No, you are not expecting too much, but some people really don't mind going through the self service.
I suppose it just comes down to what you prefer.
Am I A Grumpy B'stard?
- Thread starter securespark
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No, you are not expecting too much, but some people really don't mind going through the self service.
I suppose it just comes down to what you prefer.
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I think the thing about self service is scanning your own products , so its extra work.
How about a self service where you could walk in, bag your stuff or load it into a trolley and then walk through the door.
Automatic scanners at the door totting up every product and debiting your bank account accordingly.
Would that make it easier Securespark ?
How about a self service where you could walk in, bag your stuff or load it into a trolley and then walk through the door.
Automatic scanners at the door totting up every product and debiting your bank account accordingly.
Would that make it easier Securespark ?
The three biggest costs for a big retailer are energy, transport and staff.
Transport cant really be helped, once they have the stores being served out of their closest warehouses and using new lorries to cut down on diesel etc.
Energy can be helped. My local Morrisons has just got shut of a load of HID spotlights and replaced them with HI fluorescents. Similarly, my local Asda has recently replaced its entire (ancient) refrigeration stock with brand new high efficiency units.
Staff, again, can be cut back. One member of staff can man four self service checkouts or more (though my local Asda pays some old guy for standing by the front door with a radio Mike making PAs - perhaps he used to work on one of the old checkouts) A self-service checkout costs the same to run as a home PC (effectively all a till is), a hundred watts maybe. This is a fraction of the cost of paying a person to man a normal checkout. Customers like self-service, its novel and new. The kids like it.
Having said all this, at my store we recently got new tills. Our old tills had two 2-line displays, one for staff and one for cutomers. Now we have two LCD screens, one 9 inch for customers, and one 12 inch touchscreen for staff. Much more energy. The UPS has an extra light on its load indicator. Though in our defence, the company is the largest purchaser of green energy in Europe, running all 4000+ of its UK outlets / offices on green energy.
Transport cant really be helped, once they have the stores being served out of their closest warehouses and using new lorries to cut down on diesel etc.
Energy can be helped. My local Morrisons has just got shut of a load of HID spotlights and replaced them with HI fluorescents. Similarly, my local Asda has recently replaced its entire (ancient) refrigeration stock with brand new high efficiency units.
Staff, again, can be cut back. One member of staff can man four self service checkouts or more (though my local Asda pays some old guy for standing by the front door with a radio Mike making PAs - perhaps he used to work on one of the old checkouts) A self-service checkout costs the same to run as a home PC (effectively all a till is), a hundred watts maybe. This is a fraction of the cost of paying a person to man a normal checkout. Customers like self-service, its novel and new. The kids like it.
Having said all this, at my store we recently got new tills. Our old tills had two 2-line displays, one for staff and one for cutomers. Now we have two LCD screens, one 9 inch for customers, and one 12 inch touchscreen for staff. Much more energy. The UPS has an extra light on its load indicator. Though in our defence, the company is the largest purchaser of green energy in Europe, running all 4000+ of its UK outlets / offices on green energy.
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Tesco have been trialling that very system.How about a self service where you could walk in, bag your stuff or load it into a trolley and then walk through the door.
Automatic scanners at the door totting up every product and debiting your bank account accordingly.
Would that make it easier Securespark ?
Back to the finger-licking - I hate it too. I'm yet to find a book page that cannot be turned without the aid of saliva nor have I found any great disability in the separation of carrier bags without spit-laden fingers.
Although, perhaps my fingers are just naturally sticky from all the nose, ear and bottom picking I do before handing the licky-finger woman my money?
Although, perhaps my fingers are just naturally sticky from all the nose, ear and bottom picking I do before handing the licky-finger woman my money?
S**t I thought it was Sainsburys...
Does it count as shoplifting if you honestly thought you'd paid?!
It's a funny point to want to make, because it's an invalid comparison - virtually no petrol stations offer an attended service, and yet nearly all shops will happily put stuff in bags for you without even being asked.
That's curious, because I avoid Asda on the grounds that the staff are badly trained, unapproachable, and spend too long gossiping wiv dair mates about the customers.
But if you ask them nicely they will lick your bags.
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Some are, just like in all stores.
However in my local store I know at least 2 members of staff that have excellent customer service.
Unfortunately I have to put up with them talking about it over tea every evening
lol
I always tell them I neither want them to help pack nor provide plastic bags.
Stuff goes back into the trolley if I have forgotten to bring my Ikea bags from the car.
Life on a till is extremely monotonous, boring, and they are treated like dirt.
(so i'm told).
However in my local store I know at least 2 members of staff that have excellent customer service.
Unfortunately I have to put up with them talking about it over tea every evening
lol
I always tell them I neither want them to help pack nor provide plastic bags.
Stuff goes back into the trolley if I have forgotten to bring my Ikea bags from the car.
Life on a till is extremely monotonous, boring, and they are treated like dirt.
(so i'm told).
Might just be me being pedantic but i'm slightly confused - you said in your original post that you got fed up, put the stuff back and left empty-handed later in the thread you said that woman who served you licked her fingers as she seperated the bags which she then offered to you. Why did you wait around to be served and offered bags if you'd been and put the stuff back and had decided not to buy??
Anyway, that aside, i prefer to use the (wo)manned tills rather than the self service ones, just because its nice to have human interaction. I've found that the new chip and pin things get in the way of this, you put your card in the slot and wait til you put in your pin and then remove your card and walk off - eye contact is no longer needed to pay!!
Whilst shopping in B&Q earlier this year i used the self service tills which had an operative next to each one showing people how to use them - maybe they were new but if they've got someone stood next to each one of them - what's the point?? Didn't find them that easy to use either!
Anyway, that aside, i prefer to use the (wo)manned tills rather than the self service ones, just because its nice to have human interaction. I've found that the new chip and pin things get in the way of this, you put your card in the slot and wait til you put in your pin and then remove your card and walk off - eye contact is no longer needed to pay!!
Whilst shopping in B&Q earlier this year i used the self service tills which had an operative next to each one showing people how to use them - maybe they were new but if they've got someone stood next to each one of them - what's the point?? Didn't find them that easy to use either!
Hmmm, how do they set the tills to scream out "Hey, this guy's NICKING THINGS!" with alarming regularity? The supermarket ones do it when you use your own bag or put scanned items down in a way it doesn't like. But with B&Q, what happens if you've got 200kg of cement and a few plasterboards?
Surely it doesn't weigh the whole trolley to check, what if you are stood on the scales too?
Ah, the wonderful checkout girl russian roulette.
I often try and work out who looks the healthiest when choosing a queue only to get there and them to sound like they've got TB or something...
I like the self-service tills when it's really busy at lunchtimes, although often I've abandoned it half way through to go and queue at a normal till when the machine goes wrong.
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