Tesco self checkout tills

Yes, it's the same here. Second time they've changed it in a month. Different script too.

Not used them since a while but I heard there was an "outcry" recently about the standard issue (and sometimes embarrassing) female monotone.

I'll check one out next time I'm in Tesco (Perth) ...

its a concern for sure

I'll be more concerned when a pair of oiled up arms emerge from the tills offering a naked group hug of a Saturday afternoon when it's busy

I'd be concerned too. He should be out on his stepladder at that time.

doncaster racecourse can almost smell my j edgar hoover approaching

and there we must leave it!

G'Nite fellow forumites ... I'll be back

Refuse to use them. They are there to replace a persons job.

It's a good point Facts but at the same time it's just the logical and efficient way to go, saves a company money by cutting down queue time and saves customer time too. Machines in every industry are taking over, even schools, you used to have to go to a library to do some research, now many Library's have closed thanks to the growth of the computers/internet, I'm surprised they never done it sooner.

More libraries due to close because of government cuts, forcing local councils to 'save money' by closing them. Many people are working in libraries as volunteers so as to keep them running. Some Council members are buying new books out of their own money to stock the shelves. This is an absolute disgrace.The Arts minister has been attacked , as it is common knowledge that there is sufficient monies to prevent these closures. Irrespective of computers and internet, books are incredibly important , as is the ability to access them, especially young people in deprived areas. Computers are installed in most libraries and often this  is the only way many people can access the internet.

We must do all we can to stop libraries closing. It is shameful what is happening.

If they are to survive, public libraries have to reinvent themselves, as many seem to be doing.

Many seem to be internet cafes or creches.

Books used to be beyond the means of many, they are much, much cheaper now.

Not sure books, per se, ARE that important.

Maybe libraries are only needed for young people in deprived areas - if the local council don't think them worthwhile they would be ideal for charities to run.

I tell you where I hate the self-service tills - W H Smith.

The staff always put the paper through the SST.

Always get at least half a kilo of shrapnel in the change trough.

I asked her to give me a 50p instead of the shrapnel, she said she couldn't open the till without a sale.

I said I didn't want to use the SST in the first place.

Jack

Books are so important. Fiction and Fact , the information and imagination they can create inside the reader is immeasurable. The internet, even if available just isn't the same. To hold a book, smell it, look at it , pick it up ,put it down, keep it on view in a bookcase, take it with you, wherever you go. Books are things to love and treasure. They can evoke so many memories.

Problem is, books can now be read on tablet computers.

What is this...shopping...you speak of?

Self service is a dreadful development in the UK over the past 20 years, which is dressed up as being "for you convenience" but is really about companies cutting their own costs and putting all the burden on the customer.

Remember when you turned up at the petrol station and someone filled your tank for you?  You even used to learn in French lessons at school, phrases like "fill it up please".  Getting you to do the work was the thin end of the wedge.

At airports, they used to help you with check-in and baggage, now you have to do all the work yourself and take on the responsibility; and woe betide if you don't have the facilities or make an error, they'll charge you a fortune to sort it out at the airport.

You used to be able to order a cup of tea or coffee at a shop, cafe or mobile catering van and they'd ask you how you like it.  Strong?  Milk?  Sugar?  There you go Sir.   Nowadays they just thrown the raw ingredients at you and expect you to make it yourself.  There's a cup of hot water, that's £3.50.   There's a teabag on the side, milk and sugar are over there, now p!ss off and do it all yourself.

Self service tills at the shops are just an extension.  You do the work.  They save money on staffing costs.  Are those cost savings passed on to you the customer?  Are they bollox.

Wonder what the average age of a Chit Chatter is?

I prefer self service. The thing I dislike about Waitrose which only has manned checkouts is having to wait while the assistant chats to customers instead of getting on with it then having to wait while the customer rummages in her handbag, finds her purse then slowly counts her change examining both sides of each coin as she goes.
Most people who use self service have few items, want to get through as quickly as possible and have their means of payment ready. People like me.
By all means keep the manned checkouts for those with many items, have specific queries or who  have physical difficulties, I know I'll be one of them eventually, but for everyone else self service is the way to go.

has anybody told stemec ?

I'll tell you what does really annoy me about the self checkouts though, is people who scan every single item through...but don't put it in the bag as they're doing it, then they finish scanning and pay, then their stood their for another few minutes opening bags putting the items in, ffs how much common sense is it to put it in the bag as you're going along, holds up the queue, seem people do it whilst on the phone as well.

I have a guilty secret here. Whenever I buy loose bananas I always lie and key in 3 if I'm buying 4, 4 if I'm buying 5 etc..

I have absolutely no idea why I do it and am otherwise boringly honest. Must be the thrill of getting caught.

scandanavian_haven     09 Sep 15 09:25 
Problem is, books can now be read on tablet computers.



It's hardly the same is it !!!! I wouldn't use a Kindle to read a book if you gave me one !

A supermarket spokesperson said "the self service tills are not there to save money. They have been introduced because oue research has shown that a lot of people prefer not to have to deal with a person at the checkout and they also free up staff who, instead of working on the till, can now help shoppers around the store with queries and also keep the shelves stocked up therefore giving a better service to our customers."

You couldn't make it up.

They have though !

Utter bullshlt

I just checked out the library I used as a kid on google street view, and amazingly it's still standing it's in a prime location that I would have thought would have been knocked down to make way for chain store but no, it's defying time

Good

http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/the-story-so-far/reasons-for-public-li...

Does anyone else stand there swearing through frustration when using them? They bring out the worst in me!

Unexpected item in the baggage area - It's a ***king bag! What am I supposed to put there?

After pushing the cash button, please insert your money - What the f do you think I'm going to do?

Please take your items - **ck off, I really don't need telling that!

wow stow u mad

It's not a regular thing, but they do annoy me

I remember when they first came into use, the first few weeks when it said "unexpected item in bagging are"....everyone one looked around to see who it was, probably all thinking 'THIEF', then it happened so often even now that nobody bats an eyelid, even the staff that come round don;t even bother to look in your bag and just swipe their card instead, God knows how much money they've actually lost come to thing of it, reminds me of the bendy buses, or the free bus as people called it, standing near the reader only touching you Oyster card on it if inspectors were about to board. Makes you wonder if there are any honest people left tin the world

Last weekend some poor lady had someone searching though her bag in the entrance to Tesco at Waltham Abbey as the alarm went off. Surely they could have taken her somewhere private? I am giving her the benefit of the doubt, even though she may have been a thief.

whats a self-service check-out ?

Its where you help

YOURSELF

johnny_mustang .... hardly Raffles are you

I just used one of these at asda, put down my bag in the bagging area and it immedietly went off and needed assistance! what a pos

LIDL now do have self checkout tills.
I don't know about you but getting "Achtung! Unexpecteder item in der verboten area, dummkopf!" shouted at you is really unsettling, especially when the searchlight swings on you.

As long as the thing works self service are great,,,,,saves me having to be polite to the cashier, some of which I am sure would actually pay to do the job as it allows them to gossip all day.

It's an unforeseen consequence of the minimum wage being too high. Where companies find it cheaper to use humans they will. If technology is cheaper they will sack people. It's a difficult one to get round as I don't want to see people sacked. I was made redundant and it was rubbish. Incidentally the word Sabotage comes from the French word for clogs, Sabot. During the industrial revolution in France workers would throw their wooden clogs into the machinery to break it. Hence the word, sabotage.

Interesting fact there. You can try and use it to impress women, although you can take it from me it will be a waste of time.

what if its a french woman? 

I noticed by accident that if you put something heavy in first,and then something very light,it can easily fail to register..what a shame.

I love the self service. Some of the small talk conversations with cashiers are terrible. You know they don't really want to do it, but feel obliged to. I'd rather they didn't.

and what are you doing today sir..dunno,might have a w@nk.

prefer scrolls personally, better smell, easier to read , glad they replaced those stone tablets , could hardly lift a page let alone turn it over.

Maybe I need to get out more, but I often end up in small talk with the self checkout tills anyway.

The conversation is a bit predictable and repetitive, but you know, it's better than many I've had on chit chat.

Self service tills are great. Every time she goes on about goung to the supermarket I just go off on one saying that I can't do with those self service tills & off she goes to shop on her own - result! Peace for a couple of hours

I refuse to use them.  More time consuming than using a cashier, as the alarm goes off about five times a minute.  Plus I'd miss out on exhilarating chat such as this from today:

"Hi, would you like some help with your packing?"
"No, thanks."
"Okay...so...looks like you're off work...?"
"No, I'm a professional supermarket shopper.  How am I doing?"
"What?"
"Sorry, I'm being daft.  How are you?"
"Been better..."

A long and tedious tale about a hangover and having to work until 8pm followed.  Was a wonderful experience.

don't get me started on this drift to make YOU do the work

VAT - you collect it for the government - what a con - and guess where VAT came from!!!???

it was a condition/obligation so we could join the eu  ha ha!!!

As a suggestion….

Someone on here makes a comment that should/could be made to a checkout person.

Then, someone else on here, takes up the challenge and uses it the next or so day.

And reports back on the response from the cashier.

This male voice of which you speak.....

Have they taken the opportunity to make it Asian?

Ahhh bud bud bud bud bud....

Is it true that if you try and scan the item 3 times and it doesnt beep its free ?

Really!!!
so you could have a black pen and corrupt the bar code on the way around!

I liked the self scan handsets that "Safeways" had. They were handy for checking your spend, if there was a discount for say, over £40.00.

Don't know why they were scrapped, unless they were being massively abused.

I remember my mum using that thing going up and down the safeway aisle's very useful when on a budget and ahead of their time, like concord.

You had to think on your feet though (as with using a calculator) to make sure you didn't double scan, which was too easy if you happen to be deaf!

What was aggravating was to be, inexplicably, just pennies out, when you were selected for a re-scan.

That often meant several re-scans on the trot and woe betide you if it was wrong again!