Self-Checkouts In Supermarkets

[Meade's Ball]

Prior to the cinema today i nipped into a local Sainsburys for snacks and eau de water. I wasn't alone. I rushed to a vacant self-service and merrily and controlledly passed the items over. The lovely lady who accompanied me, starting piling the products into her bag before i'd even paid for them. I gave her a sinister sneer, the sort i'd give to an ugly male stranger eating my last Rolo, and a light "what are you doing?". The machine became confused and it took a few beeps and bleeps to make it go back to normal. I rescanned the M&Ms, which in all honesty i didn't know were nutty, and off we went. I was a little gobsmacked that a smart woman hadn't really come to terms with these newfangled devices.
I was of course petty and unforgiving, which are not my finest outstanding features, but we got over that scene and sat peacedly in the dark silently munching.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

A survey carried out in the USA said that self service tills take twice as long to get through as a manned till with the same no of items.

It does take long er to scan your own but the time saving aspect comes when you only have a few items and there are long quewes at all the checkouts.

Most of the self service tills are not designed for the 'big shop'.

 

[Don Quixote]

They can be a bit of a nightmare if you are stoned

This is a problem.

 

[BensGrandad]

It does take long er to scan your own but the time saving aspect comes when you only have a few items and there are long quewes at all the checkouts.

Most of the self service tills are not designed for the 'big shop'.

I agree and think the supermarkets should restrict their use to people with less than 8 or 10 items and then cut off with a total after that number of items. I was stood in a queue for 8 items and somebody arrived with a basket full and the assistant asked 'which 8 items are you going to buy'

 

[1066gull]

I was faced with 9 people in a queue at ravenside behind the tills,most of them with heavy keys and clubcard key rings at the ready

on the right however two reasonably filled trolleys of approx £60.

on the left most people with barely a roast dinner between them.

back to the right first person of the trolleys half way through the bagging.


I veered right and I got through quicker than the ninth on the left!!!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I was faced with 9 people in a queue at ravenside behind the tills,most of them with heavy keys and clubcard key rings at the ready

on the right however two reasonably filled trolleys of approx £60.

on the left most people with barely a roast dinner between them.

back to the right first person of the trolleys half way through the bagging.


I veered right and I got through quicker than the ninth on the left!!!

?

 

[Guy Fawkes]

This.


It's an interesting fact, that cars only became cheap enough for most people to afford, when Henry Ford, by any standards an arch capitalist and union busting anti communist, deliberately employed more staff and increaed wages, in order to increase production and become more cost efficient and at the same time have more people who could pay for what he is selling. In effect he paid his workers partly by selling them a car.

from Wikipedia. The knowledge and skills needed by a factory worker were reduced to 84 areas. When introduced, the T used the building methods typical at the time, assembly by hand, and production was small. Ford's Piquette plant could not keep up with demand for the Model T, and only 11 cars were built there during the first full month of production. More and more machines were used to reduce the complexity within the 84 defined areas. In 1910, after assembling nearly 12,000 Model Ts, Henry Ford moved the company to the new Highland Park complex.

As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in three minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, reducing production time by a factor of eight (requiring 12.5 hours before, 93 minutes afterwards), while using less manpower.

So should they have been boycotted as they were costing jobs

 

[FREDBINNEY]

Would be good to hear a shoplifters assessment

If its busy and the assistants that are there todeal with problems at the self service checkout are looking frazzled and disinterested I usually put a small high value item in without scanning it, then stand there looking irritated that the "please wait for assistance alarm is going off" , and 99 times out of 100 the assistant will clear the alarm without even looking in the bag and hey presto! a free packet of expensive razor blades or something similar

 

[Bwian]

A survey carried out in the USA said that self service tills take twice as long to get through as a manned till with the same no of items.

And the people who cause all of the delays are probably the same people who wait for a bus and only when they get on the bloody thing do they start looking for their money.

 

[Castello]

So should they have been boycotted as they were costing jobs

The point I am making is that we seem to accept that by cutting jobs we will make an economy more efficient and goods cheaper. However there comes a tipping point where we have too many without jobs and not enough jobs for them. if we provide benefits for them, that will mean increasing tax burden on those in employment. If we dont, we will create a smaller economy, meaning less economies of scale and higher prices for all.

I fail to see how this is desirable. Sometimes the most obvious solution of cutting is not the best solution.

 

[bhaexpress]

A survey carried out in the USA said that self service tills take twice as long to get through as a manned till with the same no of items.

Yes, I would agree wholeheartedly with that. Whilst a checkout person could be ringing up your items you can concentrate on packing them whereas with self service you have to do both.

 

[bhaexpress]

Whilst it's slightly off topic one thing that drives me mad is when you call an organisation and you get into an automated call system that guides you through numerous menu options especially as all too often you end up needing to talk to an operator in any case as the options don't resolve your reason for calling.

 

[bhaexpress]

The point I am making is that we seem to accept that by cutting jobs we will make an economy more efficient and goods cheaper. However there comes a tipping point where we have too many without jobs and not enough jobs for them. if we provide benefits for them, that will mean increasing tax burden on those in employment. If we dont, we will create a smaller economy, meaning less economies of scale and higher prices for all.

I fail to see how this is desirable. Sometimes the most obvious solution of cutting is not the best solution.

Something that people overlook is the computer. I remember the first computer I worked on nearly forty years ago, it was little more than a calculator and was hugely expensive to buy and run. How many jobs have been lost to computerisation ? In engineering many jobs that were done by skilled worker are now done by machines that can do the same thing 24/7 and more accurately. How many clerical jobs are now done by a machine ? Sure computing has increased the need for IT specialists but I doubt that it has created the same number of roles it has replaced.

 

[Spicy]

Just an innovative way for them to increase profit by reducing staff, cleverly convincing the customer that getting them to scan and bag themselves is better than the supermarket training and employing competent staff themselves.

I think you are spot on there and I hate them too. We pay enough money now for groceries, you are made to feel guilty if you have to take a carrier bag (as you are not saving the planet on that particular day) and they take away jobs from the local population.

 

[bhaexpress]

I think you are spot on there and I hate them too. We pay enough money now for groceries, you are made to feel guilty if you have to take a carrier bag (as you are not saving the planet on that particular day) and they take away jobs from the local population.

In Eire (not for the first time they were ahead of us, they banned smoking in pubs long before we did) you have to buy carrier bags as it's not about profit but to encourage people to reuse plastic bags.

 

[Cubbard]

Excuse my ignorance as I have only just signed up to NSC, having been an infrequent reader only.

I am just interested how are 5 pages of chat dedicated to auto supermarket checkouts written on an Albion dedicated site

 

[steward 433]

Excuse my ignorance as I have only just signed up to NSC, having been an infrequent reader only.

I am just interested how are 5 pages of chat dedicated to auto supermarket checkouts written on an Albion dedicated site

If you read any forum there is 50% that is "off topic"

Just seems we do it better than most! Welcome btw

 

[WATFORD zero]

They can be a bit of a nightmare if you are stoned

They should have self service with sofas and headphones so you can scan, pay and then eat each item in turn - saves on carrier bags

 

[Mr deez]

Unexpected item in bagging area can f*** off.

Apart from that, I'm a fan.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I think you are spot on there and I hate them too. We pay enough money now for groceries, you are made to feel guilty if you have to take a carrier bag (as you are not saving the planet on that particular day) and they take away jobs from the local population.

You mean they take away from traditional high street shops, they don't take away local jobs - all their employees are not bused in from somewhere else.

I'm not a particular fan of the supermarkets in theory, I would love to buy from a proper butcher, baker etc. but it just is not practical for me. I get to food shop once a week, usually on a Thurs evening, at about 20:30, unfortunately nowhere else is open at that time.