Sainsburys staff given targets to promote scab tills

[brogdale]

Has anyone measured the difference in speed between untrained shoppers and an experienced member of staff? I strongly suspect that we are all waiting longer on average than we did before. I wouldn't be surprised if a good checkout person were at least twice as fast as your average shopper.

No problems with queues up the Turkish Food Centre on a friday.

 

[rioted]

What does efficiency mean? What does it mean to the owner? What does it mean to the worker? To the consumer? Is it really just a neutral/positive term as your first lines suggest? Is it bollocks.

You seem to have changed your tune. Not that long ago you would berate anyone for argueing against supermarkets on the grounds that it was an attack on the working class, an attack on cheap food for the people, an attack on working class shopping patterns.

And no, I won't provide a link.

 

[teuchter]

If I have a large amout of stuff I'll go to a human checkout. But for any amount up to what will fit on the bagging area of a robot machine, then the robot is usually my first choice.

At a conventional checkout, you lift all your stuff onto the counter. You can try and do it in the order you want things to be packed but the cashier won't necessarily scan in this order. Then as soon as you have done that you have to rush round to the other side and start putting things in bags. Usually this has to be done in a bit of a hurry as you will be asked for payment before you're quite finished. So then you are trying to do the card payment simultaneously with packing up the remaining stuff. Generally you feel under time pressure because there's someone behind you in the queue whose stuff is already piled up and, if you've done your payment, the cashier will already have started scanning their stuff through. So then you end up with a load of half-packed items to take somewhere else and sort them out properly.

On the other hand with the robot, you can generally take your time. Pick up item, scan, straight into bags in the order you want. Pretty much one action per item instead of several with a human checkout. No feeling of time pressure. Work is removed from a cashier but I don't really feel it's transferred to me. I have to do some work either way, and with the robot it's actually easier work.

 

[J Ed]

You seem to have changed your tune. Not that long ago you would berate anyone for argueing against supermarkets on the grounds that it was an attack on the working class, an attack on cheap food for the people, an attack on working class shopping patterns.

And no, I won't provide a link.

Why would these be contradictory positions? I'm certainly not arguing that the solution to this problem is to abolish supermarkets and replace them with hipster butchers selling organic hand reared Peruvian hamster meat or whatever and I don't think anyone else (or at least anyone else who disapproves of the current use of scab tills) is either.

 

[The Boy]

apparently they have just that in some waitrose, you scan as you go.

And Tesco.

 

[brogdale]

Look, you commie fuckers...these guys need you to work for free...else their profits might fall.

Telegraph 16/11/14

'Supermarkets in Britain could start to close as the grocery industry struggles to cope with an unprecedented slide in sales and profits, the head of Waitrose has warned.

Mark Price, the managing director of the upmarket grocer, said it was “incredibly hard to call” whether all of Britain’s food retailers would survive tumultuous shifts in shopping habits.

The “Big Four” supermarket groups have been forced to dramatically rein in plans to open new stores in UK in order to save cash to shore up their balance sheet. In recent weeks Tesco has scrapped two supermarket openings despite actually building the stores.

However, Mr Price warned that food retailers could be forced to go a step further and close existing stores, just as non-food retailers have done in Britain since the onset of recession.

He was speaking in the week that rival J Sainsbury slumped to a £290m pre-tax loss, scrapped plans to open new stores, and warned that sales in supermarkets will be falling “for the next few years”.


Mr Price said: “This is as fundamental as supermarkets coming into the UK in the 1950s and reinventing what food shopping was all about.

“I think we are at one of those inflection points where customers are acting differently and retailers are going to have to respond to it.”

In an interview with The Telegraph at a Waitrose in Salisbury, which has been revamped to respond to the shift in shopping habits, Mr Price compared the plight of supermarkets to the DIY retailers B&Q and Homebase, which recently announced it will close one in four stores.

Mr Price said: “Look at B&Q. Look at Homebase. I think that food is probably four or five years behind non-food. What you have seen over the last five years is 12pc of non-food space taken out of the market. You have had no food space retired over that period. In fact what you have been seeing is food space growing by 3pc to 5pc. So, more and more space has been added at a time before you get the impact of internet, convenience shopping and all the other shifts that we talked about.”

The Waitrose boss said that British supermarkets would have to reinvent themselves in order to survive a shift in spending from out-of-town stores to convenience shops, online and the discounters Aldi and Lidl. Mr Price said: “It [survival] depends what they become. It depends on your powers of reinvention really, because the model has changed. So you could say 'I am going to reinvent my shops so it is half a fashion retailer’. Through their various strategic reviews, they are going to have to decide what their space becomes.”'

 

[littlebabyjesus]

If I have a large amout of stuff I'll go to a human checkout. But for any amount up to what will fit on the bagging area of a robot machine, then the robot is usually my first choice.

At a conventional checkout, you lift all your stuff onto the counter. You can try and do it in the order you want things to be packed but the cashier won't necessarily scan in this order. Then as soon as you have done that you have to rush round to the other side and start putting things in bags. Usually this has to be done in a bit of a hurry as you will be asked for payment before you're quite finished. So then you are trying to do the card payment simultaneously with packing up the remaining stuff. Generally you feel under time pressure because there's someone behind you in the queue whose stuff is already piled up and, if you've done your payment, the cashier will already have started scanning their stuff through. So then you end up with a load of half-packed items to take somewhere else and sort them out properly.

On the other hand with the robot, you can generally take your time. Pick up item, scan, straight into bags in the order you want. Pretty much one action per item instead of several with a human checkout. No feeling of time pressure. Work is removed from a cashier but I don't really feel it's transferred to me. I have to do some work either way, and with the robot it's actually easier work.

*reminds self not to get stuck behing teuchter 'taking his time'*

 

[maomao]

Has anyone measured the difference in speed between untrained shoppers and an experienced member of staff? I strongly suspect that we are all waiting longer on average than we did before. I wouldn't be surprised if a good checkout person were at least twice as fast as your average shopper.

And at a normal till you can pack while they scan. On a scab till alarms start going off if you move stuff from the shelf before it's been paid for.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

And at a normal till you can pack while they scan. On a scab till alarms start going off if you move stuff from the shelf before it's been paid for.

I like a really fast checkout person. The challenge is to have everything packed by the time they ask you for payment.

 

[maomao]

I like a really fast checkout person. The challenge is to have everything packed by the time they ask you for payment.

Meh, I used to get flustered but I'll pay when I'm packed and not before.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Meh, I used to get flustered but I'll pay when I'm packed and not before.

Ah if you get flustered, you've failed the challenge.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I don't use them. If directed to them, much to Mrs Sas's embarrassment, I comment loudly 'What, you want my money but are too idle to provide someone to collect it? Disgraceful!'.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I have.

As have I.

 

[Sue]

But don't everyone's favourite here ,Lidl and Aldi , have scan throughput monitoring and targets as standard parctice ?

If you mean for the checkout staff, I'm sure they do. We used to have our scanning rates monitored and a list put up weekly when I worked part-time on a checkout in 1988...

 

[Jeff Robinson]

I hate these fucking self-service tills! I make a habit of not using them out of principle. My local Sainsburys is the most horrible din of about 5 machines continuously saying 'thank you for shopping at Sainsbury's', 'key in the item's code', 'approval needed' etc over and over and over. I can't imagine what it must be like to work there and have to hear that monotonous noise all fucking day long, and to be constantly reminded that 'they' are competing with you for your livelihood.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

I don't use them. If directed to them, much to Mrs Sas's embarrassment, I comment loudly 'What, you want my money but are too idle to provide someone to collect it? Disgraceful!'.

Nice sentiment, but no need to take it out on some poor sod who's just following store policy! Also it's not about idleness but 'economic efficiency' for the employer...

 

[maomao]

Nice sentiment, but no need to take it out on some poor sod who's just following store policy! Also it's not about idleness but 'economic efficiency' for the employer...

I've been known to ask if I'm going to get a discount for doing the supermarket's work for them but I try to keep it jolly.

 

[William of Walworth]

If I have a large amout of stuff I'll go to a human checkout. But for any amount up to what will fit on the bagging area of a robot machine, then the robot is usually my first choice.

At a conventional checkout, you lift all your stuff onto the counter. You can try and do it in the order you want things to be packed but the cashier won't necessarily scan in this order. Then as soon as you have done that you have to rush round to the other side and start putting things in bags. Usually this has to be done in a bit of a hurry as you will be asked for payment before you're quite finished. So then you are trying to do the card payment simultaneously with packing up the remaining stuff. Generally you feel under time pressure because there's someone behind you in the queue whose stuff is already piled up and, if you've done your payment, the cashier will already have started scanning their stuff through. So then you end up with a load of half-packed items to take somewhere else and sort them out properly.

On the other hand with the robot, you can generally take your time. Pick up item, scan, straight into bags in the order you want. Pretty much one action per item instead of several with a human checkout. No feeling of time pressure. Work is removed from a cashier but I don't really feel it's transferred to me. I have to do some work either way, and with the robot it's actually easier work.

In big supermarkets, the trick is (a) to have a trolley (the shallow, high-level ones) and (b) most importantly, to use one of the staffed tills that's next to an empty one.

I move the stuff I'm buying as I go along, in ways most likely to minimise the pressure you mention (and which I don't deny -- highly annoying!).

 

[bluescreen]

The challenge is to remove your payment card before they tell you that you can. This is a challenge most cashiers engage in.

 

[William of Walworth]

Is that a top tip there by any chance, bluescreen ?

 

[maomao]

The challenge is to remove your payment card before they tell you that you can. This is a challenge most cashiers engage in.

And get the PIN number in before they tell you to.

 

[weltweit]

The last time I was in the Big Tesco I noticed a woman scanning items as she popped them into her trolley, she had a little hand held scanner device. Different tech, same result (presumably).

 

[bluescreen]

Is that a top tip there by any chance, bluescreen ?

Heh, not really. I mean after the payment's gone through. A bit like being first away at the lights. Childish, tbh, but it amuses me.

 

[Celyn]

The last time I was in the Big Tesco I noticed a woman scanning items as she popped them into her trolley, she had a little hand held scanner device. Different tech, same result (presumably).

What happens with those when you change your mind?

"Oh, this cheese at the counter is reduced, and I think I'll have that and replace the packaged cheese I picked up 5 minutes ago"

"If I want coffee, I'd better out something else back"

that sort of thing. Would the little hand scanners let you do that?

 

[8115]

What happens with those when you change your mind?

"Oh, this cheese at the counter is reduced, and I think I'll have that and replace the packaged cheese I picked up 5 minutes ago"

"If I want coffee, I'd better out something else back"

that sort of thing. Would the littler hand scanners let you do that?

They have a minus button.

 

[weltweit]

.. that sort of thing. Would the littler hand scanners let you do that?

Dunno, never tried one yet, not sure I will be hurrying to either

 

[Celyn]

They have a minus button.

Ah. I wonder how well it works. If I ever try those things, I'll report here, but I don't think I'm likely to.

 

[StoneRoad]

up thread I mentioned that I was watching these tills at a large store whilst collecting for charity.
At the last visit the store had a load of the self-scanner thingies - they did not seem to be 100% reliable !
People using either of these two technological aids were also somewhat less likely to donate (a major national charity that saves lives at sea) although the prevalence of using the plastic instead of real money might have something to do with it .......

 

[ska invita]

The sooner all the shit jobs become mechanised the better

 

[Obnoxiousness]

Come to think of it... in the past few months I've seen three abandoned trollies full of shopping due to there not being enough tills open. It must be a regular thing in supermarkets.... protest abandoning.

I think the biggest retail sin is keeping people waiting, not the technology involved.