Asda tills

[Wayners]

One tip

If you have shopping list count total items.
Scanner shows the number of items scanned.
Before you go through till the two will match plus you can check as you go... I normally match at half way comparing list with scanner number having already counted and written on list.

Watch for some items in packs as you might buy pack of 4 beans (one item) vs 2 beans separate but it's not difficult. Saves the anxiety you may have got it wrong. Works for us.
Getting scan wrong is normal reason people don't like to do it. It's a numbers game..

 

[securespark]

I am very much against self checkouts. I hate them so much!

I would rather shop in a place without them. I mostly do because my supermarket of choice (Aldi or Lidl) don't have them.

But of course, there are a few things that Aldi and Lidl don't sell. So we do occasionally shop elsewhere.

Before we moved to Aldi/ Lidl, we used to regularly shop in Tesco.

We were out and about in High Peak a weekend or two ago and stopped at Tesco in Glossop to get some Diesel and a birthday present for a friend. The store only had a few "normal" checkouts which were heaving, so I went to what I thought was the self checkouts. Only it turned out not to be: it was the self scan checkouts and it turned out I had committed the ultimate faux-pas in the world of shopping: I inadvertantly entered through the exit and was now going the wrong way.

After excusing my way through ("Excuse me", "Sorry", "Yes, I know I'm going the wrong way, I've never shopped here before"), I found the self checkouts next to the self scan checkouts where there was a huge queue. Then when I started scanning stuff, it did what every self checkout I have ever used has done: it had an epi and the red light came on. After an age, someone came and sorted it, then it had another epi because I scanned a bottle of wine. Cue another supervisor who then had to confirm I was age-appropriate (to use their terminology) and then take the wine away to remove the security tag.
The whole process took forever.

Contrast this with our next stop at Morrisons in Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Straight through a manned checkout with no queue at all and no problems. Well, there was one. A broken packet of chicken, but it was swiftly and efficiently replaced while we completed the purchase.

Of those two, I know where I would rather shop!

 

[diy_fun_uk]

I have to admit I'm pro self-checkout. I use the scan and go or whatever it's called in Asda. I enjoy the convenience of simply scanning each item as I go round the aisles, bagging them, then heading for the payment section which you're in and out of within 2-3 mins assuming no security check. If the scan and go is down, I still head for the self-checkout area where you scan items through yourself.

Pre this tech, more than once I experienced staff on the checkout apparently playing a game of 'how quickly can I scan/chuck these items through.' I get they need to work quickly, but if you had folk queueing behind you, you were then left with x items to throw in bags as quickly as you could, often with the checkout person just sitting there watching. Occasionally one would help.

So, for me, self-checkout is a much more enjoyable experience. I do however fully support at least 2-3 staffed checkouts remaining for those that don't want to use the self-checkout for whatever reason.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Another convert to the self checkout here, stuck in my ways I do the family shop every Saturday morning early-bird and travel further than I have to to a big Sainsburys that has the handheld scanners, as I finish my shop and walk towards the self checkout tills I have need to walk past all of the manned tills and through their inevitable queues, every single time I wonder why they're all stood there, we've both spent the same time in the supermarket loading our trolleys (except mine is nicely and sensibly bagged already of course) and I can just pay and leave whereas they have to queue up, unload it, wait for it be scanned, bag it up at lightning speed and bung it back in their trolleys. Utter madness. With my noise cancelling headphones (which are the work of the devil btw) and a podcast or two to listen to it's been a game changer.

 

[noseall]

I wonder if the daft luddites still pop into a bank and draw money from a cashier rather than a cash machine?

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Another convert to the self checkout here, stuck in my ways I do the family shop every Saturday morning early-bird and travel further than I have to to a big Sainsburys that has the handheld scanners, as I finish my shop and walk towards the self checkout tills I have need to walk past all of the manned tills and through their inevitable queues, every single time I wonder why they're all stood there, we've both spent the same time in the supermarket loading our trolleys (except mine is nicely and sensibly bagged already of course) and I can just pay and leave whereas they have to queue up, unload it, wait for it be scanned, bag it up at lightning speed and bung it back in their trolleys. Utter madness. With my noise cancelling headphones (which are the work of the devil btw) and a podcast or two to listen to it's been a game changer.

In my local store, there's a manned checkout immediately beside the scan and go checkout. Often when I go to pay, there's a queue at the manned checkout. By the time I'm walking out that queue often hasn't moved at all.

No thanks.

I think when it comes to tech vs jobs, rightly or wrongly supermarkets (specifically the checkout process) will always be a target for ways to make the process quicker and more convenient for the customer. As always with transition, there are people that are reluctant to change for whatever reason. These people should of course be supported by having a small number of manned checkouts. However the day might come when supermarkets have no manned checkouts whatsoever, once the self-checkout tech has been fully adopted and accepted.

It's not the same but it's a bit like people moaning about the demise of the public phone box. However as the years go by, less and less people complain about this as the older tech gradually becomes more obsolete.

 

[Justin Passing]

Hang on, the objective is to get the item into your house. What do you get from all the travelling and carrying and counting you're doing? What makes all that unproductive work worth doing?

I think it's one of those practices where, once you've got it easy, in a few clicks. the old way seems simply quaint.

 

[Mottie]

Also, to use the scanner in Sainsburys, you have to pair it to your Nectar card. That gives you cheaper prices on selected items.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Hang on, the objective is to get the item into your house. What do you get from all the travelling and carrying and counting you're doing? What makes all that unproductive work worth doing?

I think it's one of those practices where, once you've got it easy, in a few clicks. the old way seems simply quaint.

Because anything 'fresh' you buy online will have no consideration as to the quality or use by date.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Hang on, the objective is to get the item into your house. What do you get from all the travelling and carrying and counting you're doing? What makes all that unproductive work worth doing?

I think it's one of those practices where, once you've got it easy, in a few clicks. the old way seems simply quaint.

I'm not sure if you're advocating going one step further and ordering the weekly shop online? I've done this in the past. However I now prefer going to the store as walking up/down aisles can spark other buying decisions that might not spring to mind online. Plus you can check use by dates etc.

 

[blup]

Interesting, some of the most lengthy and detailed posts on the forum are about scanning at supermarkets. Tesco locally are taking a lot of tills out and making space for trolley scanning checkouts. Easy enough when you get used to it and much better than queueing for a till. But at first very easy to bag an item hasn’t beeped…..

Blup

 

[securespark]

I wonder if the daft luddites still pop into a bank and draw money from a cashier rather than a cash machine?

This "daft luddite" would if there were any frickin' banks left!

There were 6 when we moved here. The last one closed nearly a year ago.

Call me a luddite if you will, but I call it "Use it or lose it". Unfortunately, the majority of people have stopped using whatever it was that was subsequently lost, be it Post Offices, banks or independent shops.

But in the case of supermarkets, the case for self checkouts is being engineered by them. They are desperate to try and save money (or rather, keep shareholders happy) but there is a human cost.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

But in the case of supermarkets, the case for self checkouts is being engineered by them. They are desperate to try and save money (or rather, keep shareholders happy) but there is a human cost.

That tends to be the way business works. Along the way (from a supplier/consumer/customer perspective) there will always be winners and losers.

If we think about it on a basic level, the introduction of web-based services was always going to have an impact on bricks and mortar locations. I also think, if people had access to all this tech decades past, they would have been quite happy to use it. I'm more than pleased I had my childhood in the 70s/80s, out on my bike mucking about with mates. However, if I'd had a Play Station and smartphone, I'm relatively confident I'd have been like today's kids ... heads buried in their phones etc.

I'm also confident my parents, grandparents would have been happy to order stuff online as opposed to always going to stores on the bus, all weathers etc.

It's about the tech we have available to us at any given point.

 

[foxhole]

Life is too short, I send the Mrs.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I get some guaranteed peace from the missus when I go.