[Finance] Supermarket self service checkouts

[pastafarian]

I did this the other day. £140 worth of silver shrapnel, counted out into bags of £5 and £10 which I took to pay into Lloyds. There must've been about 15 bags, but to my seething RAGE (ok, mild irritation) they won't take any more than 10 bags a time in any one day. So 2 separate trips then, ffs.

Why must life be a constant struggle ?

It doesnt have to be..............tossers make it so......for no other reason than they can........screw the tossers!
this needs a seperate thread.......why do tossers make life a struggle for no reason.........name that tosser!

 

[nickbrighton]

The problem with self service tills, and a lot of the "time saving" technology that is deployed to "make your customer experience better" is simply that the general public have an impression that technology is approximately 5 years ahead of where it really is. There seems to be this idea that we live in some sci-fi utopia where machines can do everything without error or break down. We all then get frustrated when "unexpected item in the bagging area" moments occur. The reality is that most of these robots, computers etc are constantly on the verge of packing up. Companies deploy systems that are generally bought off the shelf and then adapt them for a purpose not quite what was intended. As a result somewhere , behind the scenes, is a couple of tech guys firefighting and coming up with patches and reboots just keeping the bloody things working. We think it should be easy to scan an item , stick it on the packing area, put it in a bag , take it out and put it in a different bag and carry on. In reality the scanner machine is talking to the packing area and says expect a can of beans, and you put your phone down as well as the beans because you need your hand to straighten the barcode on a rumpled pack of doughnuts and the system thinks you are trying to fool it by putting two items down when only one has been scanned.

 

[Bob!]

I did this the other day. £140 worth of silver shrapnel, counted out into bags of £5 and £10 which I took to pay into Lloyds. There must've been about 15 bags, but to my seething RAGE (ok, mild irritation) they won't take any more than 10 bags a time in any one day. So 2 separate trips then, ffs.

Why must life be a constant struggle ?

Metro Bank is the answer.

They have a machine where you throw everything straight in, it counts it, and you get it changed into notes (etc.), and they don't charge you for doing it.

 

[symyjym]

I would like to pack the stuff into my rucksack but that sends the dippy thing mental with unexpected item in the bagging area. Hardly encourages people to take their own bag.

In your case go to the normal checkout

Yes, guilty. The reason for that is if I try and pack as I go, no matter how carefully I follow the instructions it always says "Unexpected item in bagging area" and the 'Warning, Potential Thief' red light flashes. I then have to wait until a service droid has come over and re-programmed Tesco's entire POS system before I can continue.

The way around this is to reuse a light reusable plastic bag, scan the heaviest item and put it in the bag, and then put the bag in the bagging area. I never have a problem.

 

[Bodian]

I dislike them intensely.

I am one of the slow shoppers referred to above - mainly because I don't use their plastic bags, but have the reusable jute ones , and the 'bagging area' just hates them if I try and put them down on it - whether than be before starting, when they ask about bagging, or whenever (I've tried it). So, I have to scan, put in the bagging area, pay - then pack.

Another poster recommends that we go to a 'normal' till, with a shop assistant / till operator or whatever fancy name they're now called. Well, that's not so easy now. They have now replaced many of the old tills with a) a self-serve area for baskets, b) a self-serve area for trolleys, c) a self-scan area. And of the 'normal' tills left, half are usually not staffed. So, you're basically forced to use the self-serve stuff.

Drives me nuts. And if the whole point is that using the self-serve is cheaper for the store than employing someone, why don't we get a discount for doing so?

 

[Easy 10]

Metro Bank is the answer.

They have a machine where you throw everything straight in, it counts it, and you get it changed into notes (etc.), and they don't charge you for doing it.

Will bear that in mind net time, ta.

 

[El Presidente]

Surely this thread is PROOF of why NSC should NOT be separated out between football and non-football matters.

 

[Brovion]

Surely this thread is PROOF of why NSC should NOT be separated out between football and non-football matters.

Indeed. Ditto Durlston's "In the Royal Sussex County Hospital" one.

 

[OzMike]

They talk too much over here, it's like shopping with the wife.

 

[ArfurW8]

Metro Bank is the answer.

They have a machine where you throw everything straight in, it counts it, and you get it changed into notes (etc.), and they don't charge you for doing it.

My local National West has a machine where you throw everything in then it gives you a receipt for how much then you take the receipt to the counter and pay it in.

I always try to use the till with a checkout operator, I like to think that in my small way it helps to keep them in employment.

 

[smudge]

Try to avoid them at costs, I prefer a person being paid for a job.

 

[Jack Straw]

Before I got to the check-out in Sainsbury's yesterday, on the floor by the freezers, I came across quite a few packs of a mushroom-based vegetarian mince product arranged in a large ring.

 

[schmunk]

Try to avoid them at costs, I prefer a person being paid for a job.

Have you ever used an ATM? Sent an email? Presumably you have a man posting for you on NSC...?

 

[clapham_gull]

I rarely use the self-service checkouts, unless I'm only mincing in for a paper for something and there's a queue at the kiosk/till.

Self-scan though, now THATS where its at for the big shop. Pack as you go along, rarely any queues to wait in, removes the tedious faff of having every item run through by a bored spotty teenager before re-packing it all into bags at the end - its already done, dusted and ready for the boot after a single zap and a quick jab of the pin number. Happy days.

I used to write software and program similar bar code scanners for vast music video tape libraries. They isn't much in the Phil Collins back catalogue that I haven't zapped with a long range beam.

You would have loved the discontinued Densei DPB5101.

It's genius was the 45 degree angled laser. Most of the competition had a straight beam at the time, for example the Metrologic ScanPal 2 (also available re-badged from Honeywell) ...

.. was nicer in the hand but you would end with a very sore wrist after an afternoon of trying to hit a hard to reach Def Leppard on an upper shelf.

I got out of the game when USB came in because I enjoyed the simplicity of communicating to the landing cradle with good old RS-232 protocol.

However when I'm holiday I often strike up a conversation with a shop keeper if I spot a classic keyboard wedge Metrologic MS-951 being used at the till. The good old PC / Scanner combo at the till never took off in this country and I imagine as we out the EU it never will.