even when thirsty, I've opted to stay thirsty than give them a penny (well, many pennies).

The worst 'promotion' they do has to be the one where they overprice bottles of water (to something like £2/bottle) and then say if you buy The Telegraph you get a free bottle of water.

Dave Gorman covered that issue in one the episodes of Life Is Goodish and he said the cashier refused to let him buy the paper and then leave the purchase in the shop and he tried to give the paper to other passengers on a train and found no-one wanted it until he found a boring sounding man who didn't want it to go to waste.

 

[Cowley]

I must admit I do find Wickes superior in quality terms, though often more expensive.

I forgot that I'd had a rant about B&Q last night .
I tend to go to places like Buildbase for the things I need. Almost everything is better quality and usually cheaper too.
I think B&Q store their wood alternately in a sauna and a freezer to get it as warped as possible before they put it on the shelves and they then charge twice as much for it than a builders merchant would.
Their range of Dulux paint seems to be far more watery than if you buy trade paint from a proper decorators centre, if you have to do three coats of the stuff there's no saving, their caulk is also watered down and once dry always has cracks in it, their sandpaper is incredibly poor considering that it again costs twice as much as buying from Buildbase or similar, their screws won't take tightening up properly without the slots in the head stripping. But everyone goes there because they think that's how it all is.
I think they should stop selling a lot of their merchandise and give it all to a Christmas cracker company