Supermarkets discussion

[styles]

Just had something which has never happened to me before in the literally hundreds of occasions I've used self scan, at the checkout at my local Tesco I was flagged for a full rescan of my entire shop. Whenever I've been flagged for a random trolley check before I don't remember it ever being for more than half my shop. Has anyone else ever had one of these, all struck me as very odd?

I am sure I have seen it happening before, but I always assumed it was after some sort of irregularity or it was manually initiated by a member of staff with suspicions.

I only use staffed checkouts if I'm doing a large shop at one of the supermarkets these days, it just seems more efficient, even than self scan.

 

[gazthomas]

Just had something which has never happened to me before in the literally hundreds of occasions I've used self scan, at the checkout at my local Tesco I was flagged for a full rescan of my entire shop. Whenever I've been flagged for a random trolley check before I don't remember it ever being for more than half my shop. Has anyone else ever had one of these, all struck me as very odd?

I've had it happen a couple of times. Becomes beyond tedious and in this case it would make more sense directing you to a proper checkout which would have been much faster

 

[PeterC]

Just had something which has never happened to me before in the literally hundreds of occasions I've used self scan, at the checkout at my local Tesco I was flagged for a full rescan of my entire shop. Whenever I've been flagged for a random trolley check before I don't remember it ever being for more than half my shop. Has anyone else ever had one of these, all struck me as very odd?

I had a couple at Waitrose in the early days of self scanning. These days I get the impression that they are checking up to a predetermined value.

At the beginning they did have a dedicated rescan till.

 

[gg1]

I've had it happen a couple of times. Becomes beyond tedious and in this case it would make more sense directing you to a proper checkout which would have been much faster

In this instance they did. They young lad at the shelf checkouts was quite apologetic and said I could use one of the normal checkouts if I'd rather, which I did. In hindsight I'm wondering if that was a bad idea, because my self scan shop was cancelled yesterday rather than rechecked, it might just automatically flag again next week.

 

[Buzby]

This hasn’t happened again (to verify I wasn’t imagining it). Did a Sainsbury’s Self Scan on a full trolley. Trying to pay my scanner uploaded to the checkout OK, instead giving me a total to pay or request X items to rescan (which is roughly each 6th visit), the checkout flagged an ‘Over 18’ purchase (Cough mixture and Ibuprofen) when the staffer OK’d it the checkout crashed. On restart everything was lost, and even the hand scanner had deleted the purchases. Having to rescan everything again the problem was my Nectar bonus items only went through minus the bonus, as it appeared to the system I had already received the bonus benefit, only when the odd multi buy item went through did it apply. Single item bonus points go into a void, and I lost around 800 of them!

 

[londonbridge]

In this instance they did. They young lad at the shelf checkouts was quite apologetic and said I could use one of the normal checkouts if I'd rather, which I did. In hindsight I'm wondering if that was a bad idea, because my self scan shop was cancelled yesterday rather than rechecked, it might just automatically flag again next week.

There are no handsets in Sainsburys locals, you have to scan everything with the app on your phone and then use Apple/Googlepay. Scanned half a dozen items, when I went to pay it flagged up for a partial rescan. Manager and two colleagues on duty and none of them seemed to know what to do, nor know any login details in order to log in to the staff rescan app. Cancelled the shop and put everything through the self checkout instead. A few days later I was in a different branch, scanned the items for a meal deal, it flagged up rescan again. Luckily this time the manager knew what they were doing and I was able to complete the shop.

On a different note, a good deal yesterday, Gillette razor blades, 8 pack £24, 4 pack £13, buy two get one free with Nectar, needless to say three four packs went in my basket.

 

[jon0844]

In this instance they did. They young lad at the shelf checkouts was quite apologetic and said I could use one of the normal checkouts if I'd rather, which I did. In hindsight I'm wondering if that was a bad idea, because my self scan shop was cancelled yesterday rather than rechecked, it might just automatically flag again next week.

I went to a Waitrose and used my app to scan a single 2ltr milk. It came up asking for a rescan, but the lady hadn't logged in to her terminal and had issues - so suggested I just cancel and pay for it as a 'new' transaction. I asked if it would be an issue and she said it would be fine.

It wasn't.

Next time I went in, I was blocked from using the service. They couldn't initially do anything because it was out of their control, but I went to customer service to explain the situation and they managed to unblock the account. Waitrose assumed that my cancelling after being told I needed to rescan was fraudulent.

Now I make them log in and do the rescan, however long it takes (and I don't know why they aren't logged in by the time they open!).

 

[py_megapixel]

I went to a Waitrose and used my app to scan a single 2ltr milk. It came up asking for a rescan, but the lady hadn't logged in to her terminal and had issues - so suggested I just cancel and pay for it as a 'new' transaction.

To be honest, I don't tend to bother with scan-and-go for buying only one or two items - in my experience it just doesn't seem to save much effort for transactions that small.

 

[Steddenm]

I know Asda are having a few problems at the moment but one store in Belfast near the Kennedy Centre, has a lot of what I call staples such as milk, cheese, sugar, butter and bread constantly out of stock. I know in NI Asda is separate to Asda GB, and a lot of these products are sourced locally, but it seems the suppliers aren't supplying them. I asked at Customer Services and was told that the orders are put in but they're not being delivered.

Also had an issue where the Tassimo pods are priced on the shelf as four packs for £14 yet at the till it didn't come off. She went to have a look, came back with the promo flag which says in small print "GB stores only, excludes Small Stores and NI" which seemed odd as why put the label out in the first place.

They also have no carrier bags at all in store.

 

[johntea]

Also had an issue where the Tassimo pods are priced on the shelf as four packs for £14 yet at the till it didn't come off. She went to have a look, came back with the promo flag which says in small print "GB stores only, excludes Small Stores and NI" which seemed odd as why put the label out in the first place.

Asda are very good at doing that, my local one had a full shelf edge display of those '3 for £5' drinks only to pick up 3, get to the checkout and for that not to be the case, staff member goes away to have a look 'oh yeah those ones aren't in the deal it confused me for a minute too!'

 

[SuspectUsual]

I know Asda are having a few problems at the moment but one store in Belfast near the Kennedy Centre, has a lot of what I call staples such as milk, cheese, sugar, butter and bread constantly out of stock. I know in NI Asda is separate to Asda GB, and a lot of these products are sourced locally, but it seems the suppliers aren't supplying them. I asked at Customer Services and was told that the orders are put in but they're not being delivered.

Also had an issue where the Tassimo pods are priced on the shelf as four packs for £14 yet at the till it didn't come off. She went to have a look, came back with the promo flag which says in small print "GB stores only, excludes Small Stores and NI" which seemed odd as why put the label out in the first place.

They also have no carrier bags at all in store.

This absolutely screams “SAP implementation issues”. SAP is massively data hungry and incredibly intolerant of master data that is anything less than perfect, and the issues you describe are similar to stuff I saw when I worked on the Coop’s SAP programme

- any non-standard route to market has to be managed very, very carefully and I would be stunned if the milk issue wasn’t a result of a cutover data issue. As for the store saying “we’re putting the orders in”, unless by “we” they mean the wider business I’d take it with a pinch of salt as all ordering will be centralised for milk

- carrier bags are the one product we left as manual reorder at Coop as (1) we knew loads were stolen and (2) counting what’s in stock isn’t really viable unless it’s a guesstimate. If Asda have left it as SAP reordering it will probably look to the system like there are thousands in the store, and it’ll not reorder until it thinks it needs to, ie until someone in store does a massive negative stock correction, something they really don’t like doing

 

[martin butler]

My local ASDA, used to be OK, but always seemed to be lacking on product choice, for example, it would stock a premium brand of beans, but not its own decent quality ones, either the very cheap, but nasty, or the very expensive branded ones, and other lines, were the same,

the frozen foods were even worse, last time i went, i fancied faggotts, but not a single pack, nor any in the back, their reason, we sold out and the system won't let us re order!! lines were very sparse, again, high-cost brand products, were plentiful, but choice was either budget, or premium

Now i tend to use Lidl, their premium lines are good quality, but still reasonable, I don't tend to buy budget lines, as they don't taste so good, the exception is some meats, if I'm doing a stew etc, as once cut up, and cooked slowly, its ok, I might buy a cheap tin of Tomato soup if I'm making a spicy meal, and use that as a base,

 

[Bletchleyite]

ASDA has been ruined by the Issa Brothers. They are good at running petrol stations, their core business (their small services sites are really quite good) but they have no clue about large supermarkets - it has become expensive and just a bit rubbish.

Now private equity have come in it definitely won't improve. Private equity never improves anything. It's just about asset stripping and profit extraction.

Like Morrisons it'll probably fizzle out and either go bust or be bought out by one of the other big operators.

 

[py_megapixel]

On at least 3 recent visits to Asda I have had items scan at a higher price than the shelf edge label.

I asked at the customer service desk whether they were aware of this problem - apparently they are, and it's because the price is changed in the till system when the new labels are printed, not once they've been displayed! Which of course means that unless the labels are displayed the instant they are printed - which never happens - this will happen every time there is a price change.

Staff also seem to have no power to correct the prices when an item scans at the wrong price.

It's very poor that nobody noticed this flaw before implementation (it seems glaringly obvious), and even poorer that there seems to be no will from the higher-ups to fix it.

I have considered reporting them to Trading Standards but I don't honestly have much faith that it would achieve much.

 

[ChrisC]

My local ASDA was quite good 10+ years ago and I used to shop there quite often. I went in a few months ago, having not been in for a few years, and I couldn’t believe how awful it was. I only went down the first couple of aisles and walked out without buying anything.

These days I regularly shop at Waitrose and M&S where I mostly buy their own label items. I find these to be very good quality at a much lower price than the branded alternative. Last week I went in Home Bargains and couldn’t believe how much more expensive branded things were even in a discount store in comparison to M&S and Waitrose own labels. I know that I could get even cheaper own label items at other stores such as Lidl and Aldi but I like the more upmarket stores. I’ve only ever been in a Aldi store once and walked out of there without buying anything because I didn’t like it. Sorry I am a bit of a shopping snob even if it does result in me paying higher prices for quality and a pleasanter shopping environment. I wish I had a Booths near here!

 

[gg1]

I gave up on Asda a few years ago, alway a higher proportion of items on my shopping list being out of stock than at either Tesco or Sainsburys, poor quality 'fresh' veg, and out of date chilled items being commonplace (I don't just mean a day or two, I saw items on their shelves a week past their use by date).

Around that time my local Asda also downsized their range, they had a reorgansisation which basially involved removing a couple of aisles and spacing out the remaining ones.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Just before Christmas, Sainsbury's delivered to me a box of Lindt Wafer Chocolates (plus other things). A month past their Best Before date and that on a product which has several months shelf life. Someone is not doing their stock rotation / checking. Obviously I ate them anyway and lived to tell the tale.

 

[Peter Sarf]

On at least 3 recent visits to Asda I have had items scan at a higher price than the shelf edge label.

I asked at the customer service desk whether they were aware of this problem - apparently they are, and it's because the price is changed in the till system when the new labels are printed, not once they've been displayed! Which of course means that unless the labels are displayed the instant they are printed - which never happens - this will happen every time there is a price change.

Staff also seem to have no power to correct the prices when an item scans at the wrong price.

It's very poor that nobody noticed this flaw before implementation (it seems glaringly obvious), and even poorer that there seems to be no will from the higher-ups to fix it.

I have considered reporting them to Trading Standards but I don't honestly have much faith that it would achieve much.

That is one thing I notice about the Morrisons near me. Whenever I query a price they refund the difference. Once on a product two days in a row !. If another store does not refund the difference I let them know what I think. However the errors in Morrisons are getting more common as is un rotated stock so I can see the day they give up refunding the difference. I fear a good chain (Morrisons) is sliding down the slippery slope of Private Equity and staff are getting quite obviously disillusioned - watch out for you pensions folks.

 

[AM9]

My local ASDA was quite good 10+ years ago and I used to shop there quite often. I went in a few months ago, having not been in for a few years, and I couldn’t believe how awful it was. I only went down the first couple of aisles and walked out without buying anything.

These days I regularly shop at Waitrose and M&S where I mostly buy their own label items. I find these to be very good quality at a much lower price than the branded alternative. Last week I went in Home Bargains and couldn’t believe how much more expensive branded things were even in a discount store in comparison to M&S and Waitrose own labels. I know that I could get even cheaper own label items at other stores such as Lidl and Aldi but I like the more upmarket stores. I’ve only ever been in a Aldi store once and walked out of there without buying anything because I didn’t like it. Sorry I am a bit of a shopping snob even if it does result in me paying higher prices for quality and a pleasanter shopping environment. I wish I had a Booths near here!

You aren't a shopping snob, - there's nothing wrong with meeting your needs from the store that offers the products that are best for you. As for the stores shopping environment, supermarkets spend billions of refurbishment and styling to attract their customers and it's what suits each individual customer that matters, even if it is only the 'least worst' choice.
As far as comparing own brands goes, most of the main players have three product streams:
'Good' - the lowest prices, 'better' - the better ingredients version and 'best' - the luxury product using all the most appropriate contents to give a special product.
Note that a product's position in such a hierarchy is, with respect to other versions of the item within that store's products only. That means that a Tesco Value Line item cannot does not equate to a Sainsbury's Basic item nor a Waitrose Essential product. In many cases a 'good' item can be better than another company's 'better' one, and as a consequence still be priced as a basic offer, effectively making it a far better bargain.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Note that a product's position in such a hierarchy is, with respect to other versions of the item within that store's products only. That means that a Tesco Value Line item cannot does not equate to a Sainsbury's Basic item nor a Waitrose Essential product. In many cases a 'good' item can be better than another company's 'better' one, and as a consequence still be priced as a basic offer, effectively making it a far better bargain.

Indeed. I do find it interesting that Waitrose Essential shares the basic value style branding but in reality is typically equivalent in quality to the normal "Tesco" branded midrange products, it isn't a value range.

 

[SuspectUsual]

supermarkets spend billions of refurbishment and styling

Or not, if you’re Asda or Morrisons

 

[AM9]

Or not, if you’re Asda or Morrisons

Either way it gives the shopping experience its unique flavour.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Feb 2026 ==

Indeed. I do find it interesting that Waitrose Essential shares the basic value style branding but in reality is typically equivalent in quality to the normal "Tesco" branded midrange products, it isn't a value range.

Exactly! The Essential range was introduce during the recession in 2009 and it was quite obvious that many of the range were re-badged products from the 'normal' product range. Comparing that to their larger competitors whose tins of baked beans could be used as a 'hunt the bean' game. Also it doesn't require the shopper to have a store loyalty card to get them for 'good' level price.

 

[skyhigh]

Or not, if you’re Asda or Morrisons

Not entirely true - our Asda has just had a "£2 million refurbishment" (which strangely just so happened to coincide with a new Tesco superstore opening).

Morrisons on the other hand seem to spend loads installing new counters then ripping them out again. They added a coffee shop (next to the cafe), ran it for about 8 weeks, left it shut and then 12 months later took it back out again...

 

[Peter Sarf]

Not entirely true - our Asda has just had a "£2 million refurbishment" (which strangely just so happened to coincide with a new Tesco superstore opening).

Morrisons on the other hand seem to spend loads installing new counters then ripping them out again. They added a coffee shop (next to the cafe), ran it for about 8 weeks, left it shut and then 12 months later took it back out again...

Morrisons here seem to have a recent coffee shop that they have lost interest in.

Our fairly near ASDA is very tired looking on my rare visits. It is a little bit further away than Sainsburys, Tesco, Lidl and Aldi so I might not notice if it changed !. Used to go to ASDA with friends by car but when Morrisons opened walking distance away I was swayed. But if Morrisons went.....

 

[jon0844]

I visited an Asda over the weekend that was a very new building on a retail park and it was nice and modern inside, but they had clearly moved things around post Christmas and things weren't in the places where the signs said.

I don't mean the hanging signs for each aisle, but the ones on the shelves themselves (for things like electronics, mobile phones etc). In fact, some products weren't in the store at all and when I asked for something, I was taken to where he assumed it was (based on the signage) and was as confused as me about why nothing was there (and upon checking, nowhere else either).

On the plus side, the staff were incredibly friendly and seemed happy - which was a stark contrast to my local Asda.

 

[Hadders]

Just had something which has never happened to me before in the literally hundreds of occasions I've used self scan, at the checkout at my local Tesco I was flagged for a full rescan of my entire shop. Whenever I've been flagged for a random trolley check before I don't remember it ever being for more than half my shop. Has anyone else ever had one of these, all struck me as very odd?

Full rescans are something that has been introduced.

I am sure I have seen it happening before, but I always assumed it was after some sort of irregularity or it was manually initiated by a member of staff with suspicions.

Rescans should not be initiated by a member of staff. The algorithm should determine who is selected for a rescan and how many items should be scanned. This is to avoid accusations of unconcious bias that could happen if staff have the ability to select who gets a rescan.

I had a couple at Waitrose in the early days of self scanning. These days I get the impression that they are checking up to a predetermined value.

That's not how it works.

There are no handsets in Sainsburys locals, you have to scan everything with the app on your phone and then use Apple/Googlepay. Scanned half a dozen items, when I went to pay it flagged up for a partial rescan. Manager and two colleagues on duty and none of them seemed to know what to do, nor know any login details in order to log in to the staff rescan app. Cancelled the shop and put everything through the self checkout instead. A few days later I was in a different branch, scanned the items for a meal deal, it flagged up rescan again. Luckily this time the manager knew what they were doing and I was able to complete the shop.

If the system selects you for a rescan and it's not completed (for whatever reason) then it will keep requesting a rescan until it is completed.

Sainsbury's are trialling paying via the smartshop handset in some of their stores.

To be honest, I don't tend to bother with scan-and-go for buying only one or two items - in my experience it just doesn't seem to save much effort for transactions that small.

It can be much faster when the store is busy. I've lost count of the times I've gone to purchase a sandwich at lunchtime only to be faced with a large queue at the self checkout. No problem - whip out my phone, scan the items as I walk to the (almost always) much quieter smartshop tills and pay.

 

[jon0844]

I paid on my phone in Sainsbury's a few years ago, in whatever their equivalent of a Tesco Express is. Scan and pay on the phone and walk out. Basically as you can do in M&S as long as you didn't buy alcohol, tablets and some other items.

More recently I've been able to pay on the phone but must then tap a barcode before exiting, and it's not always obvious where the code is - and when I last asked staff they didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

I'm surely not the only person using the app?

I use my phone all the time in the main stores where you must still go to a checkout (you can use any of them, not just the ones labeled for the handheld scanners which are often off and sometimes the whole section is shut entirely).

Still, at least I can always use the app unlike when I go to Tesco where they advertise their terminals as open until midnight but turn them off at 2100 - yet won't change the advertised time. It's apparently due to a lack of staff to put them back, but by not changing the signs I assume they're not telling head office.

If Tesco offered an app like so many others, they could perhaps allow people to scan right up until closing.

 

[Hadders]

More recently I've been able to pay on the phone but must then tap a barcode before exiting, and it's not always obvious where the code is - and when I last asked staff they didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

Scanning the barcode to exit doesn't actually do anything - it's a placebo. It's there because many customers feel uncomfortable leaving the store without having a way to make it look like they've paid.

Many Sainsbury's Locals have a barcode on entry which you do have to scan - usually where there are lots of stores in a city centre. This is to locate you in the correct store. If the customer uses 4G rather than store WiFi then there is a risk that you're located in the wrong store. This doesn't impact the price paid but the sales and associated inventory adjustment can go to the wrong store!

 

[Joe Paxton]

ASDA has been ruined by the Issa Brothers. They are good at running petrol stations, their core business (their small services sites are really quite good) but they have no clue about large supermarkets - it has become expensive and just a bit rubbish.

Now private equity have come in it definitely won't improve. Private equity never improves anything. It's just about asset stripping and profit extraction.

Like Morrisons it'll probably fizzle out and either go bust or be bought out by one of the other big operators.

There's been plenty written about ASDA's plight in the FT and elsewhere, but I thought this recent BBC InDepth article by business correspondent Emma Simpson was a really good overview of the retailer's situation:
Asda has lost its mojo and has a big fight to get it back *

In particular one recurring theme is the necessity - and also the pain - of seperating ASDA from the IT systems of the previous owner Walmart.

(* I appreciate the forum encourages posters to quote from any external source that's referred to, but in this case it's really the entirety of the article that's relevant - and futhermore it's not behind a paywall.)

 

[py_megapixel]

It can be much faster when the store is busy. I've lost count of the times I've gone to purchase a sandwich at lunchtime only to be faced with a large queue at the self checkout. No problem - whip out my phone, scan the items as I walk to the (almost always) much quieter smartshop tills and pay.

Round here it only seems to be the absolute largest stores (Tesco Extras and equivalent) that have designated tills for customers who have already scanned their shopping. Most just share it with the other self service.
But yes, if you are in such a store that does make sense.