Ah yes. Just what the country needs. Less jobs. Thanks tesco for helping people
If they’re not paying wages, are the prices coming down?
> “Of course, there are savings to be made losing the manned checkouts, but the reality is, you rarely see checkouts open these days en masse anyway, so it’s underutilised space.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a supermarket where every checkout was manned. Even when they’re busy, there usually seems to be quite a few empty ones – which is just dead space.
I am no psychologist so perhaps I am wrong, but this march towards automation must be terrible for elderly people who rely on small talk in their daily routine for their social interaction & thus their mental health.
Edit: reminds me that I even saw a little robot delivering groceries(?) recently!
Last i checked at tesco most they have operational is 5 anyway.
Feel like they can just reassign the staff to be helpers for the self service ones since they are prone to errors.
Had to hunt for someone to authorise my bottle of Pimm’s yesterday, which is pretty annoying when there’s a queue of people waiting.
This change has RUINED my local Tesco. They renovated to remove about 6 checkout lanes (about half of them) and replace it with a cart-sized self-checkout area.
The self-checkout is utterly useless for a large shop. The computer takes 10s to process each scan before letting you scan the next item and every 3rd item, the weight sensor panics and demands a staff member confirm I’m not stealing. Took close to 20 minutes to scan and bag everything the only time I used it.
As seemingly everyone has figured out how awful the self-checkout is, the queues for the manned checkouts have gone from 5 minutes max to over 30 minute waits.
As someone who doesn’t drive, this is my only option for shopping, but if I could change, this would single-handedly push me to make the swap.
Screw whoever in management thought this was a good idea!
Oh god I hate this. Specifically I hate being with my parents whenever they try and use self service and my mum throws a wobbly for the fifth time when the machine cant recognise what she just scanned and put down. Or because shes trying to scan too fast. Or because she has to use the search function for the fruit and veg. Or because shes run out of room on the packing area because she thought she had less than she did. Or because shes buying anything that requires staff verification and she cant work out why the machine just cant accept that shes old.
Oh boy.
Self checkouts are fine if you don’t have loose fruit and veg, alcohol, or things that have a tag on them. The times I’ve had to hunt for a member of staff to sort out a confused self checkout.
Oh good I look forward to waiting for my alcohol to be approved by the one poor sod Manning 25 checkouts
No ty, I’m not scanning a weeks shop through a machine that doesn’t trust me
“Unexpected item in the bagging area“
Just try doing a full trolley shop using self service – it’s a frustrating nightmare. It takes three times as long as a staffed checkout even when I’m scanning at the same speed – primarily because I can’t scan with one hand and bag with the other without the checkout complaining. I’d rather do my big shops elsewhere than suffer self checkout.
I just won’t shop there anymore :/
It’s not unrealistic either to say this as companies will feel the pinch when we can’t afford to spend as much. Lidl doesn’t do self service in my area 🙂
It’s either picket lines or breadlines and all the workers they don’t need are gonna end up on breadlines.
I wouldn’t rule them out if they actually worked properly. I’m not sure what a successful trial means in their world, but we had to call over the assistant 9 times when we used the new self scanner today. Apparently the staff have got petitions on their internal FB groups against it.
Supermarkets wish to be nothing more than huge money sinks that ferry funds out of the local community to their HQ and shareholders, without even giving the pitiful wages that they pay back in to the locals. Whenever wealth centralises like this it’s never good.
Now can supermarkets open late on a sunday please?
Tesco self service checkouts are awful. They take an age to recognise the weight of the thing you’ve scanned so scanning more than a few items takes ages. If you actually use a proper till, the ones staff do, the difference is huge!
Always crowded and full.. but checkouts won’t open to the full.
Your correlation of dead space seems misleading as it seems more of a staff issue than no necessity.
Oh great, I can’t wait to wait even longer with my till light blinking bright red because x needs to be age verified or whatever and the 3 employees needed to staff self service checkouts decide they want to have a quick 5 minute chat and just ignore every customer.
Moan aside, we knew this was coming, supermarkets are viciously competitive and you’ll struggle to find any large supermarket that has fully staffed tills regardless of how busy they are, it’s just wasted space.
We had 20 tills in my store. Ripped out 16. Now the queues for till are a mile long.
Self checkout is a stepping stone. If anyone wants to see the future of grocery shopping and lives in London, I highly encourage a visit to one of the Amazon Fresh stores. Walk in, take what you need, walk out, no checkout. It’s such a bizarre seamless experience it feels like stealing.
I know for a fact that sainsbury’s is working on a similar system, and would be surprised if any major supermarket wasn’t
I used to be a checkout operator in my teens. My boyfriend at the time cheated on me with another girl and dumped me and then I had to go start my shift. I did the usual, say hello, ask for a clubcard etc. say thank you and bye.
One customer that day went up to a manager and complained about me because I didn’t smile at them. The manager had to call me aside and remind me to smile at all the customers. I get you’re not meant to bring personal troubles to work but I was young and upset and a human being having a bad day.
Maybe people will prefer robots
Every time I go tescos, the 4-5 manned tills always have long queues, the want for manned tills is there. Tesco just want to sap more money out of the community it’s there to support, by having to pay less local workers… this bs narrative that we want it is a con and a lie.
Well, that’s another good reason to have everything delivered to our door.
Their loss really, we spend much more money when visiting Tesco stores, (filling up the trolley on a whim), than we do ordering on-line.
So Tesco are actually saving us money by not having us visit their store and no more waiting in line at the checkout queue.
I would imagine it’s going to be a total bun fight at Christmas
For me, this is great. I don’t want to speak to people. I want to grab what I want and go.
So will tobacco stands become self service or will they keep staff on their tills?
They should pay tax on each machine, to make up for lost workers.
Call me old fashioned but I like someone at the checkout.
29 comments
Ah yes. Just what the country needs. Less jobs. Thanks tesco for helping people
If they’re not paying wages, are the prices coming down?
> “Of course, there are savings to be made losing the manned checkouts, but the reality is, you rarely see checkouts open these days en masse anyway, so it’s underutilised space.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a supermarket where every checkout was manned. Even when they’re busy, there usually seems to be quite a few empty ones – which is just dead space.
I am no psychologist so perhaps I am wrong, but this march towards automation must be terrible for elderly people who rely on small talk in their daily routine for their social interaction & thus their mental health.
Edit: reminds me that I even saw a little robot delivering groceries(?) recently!
Last i checked at tesco most they have operational is 5 anyway.
Feel like they can just reassign the staff to be helpers for the self service ones since they are prone to errors.
Had to hunt for someone to authorise my bottle of Pimm’s yesterday, which is pretty annoying when there’s a queue of people waiting.
This change has RUINED my local Tesco. They renovated to remove about 6 checkout lanes (about half of them) and replace it with a cart-sized self-checkout area.
The self-checkout is utterly useless for a large shop. The computer takes 10s to process each scan before letting you scan the next item and every 3rd item, the weight sensor panics and demands a staff member confirm I’m not stealing. Took close to 20 minutes to scan and bag everything the only time I used it.
As seemingly everyone has figured out how awful the self-checkout is, the queues for the manned checkouts have gone from 5 minutes max to over 30 minute waits.
As someone who doesn’t drive, this is my only option for shopping, but if I could change, this would single-handedly push me to make the swap.
Screw whoever in management thought this was a good idea!
Oh god I hate this. Specifically I hate being with my parents whenever they try and use self service and my mum throws a wobbly for the fifth time when the machine cant recognise what she just scanned and put down. Or because shes trying to scan too fast. Or because she has to use the search function for the fruit and veg. Or because shes run out of room on the packing area because she thought she had less than she did. Or because shes buying anything that requires staff verification and she cant work out why the machine just cant accept that shes old.
Oh boy.
Self checkouts are fine if you don’t have loose fruit and veg, alcohol, or things that have a tag on them. The times I’ve had to hunt for a member of staff to sort out a confused self checkout.
Oh good I look forward to waiting for my alcohol to be approved by the one poor sod Manning 25 checkouts
No ty, I’m not scanning a weeks shop through a machine that doesn’t trust me
“Unexpected item in the bagging area“
Just try doing a full trolley shop using self service – it’s a frustrating nightmare. It takes three times as long as a staffed checkout even when I’m scanning at the same speed – primarily because I can’t scan with one hand and bag with the other without the checkout complaining. I’d rather do my big shops elsewhere than suffer self checkout.
I just won’t shop there anymore :/
It’s not unrealistic either to say this as companies will feel the pinch when we can’t afford to spend as much. Lidl doesn’t do self service in my area 🙂
It’s either picket lines or breadlines and all the workers they don’t need are gonna end up on breadlines.
I wouldn’t rule them out if they actually worked properly. I’m not sure what a successful trial means in their world, but we had to call over the assistant 9 times when we used the new self scanner today. Apparently the staff have got petitions on their internal FB groups against it.
Supermarkets wish to be nothing more than huge money sinks that ferry funds out of the local community to their HQ and shareholders, without even giving the pitiful wages that they pay back in to the locals. Whenever wealth centralises like this it’s never good.
Now can supermarkets open late on a sunday please?
Tesco self service checkouts are awful. They take an age to recognise the weight of the thing you’ve scanned so scanning more than a few items takes ages. If you actually use a proper till, the ones staff do, the difference is huge!
Always crowded and full.. but checkouts won’t open to the full.
Your correlation of dead space seems misleading as it seems more of a staff issue than no necessity.
Oh great, I can’t wait to wait even longer with my till light blinking bright red because x needs to be age verified or whatever and the 3 employees needed to staff self service checkouts decide they want to have a quick 5 minute chat and just ignore every customer.
Moan aside, we knew this was coming, supermarkets are viciously competitive and you’ll struggle to find any large supermarket that has fully staffed tills regardless of how busy they are, it’s just wasted space.
We had 20 tills in my store. Ripped out 16. Now the queues for till are a mile long.
Self checkout is a stepping stone. If anyone wants to see the future of grocery shopping and lives in London, I highly encourage a visit to one of the Amazon Fresh stores. Walk in, take what you need, walk out, no checkout. It’s such a bizarre seamless experience it feels like stealing.
I know for a fact that sainsbury’s is working on a similar system, and would be surprised if any major supermarket wasn’t
I used to be a checkout operator in my teens. My boyfriend at the time cheated on me with another girl and dumped me and then I had to go start my shift. I did the usual, say hello, ask for a clubcard etc. say thank you and bye.
One customer that day went up to a manager and complained about me because I didn’t smile at them. The manager had to call me aside and remind me to smile at all the customers. I get you’re not meant to bring personal troubles to work but I was young and upset and a human being having a bad day.
Maybe people will prefer robots
Every time I go tescos, the 4-5 manned tills always have long queues, the want for manned tills is there. Tesco just want to sap more money out of the community it’s there to support, by having to pay less local workers… this bs narrative that we want it is a con and a lie.
Well, that’s another good reason to have everything delivered to our door.
Their loss really, we spend much more money when visiting Tesco stores, (filling up the trolley on a whim), than we do ordering on-line.
So Tesco are actually saving us money by not having us visit their store and no more waiting in line at the checkout queue.
I would imagine it’s going to be a total bun fight at Christmas
For me, this is great. I don’t want to speak to people. I want to grab what I want and go.
So will tobacco stands become self service or will they keep staff on their tills?
They should pay tax on each machine, to make up for lost workers.
Call me old fashioned but I like someone at the checkout.