Self service tills.

As I understand it, the return to person-operated tills is because people hate them! It seems that most want that human interaction...

I quite like them, myself, because I don't want that human interaction 

But - I am aware that self-service tills have cost people their jobs. That seems like a more important factor, to me.

My local supermarket was the first, I think, to return to old style tills. 

In thought that the newer tills weighed produce and would detect how big your onion really is.

deleted

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!

Nope.

I'm not as naughty as you!

Love Murray, he’s hilarious

They stress me up to the eyeballs. 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!

There are pros and cons.

One advantage is when paying cash, the machine is more honest and reliable when giving change.  At a manned till I have been short changed by an operator several times in the past.

Problems with the self service tills often depend on the particular model, most weigh the items you buy but in certain shops such as my local Aldi they don't detect very light items at all and staff have to override the machine.

With self service tills, staff have to be on their feet all day. On manned tills they can sit all day.

Self service tills need staff to ok restricted or age restricted items.  Even when they video the customer, can't they use AI to estimate the customers age.

Local co-op will be Having a massive refurbishment next year. Instead of the magazine section, that will be a self service till. Priority for the staff is to use the manual till to serve customers. Then help customers with the self service. 

I prefer to be severed by a human being as usually do small talk (not great with); sometimes staff help me with the self service especially with gift cards. I don't like it people treat me as I've got a learning disability. 

The library will be having a new self service machine which is bigger. 

Number said:

 The majority of times that I use them, something goes wrong.

Yup. Over the years since they've been introduced, the machines haven't exactly become more reliable either. They constantly break on you, like a 70% hit rate and it gets very annoying.

Robert124 said:

Now some shops are going into reverse, Booths are ripping out their self service tills, and my local branch of Iceland has gone back to manned tills only.

I welcome this, as it means computers aren't taking up human jobs. There's going to be a lot of this in future and it's going to make the job market even more horrible for people trying to find work.

I've come to quite like using the manned tills and having a brief convo with someone.

The self-service ones I tend to prefer, but something always goes wrong with them. They fail to scan things, go berserk because you're scanned a yoghurt, or whatever else. That causes me bother.

 I like being able to have a short interaction with a human at a till or pay point, even if it is just an exchange of smiles and a P & T Y.  As a predominantly "alone" human, I find these short and purposeful interactions with other humans quite important.  It is important for me (at times) to be forced to interact with others, and these small and short interactions are being sliced away from my world.

Moreover, self-service tills hate me.  The majority of times that I use them, something goes wrong.....and not just once....repeatedly.  They are not good for my soul nor my blood pressure!  I'm not a fan of the ever increasing computerisation of my interactions with the world.

I also prefer self service, mainly because I’m partially deaf so it’s a lot easier to read the totals and I can get on with it all by myself without having to concentrate on listening to anyone. I scan my weekly shop as I go round then all you have to do is scan the self service screen and pay at the end. Yet some people are on a campaign to get rid of them without thinking of how useful they are to some other people. I appreciate some people can’t use them so having some of both is the best idea

As someone who is visually impaired, I cannot use self service tills without assistance. 

Recently my local morrisons added a lot of self service tills, and only a few of the cashier remain. This has meant longer queues. 

I understand the hygiene thing, but I think it's good to have a balance of both types. Sometimes a chat with a cashier, is the only conversation someone will have in a day/week.