Self service tills.

Cash? What’s that lol - since Covid, I use contactless with my card on my phone and I very rarely have to use my actual card with my PIN 

The hotel I work for has two new self service points for guests checking in and out and there is no end of problems with them and it’s been several months since they were put into use 

Agreed on all counts 

Having worked in supermarkets for 30 years and at age 53, I quite agree Number, as I too have had the same experiences - as a world, we are becoming way too dependent on tech advances, mobile phones, etc and it’s a bad thing - even though I’d embraced tech advances in my teens in the 80’s, over the decades I’ve come to realise that we are losing the essential component of human interaction, which is slowly strangling our society and we are becoming prisoners of tech advances 

I started this thread after a recent visit to Iceland, where previously they had two manned tills and four self service tills.  The manned tills always had queues and the self service tills were little used.  So I used the self service tills without queuing.

This week I got to the tills and the self service tills were gone and there was a long queue to the ONE till that was actually manned.  Boy was I annoyed.

I have tried this method, including via a mobile phone app, but it’s not for me and neither is self-service 

Having worked in supermarket retailing for over 30 years myself, this is going to hurt elderly people the most and at age 53 myself, I’m not far off that age either - a properly run store MUST give people the option, especially elderly customers - during Covid in particular, hygiene was a concern, but even before Covid we still had very high standards of hygiene, even on checkouts in all the supermarkets I’ve worked for 

I dont like self service tills, because i often have to ask for assistance as though i am training to do the job, and the trainers arent very good either! 

At age 53, I used to work in Tesco for 17 years and we had 13 of these ghastly self-service tills in my last store - just like in my teens in the 1980’s  and when these new tills first came in, I’d embraced them when they were first imposed on us, but then as always, as with all scientific and technological advances which are always good in theory, but never in practice, the problems with them came up thick and fast - call me old school, but at my age, I’m totally opposed to them as they are soulless pieces of tech that almost totally cuts out all human interactions, puts people out of jobs and has endless problems with them - my local store has them and with every single item, time and again, there is always a problem that always needs assistance, so really what is the point of them, as most people I chat to in the store hate them, despite the store trying to force people to use them and cutting back on normal tills and frankly, I for one simply refuse to use them anymore even with assistance as I highly value human interaction and most of the staff feel the same way, especially those my age - I’m quite surprised that Aldi is using these tills now, which is quite worrying - in the next few years, Amazon is planning to take over supermarket retailing like what they have done in China, California and elsewhere, using digital trollies/baskets and other crazy forms of tech that don’t involve going to a till to checkout and pay for goods, but I do agree that people should have the option not to use them 

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I haven't been shopping for a while. When I did last go I didn't use self service, I found it difficult and liked the simplicity of the shop assistant doing it instead. Less stress for me than way.

I hate self service tills because something usually goes wrong and I end up talking out loud to the machine. By the end of the transaction I feel so embarrassed I can't leave quick enough. I much prefer a brief transaction with a person.

Last year, at Poundland in Castle Court in Belfast, the self-service till had the worst Santa voice ever; saying, "One of my little Elves shall come, and assist you!" Almost in a Brian Blessed manner.

Self-service tills are shite. They are programmed by people who have no concept of logic (the post office ones are the worst). I can seldom  make them work, they ask gnomic questions and I hate them. Plus they put people out of work which is quite horrible.

At ASDA, if you want to pay in cash at a self-service till, a staff member has to swipe her card; just to activate the ability to use cash.

Sainsbury's self-service till is more cash-friendly. Having used it in Manchester Nine months ago, and Dungannon five months ago. But Sainsbury's is run by a Donor of Blair. 

He most certainly is. Mwaahahahaha!

I think I've saw one of those things once ever in my entire life (while I was on a trip to Glasgow). Considering where I live, I believe that I just accepted that the manned tills are the only tills there are, and that there's no other way.

out_of_step said:

The question is - have any of us "honest" autistic people ever tried to diddle one to get a few p off our shopping? I once entered 1 large onion as small!

Only once and funnily enough it involved an onion! It wasn't deliberate though.

After paying for my shopping I spotted one small loose onion still lurking in the corner of my basket. I had a dilemma:

Do I pay for it in another transaction? Do I just leave it there for the next customer to find? Do I give it to a member of staff to put back? Do I retrace my steps and return it to the shelves myself?

I did not want to stay a moment longer in the store so what did I do? The easiest thing and just picked it out of the basket and straight into my shopping bag 

I believe some customers do try and diddle them big time and the stores are implementing ever increasing levels of security. Last time I used one in Sainsburys it took me by surprise that I had to queue to scan my receipt to open a barrier to leave the checkout area.

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Small ones weigh less than bigger ones. And it was a long time ago. I haven't been brave enough since!