To serve, or not to serve, that is the question:
Whether 'tis easier on the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous waits,
Or to take one's self to the sea of troubles
That is the self-checkouts. To wait - to fume,
No more; and by betrayal of the check-out staff
The heart-ache and the thousand natural redundancies
That time does come when we, Consumer, shall do the work
For free and Business shall rejoice and profit more.
With apologies to The Bard.
I confess that when I have a few items and there are queues at the checkouts at either of our supermarkets (The Coop and Tesco) I will use the self-checkouts.
However, Tesco is about to get rid of almost all it's serviced checkouts. I can just imagine the chaos that will ensue as many people try to adapt to putting a huge basket of a week's shopping through the self service till and pack it into their bags. Apart from that this is a small community. The checkout is a sociable place as well as a place of commerce. Tesco's plans may or may not go smoothly but with no realistic competition so far as price goes Tesco will have it their way like it or not. The customer is only a cash supplier: a feeder of profits.
And when they ask to go through my shopping and check that I did it correctly what will I say? I will respond "No. You may not. If you insist that I do your work then you will trust me. After all you have probably seen every move I've made and every thing I have bought on your CCTV. "
The supermarkets around here have nearly all reduced to just one or two tills open and the rest is quick tills or zappers that scan as you go round. I am happy with this and prefer shopping this way. It reduces the handling of the items by another pair of hands which after Covid I felt I never wanted to go back to seeing my shopping touched by another. It is quick and easy. Whilst I used to chat to the cashiers I have to say that I don't miss it. Shopping checks are few and far between and only take a few minutes and only random items are selected, not the whole shop.
ReplyDeleteRachel, Waitrose in Milngavie where I shop sometimes when I'm in Glasgow has the zappers that you take around and I do like those because they make everything very easy and give me a running total which is very handy when using the Waitrose "spend £80 and get 20% off" vouchers.
DeleteIf you have a zapper, and Sainsburys and Tescos as well as Waitrose provide the service here, shopping loads are easily dealt with by the shopper and although my shopping loads are small I regularly see large trolley loads using the zappers. One packs ones shopping bags as one goes. I am saying this mainly for some of your readers who do not seem to be familiar with them. I am surprised they are not used all over the civilised world. It makes shopping quick and painless.
DeleteI put off responding, Rachel, until I'd discovered if our Tesco has any plans for a zapper but so far I've not been in.
DeleteVery witty piece of poetry there. Made me smile.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of self service checkouts but do use them occasionally at the "big" stores in Douglas if I only have one or two items. I would struggle with them if I had a trolley full of shopping. Our two local supermarkets here in our little town are still very old fashioned. The staff at the tills are either past retirement age or still high school age so it gives them the opportunity to earn some pocket money I suppose.
JayCee, I'm glad that I gave you a smile. I wish that I could make the news as witty. I'm not sure how a huge shop (sometimes families in Tesco have two trolleys) could be done because it would take so much time to put it through onto the scales and then into the baskets. In fact it would have to be done in separate trenches. Many of our checkout staff have been in post for as long as I can remember.
DeleteYour take on The Bard is admirable, Graham. Well done. I suspect that the socialization part of grocery shopping may be a little more important on a small island than it is for the "mainstream" shopper. I hope this does give the impression of élitism, but often the checkout personnel I encounter seem to represent the lowest common denominator on the conversational or intelligence scale - or students who are bored out of their minds - hardly those with whom I choose to dally. I use the manned (peopled?) checkouts if I have a basketful, but since I retired I tend to shop more frequently and for a smaller number of items, so the self-serve checkout is usually my choice. I view the whole exercise as something that I have to do and generally get in and out of the store as quickly as possible. When I go to a specialty shop, or the exquisite local deli, it's a different matter entirely. There I love to spend time and check on what's available. A recent example is when i was buying a lemon-flavoured olive oil we use to make the dressing for Greek Salad, and they had a Swiss fellow there offering tastings of different olive oils and balsamic vinegar, with appropriate explanations of the origins and quality. He clearly knew his stuff and in addition was a very engaging chap. We chatted in English, we chatted in French - and I came away with two other oils in addition to what I went for, so it obviously works.
ReplyDeleteThank you, David. Yes, the social aspect is more relevant when people know each other. In addition to my list I usually decide what I'm going to eat when I'm browsing the supermarket shelves to see what's fresh or takes my fancy. Our two delis are so busy and so small that noone has time or room to chat at all.
DeleteI will go to where ever I don't have to wait. They do have cameras, and my big fear is always that I will scan something that doesn't 'take', so I am always double checking and count my items as I bag them, and match that number up against the receipt before I pay. I've never had a problem, and to be honest, that person checking the receipts? I think that in some cases, she's received a transaction number, and is looking for a specific transaction, because the most they've ever done is make a check on my receipt. They have never compared, item for item. I do know of someone, a friend of a relative who was caught stealing via self check out. She claims it was accidental, that she was in a rush, and didn't notice items were not scanning. The camera did catch her. It was at Christmas time, and she was not scanning the most expensive things. She chose not to fight the charges and simply pleaded guilty.
ReplyDeleteDebby, I do use the self checkout when it's busy and I don't have many items (the Coop doesn't allow trolleys through the self checkout to keep things quick for customers with just a basket) but if I have a large trolly it's hard to manage it all and you can't pack and it doesn't all fit on the scale. I did once walk out to the car with a bag of potatoes on the lower shelf of the trolly. When I noticed and returned from the car to pay for it I felt like a shoplifter who had had second thoughts.
DeleteYou are a clever writer!
ReplyDeleteI don't mind waiting in the checkout line. I am retired so I have lots of time to relax and wait. I have used the self-check on a few occasions when I have few items.
There is an Amazon grocery store in my city where you use an app on your phone and scan items as you shop and add them to your cart. Then when you are finished shopping, you just go out the door as all of the items have been charged to your account. I haven't attempted to enter that store yet. I think Amazon has enough money so they don't need mine and my local grocery store does .
Thanks for the compliment Ellen. The Amazon store fascinates me. The News here said that with Amazon's latest store in England you didn't even have to scan items because it automatically recognised what you had put in your basket and added it to the app automatically. Sounds a bit scary to me. AS you say Amazon has quite enough and I'll support whoever provides most employment on the Island.
DeleteI just stand there looking helpless and helpless and pathetic. Actually, I am helpless and pathetic.
ReplyDeleteTasker, you've just given me my first laugh of the day. Whatever else you are "helpless and pathetic" you are definitely not.
DeleteEnjoyable well written poetry. Sorry to hear about the change to self checkout. It is not a well thought out idea as there will always be people who can't do well using self scanning at a checkout.
ReplyDeleteSelf checkout on the 1st try, I waited while a couple of shoppers argued about how to use it. Every item was another dispute. I changed to a cashier register. I think the two were still at the self check out when I was leaving.
Since then, I have tried at another less busy store, for a few easy items with good success. It is easier to see price to item, and less likely to get double charged.
Maywyn, I'm happy to use the self checkout when it's a few things and I'm in a hurry but not for a large shop.
DeleteI totally understand you, since I have been shopping at Tesco.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.melodyjacob.com/
Thank you for your comment but my readership is unlikely to benefit from your advertisement.
DeleteCould not agree more with every word znd sentiment. We have fouggt gor years to used the checkout person but these days so often there isn't one and we agree that we should be paid the wages they have saved (which i would spend on food for the good bank). My grandfather was an old fashioned grocer (the kind that runs around filling the list while the customer stands at the counter). He would never understand this self-service thing. Where is the gossip?
ReplyDeleteTigger, I am old enough to have shopped at stores like those run by your grandfather (which is how I used to earn my pocket money). In truth in those days I had more time and a good bit of my Saturday morning was needed to walk the ½ mile to the store, wait (although I tried to get there early enough to be first in the queue to get in) and then carry the heavy basket(s) home. The shop (Mr Judson in his Ford Prefect) also delivered the big weekly shop to us.
DeleteSelf checkout is still an exception in my part of Germany; all the shops in my town have the regular tills where you wait in line unless you can pop out for a quick breeze through Aldi on a Wednesday morning at 10:30 when only few others do their food shopping.
ReplyDeleteMy first ever experience with self checkout was years ago in Ripon at Tesco‘s (or was it Morrisson‘s?). I don‘t mind using it but don‘t mind waiting my turn and then have a person scanning my items, either.
Meike, I'm a bit contradictory when I'm in a hurry because if I only have a few items and there are queues I always head for the self-checkouts. (which often have queues too).
DeleteI can't imagine New Zealand getting rid of all it's checkouts, I think there would be too much of an uproar. I can see why if they did though. As I work in retail sometimes I get tired of the verbal abuse from customers as the prices rise, it's actually hard to take and usually I don't. But my uncle in Brisbane said that all they have there in their supermarkets is self checkouts. I think where I live is the only country in the world that actually packs your groceries.
ReplyDeleteAmy, when I lived in New Zealand I don't recall any self-checkouts in the supermarkets. I'd quite forgotten that the New World where I shopped packed your baskets too.
DeleteI hate it at Lidl when I have a full trolley of supermarket goods and all the checkouts are closed. It's one thing putting a basket of stuff through but when you have a full trolley, it is a pain in the arse. The bag area will only hold one large bag and the platform beneath is very sensitive. Nobody ever asked me how I would feel about the introduction of self-checkouts.
ReplyDeleteYP, I had no idea that Lidl had self checkouts. The only ones I've used only have manned ones and they are usually ultra fast because of the way the staff have to work and the bar-coding system that they use.
DeletePS, YP, I can't imagine a supermarket company "asking" a customer anything that wasn't an advert and where the answer was irrelevant.
DeleteI've never seen a self checkout at a Lidl or Aldi , can't see them investing in one for reasons I'll not go into for fear of offending thieving Socialists. Never had to wait at either shop. Super quick their staff are helpful, chatty and can pop stuff through a bar code reader like lightning as fast as I can grab and dump it in my trolley, never tapping in bar codes like at the Co-Op. They have a shelf for filling your own bags or do as I do, just heave it all from trolley to car.
DeleteAsk him for a photo or I suspect he got confused. He was happen in Waitrose. The bloke is full to the brim with shite and has little clue what he's doing. I seem to recall he even told the world his son had to get a striker in. What a pudding.
Feel free to delete this and yes the tag as you go is great till you get stopped for a bag search which negates any time saved. Safeway are a pain for this.
Have fun Graham.
I have to start and use self check out. I know it's coming so I'd better be ready for. it.
ReplyDeleteRed, bowing to the inevitable is definitely easier than fighting it.
DeleteI don't think anyone wants trolley laden with groceries to be using self checkouts. I live in inner city area where most people shop frequently and don't buy much at once as they often have to carry what they buy home, so self checkouts work well enough. However in outer areas where a weekly shop is more usual there are still plenty of staffed checkouts. I am sure supermarkets want to minimise their staff costs, but hopefully they do it in a practical way. I think there may be worse to come where items are scanned as they are placed into your basket or trolley.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, Tesco here were going to reduce manned checkouts to a couple before last Christmas but there was a massive staff revolt because we have a large aged population and to do such a thing at the busiest time of the year would have been absolute chaos for everyone. It's not helped by the fact that the Tesco store is exceptionally busy and quite small and there is scarcely enough room as it is. Many of the customers are also from the rural areas and shop once a week at most and often less frequently. so have massive trolley loads.
DeleteThe latest thing in my big Sainsbury's, is to show the bar code on your receipt to a barrier before it will open and let you out. I am very against shoplifting, and can understand their motives, but it does make one feel as if you're leaving a prison.
ReplyDeleteCro, I can imagine that going down like a lead balloon here.
DeleteThey do that at large "membership" stores here (Costco, Sam's Club, etc.) - yet another reason why I don't shop there.
DeleteWith time constraints, I'm a big fan of scanning as I go round the supermarket. That way I only need to pack and unpack my shopping just the once. I can understand why it isn't always the preferred option for everyone, and it is always good to have the choice, especially as for many people it can provide some very necessary social interaction. I do admit to feeling aggrieved on the occasions I need to have my purchases checked. X
ReplyDeleteJules, as I mentioned in an earlier comment, I'm a fan of scanning as I go round the supermarket because I benefit as well. The first time I did it in Waitrose I was stopped for a check and was so taken aback that I said nothing. That would not be the case the next time. The problem would be that if I'd paid for it I could hardly walk out leaving it there for them to put away.
Delete
ReplyDeleteAll in the name of 'efficiencies'. I feel for the employees who will lose their jobs and for some of the customers who may struggle to cope with self-check-out. It may transpire that Tesco will find its customer base shrinking in your neck of the woods.
Unfortunately, Jabblog, there is only one other supermarket which is, on the whole, more expensive.
DeleteI do most of my grocery shopping online with home delivery these days, once every two weeks; and when I go to the supermarket myself in between I always use self-scanning. Can't recall when I last stood in a regular que in my usual supermarket. Probably over a decade ago...!
ReplyDeleteCertainly, Monica, home delivery is big business here as well as click and collect. That does lessen the people going through checkouts although there are a lot of staff filling the home-delivery baskets too.
DeleteHow funny is it that I just posted a Hamlet-related melange, and you've started this post with a Hamlet-esque homage? Loving it!!
ReplyDeleteMarcheline, coincidences abound. I shall pop over.
DeleteAnother reason I consider myself lucky indeed to live where I do ... my grocery not only checks your purchases but asks if you prefer paper or plastic and then bags them for you. They would also escort you to your car, should you need assistance. They also have self-check for those who like the quicker service.
ReplyDeleteGraham shopping is something I do to survive, I'm very lucky here in that I get given sheep and pig meat. I tend towards Aldi because I like their malted bloomer things. Lidl is really good mainly due to the fact I half fancy the manageress. She'd be the death of me but I'd risk it for a croissant.
ReplyDeleteI was never a big supermarket shopper until the bastards shut down small shops due to Covid or Convid. Bloody evil is what they did and what happened. I never believed in it but then I've always been a cynic with too much brain and very little sense of self preservation.
Adrian, I was wondering what had happened to you a few days ago. Now I know you're as hale and hearty as ever.
DeleteSpeaking for myself, I do not like the self service checkouts being installed in most supermarkets. In fact, I go out of my way to avoid them and will patiently wait in a longer line for human service. I realize these have become necessary because of fewer workers, but while I have never minded bagging my own groceries, scanning them as well would make me want to ask for a salary.
ReplyDeleteNew World (our most expensive supermarket) still provides packers for your groceries (your own bags), but they also have self-checkouts open with a supervisor watching over them. I remember a few years ago when one department store switched to all self-checkout and the backlash resulted in them having to open one manned checkout as well. Most of the bigger shops have them now (not just supermarkets) and employ one or two people to supervise or open a manual checkout if needed. I didn't like it to start with, but have got used to it now :)
ReplyDeleteMargaret, there was a new and very large New World where I shopped near Napier. I enjoyed going there because they had variety and quality and a café with good coffee and, as you said, they had packers. Generally speaking I prefer to pack things myself but they certainly knew what they were doing and were quicker and 'tidier' than I could be.
DeleteGood to see you in fine poetic form. I've been told it's bad form to take a full trolley into a self checkout and as I rarely shop more than once a fortnight, do not use them. I would miss the interaction with the checkout staff. Yesterday I had my first 'card only' experience where they wouldn't accept cash. It's a changing world.
ReplyDeleteI should add that was at a tourist venue in Noosa, Aust
DeleteThanks, Pauline. In the Coop here only baskets are allowed in self checkout but Tesco allow anything. If you got four people with trolleys the whole system (4 self checkouts) would grind to a halt.
DeleteI should add that was at a tourist spot in Noosa, Aust
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy your foray into Shakespearean commentary!
ReplyDeleteWhen self serve arrived here, I hated trying to use it. I have improved since then but I still dont' think it's worth the bother on most occasions. I usually have a trolley full and have a chat with the operator and the task is done soon enough.
Some time after reading Tigger's comment I realised that my grandfather was also an old fashioned grocer. It wasn't in my lifetime, though. Imagine trying to work that way these days, with the volume of cutomers in the shops!
Kylie, life was slower then and the number of goods fewer and the choice of goods less. There was butter or margarine for example and not 12 brands of butter and 12 types of spread as well.
DeleteI enjoy visiting my local supermarket. It usually is my one social event of the week! The staff are a cheerful, friendly lot,and we always share laughter and chats. :)
ReplyDeleteLee, I have blogged before, I'm sure about Carol, one of our checkout ladies who was both super-efficient and had the most engaging and friendly personality. People queued at her checkout just for the craic with her and her other customers.
Delete