maomao
普費斯
I could give addresses of supermarkets in London that no longer have sit down till workers but it would be rather a long way for you to come and check.
Sainsburys staff given targets to promote scab tills
- Thread starter J Ed
- Start date
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
True. I'm guessing these are the mini supermarket things where people don't buy huge amounts due to lack of car parking?
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
I've also noticed how when I've gone towards a manned till/lane at my Tesco's, the employees at the self-service tills try to steer me to those. It could just be about getting customers in/out 'quickly', but it wouldn't surprise me that it was also due to them being placed under pressure to 'hit targets'.
spliff
New Member
I live near a very large Sainsbury's and after 9pm there is only one staffed till (out of 16 possibles) if that.
When there are none operating I complain to the duty manager and say it is their legal obligation to keep at least one staffed till open for the disabled and aged.
(Whether that is true or not I don't know but they always open one.)
Meanwhile there is some poor spotty trainee trying to cope with 10 scab tills.
When there are none operating I complain to the duty manager and say it is their legal obligation to keep at least one staffed till open for the disabled and aged.
(Whether that is true or not I don't know but they always open one.)
Meanwhile there is some poor spotty trainee trying to cope with 10 scab tills.
seventh bullet
sovietwave
Oh I don't know. There don't seem to be as many checkout staff where I work, since they were introduced a few years ago. I guess they were cool with being out of work. Who wants a shitty job like that anyway? It's not like they need to make some money or anything.
Bernie Gunther
Fundamentalist Druid
How much would people have to steal en-masse before scab tills become uneconomic I wonder?
worst fone camera, eva.
Flanflinger
Well-Known Member
You wanna try asking one for a packet of fags.
I know, useless cunts.
ferrelhadley
There is no love between us anymore.
Uses the internet to complain about technology. 
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
Are you suggesting ambulances shouldn't attend the scene of car accidents?Uses the internet to complain about technology.
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/201...-given-targets-to-put-themselves-out-of-work/
A good reminder to avoid scab tills, they put people out of work, but my god this is so brazen and insulting.
Just throw your clogs into the devil machines - that worked well last time.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
The robot tills are less about replacing existing workers than enabling the creation of new branches with limited staff, IME - rapid expansion. I've seen lots of Tesco Metro type places around new build areas which have maybe one real till - not always staffed - and half a dozen robot ones.
It's not just trad supermarkets either - Boots and Smiths also do it (the Smiths ones are particularly shite) and they can do it more easily because they don't have issues with people buying booze and needing to be age verified. Go to the Smiths in Kings Cross and the only human there is to sell people fags. (Note that the M&S there doesn't have robot tills at all, just real people.)
It's not just trad supermarkets either - Boots and Smiths also do it (the Smiths ones are particularly shite) and they can do it more easily because they don't have issues with people buying booze and needing to be age verified. Go to the Smiths in Kings Cross and the only human there is to sell people fags. (Note that the M&S there doesn't have robot tills at all, just real people.)
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
I hate those machines - I was forced into using one one once - never again. I can't bear the mechanical hectoring of that mechanical voice 'unexpected item in the bagging area!' - where are you suposed to put your bag, purse, brolley, other stuff - its not like they give you any space.
I much prefer a real human person to assist me. Lets keep people in jobs.
I much prefer a real human person to assist me. Lets keep people in jobs.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
It's only reactionary Daily Express types and the permanently bewildered who can't work them.
isvicthere?
a.k.a. floppybollocks
A mate of mine has worked out how to disable the "voice" on self-scan machines in most of the major supermarket chains, and gets fifty to a hundred quid of free shopping every week.
maomao
普費斯
Apparently there's a mute button at bottom of screen. I shall have a look in the Tesco where I have no choice tomorrow morning.
fredfelt
Mostly unknown member
There maybe not as many checkout staff in each store. However I strongly suspect that supermarkets are employing more people year on year. As the number of stores expand I also expect that there is more work to be had working at checkouts. Supermarkets even boast that their new store will create x many new jobs as some kind of fanfare as to why we should welcome them.
What's missing from this picture, obviously, is the quality of employment that's offered and deskilling of work. The effect supermarkets have on local communities with the profits of the business being paid to shareholders with minimal tax burden. Closing of local shops. Marginalisation of local suppliers etc.
Anyway my point again is that ire towards 'scab tills' seems targeted at what I suspect is a relatively small aspect in how supermarkets operate. It misses the bigger picture. For instance through legislation France has been quite effective in taming the march of the mutiple through the high street. Typically the high streets in towns and villages in France more vibrant and varied than in the UK.
Even if automatic tills were outlawed it would do little to restore the varied and diverse high streets which we once had. Whereas if we want more jobs at supermarket checkouts then perhaps we should welcome the 'scab tills' and the ever increasing dominance of the supermarket chain.
ferrelhadley
There is no love between us anymore.
You can do nothing but point and laugh at the kind of buffoons Marxists are. They go to shops to purchase goods they can only afford because of modern mechanisation. The reason they are not living lives of medieval back breaking toil in the fields is mechanisation but because their medieval minds can see a change they are outraged by it. Braying like cavemen that something is different therefore it must be evil.
Ugg see machine, Ugg no like bleeping thing, Ugg smash.
Ugg see machine, Ugg no like bleeping thing, Ugg smash.
Libertad
Sparking up a rollie in the Reichstag
Who can withstand the forward march of the People's Bean Vanguard?
A mate of mine has a morbid fear of self-service checkouts. He says imagine having a heart attack and falling across one, and the last thing you ever hear is that horrible recorded voice saying 'unexpected item in bagging area. Please wait for assistance.' 
I of most of my shopping at independent places, and when I nip into the small Sainsbury's near me it's usually for fags so can't use the self-service tills anyway. I'll make even more of a point of avoiding them now.
I of most of my shopping at independent places, and when I nip into the small Sainsbury's near me it's usually for fags so can't use the self-service tills anyway. I'll make even more of a point of avoiding them now.
J Ed
Follow Back Pro Expropriation
Interesting that this topic seems to bring out all the idiots
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
So you subscribe to the macro-economic theory of the 'luddite fallacy' of production cost reduction translating into lower prices and increased aggregate demand? Despite empirical evidence of divergence between productivity and wages?
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