The end of scab tills

[Epona]

Some of us have a moral working class solidarity objection to doing unpaid work that supermarket employees used to be paid to do, while at the same time we are treated like we're going to be nicking stuff and made to show a receipt of items we've scanned to be released from the shop.

The solution is simple, if they fear that people who are allowed to self-scan will nick stuff, then employ people on a wage to scan stuff at the checkouts.

 

[brogdale]

it;s simply a symptom of the inability of people to/ follow instructions

the same people moaning about self service tills and scan as you shop are the same people who whinge about bus gates and yellow box cameras

No it isn't, and no they're not.

 

[StoneRoad]

Not long before Wilko's went pear-shaped, I was doing some shopping in the one not far from where t'boat's moored ...
I was encouraged to use a cashless / scab till ...
My response was "Do you want to keep a job ?" then I'll go to a real person at a real till, thank you ...

Ditto for Booking / Ticket Offices on the railways ...
And added to that, most concourses are way, way too noisy for any sort of complicated conversation when you have hearing / communication difficulties.

 

[InArduisFouette]

No it isn't, and no they're not.

Funny how many people, including those with disabilities, have absolutely no problems with using self service tills becasue they follow the instructiosn and grasp the concept that there is a scale upon which the bagging area as a whole sits

 

[girasol]

The loyalty card thing fustrates me. They were offers that always used to exist, but now you need a loyalty card.

I don't shop in Tesco enough to collect points, but I do it enough that I've "got" to have one. And I don't carry a wallet, so I've got to get the phone out and find the QR which more faff then tap and pay.

It's annoying and it's in exchange for your data. It sucks. . I swear they actually mark things up and then put these "offers" on to push customers into getting the card/app. (Although the meat offer was IMPRESSIVE! )

 

[brogdale]

Funny how many people, including those with disabilities, have absolutely no problems with using self service tills becasue they follow the instructiosn and grasp the concept that there is a scale upon which the bagging area as a whole sits

No, not funny either.
Try again when/if you have anything useful to add to the discussion.

 

[StoneRoad]

Booths taking action

Self-service: Booths supermarket puts staff back behind its tills

Booths says removing its self-service checkouts is the right thing to do and what customers want.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Fez909]

I don't mind scab tills existing, as long as they're an option. I ocassionally use them when I've popped into the closest shop, which sometimes happens to be a supermarket, to buy a drink. I wouldn't want to wait behind two people with full trollies to pay for a single item.

But I hate that my local Aldi shuts all tills after about 8 o'clock and you have to use scab tills. I like to go shopping later, and like to do a Big Shop. But then it takes forever to scan it all, and needs multiple interventions from asisstants because the machine doesn't recognise my items, or to switch bags because one is full.

With specific reference to Booths, I do have a funny relationship with their self checkouts. When originally installed, they took cash. By chance I discovered that they didn't stop when you'd paid your total amount, the machine would just merrily keep accepting coins (it was a tiny box with a treadmill style movement to feed coins inside). As a result I'd buy maybe a sandwich and then pour in half a box of coins, knowing it was like a Coinstar machine, just without the 9% charge. I'd get £20 notes in change for a single item, it was great.

I used to love this about their machines, too. One thing that was great was you could part pay in coins, then top up with your card. So I would empty my pockets of shrapnel and then have something silly like 13p to pay on the card.

 

[Fez909]

Booths taking action

Self-service: Booths supermarket puts staff back behind its tills

Booths says removing its self-service checkouts is the right thing to do and what customers want.

www.bbc.co.uk

This is in the OP

 

[Cerv]

Some of us have a moral working class solidarity objection to doing unpaid work that supermarket employees used to be paid to do

Do you also object to picking items off the shelves yourself?
Cos that's something grocery store workers used to do for you.

 

[Cerv]

I used to love this about their machines, too. One thing that was great was you could part pay in coins, then top up with your card. So I would empty my pockets of shrapnel and then have something silly like 13p to pay on the card.

best way to get rid of shrapnel. no need to wait till you've enough to fill a bag with a round number and take to the bank. and no need to feel weird like you would asking a checkout assistant to pay part in crap coins and rest on the card.
sadly a lot of stores now most of the self checkouts are card only. so you'd have to queue for the one two that take cash. as awful as queuing for the one or two staffed checkouts for wasting time.

 

[Orang Utan]

I don't mind scab tills existing, as long as they're an option. I ocassionally use them when I've popped into the closest shop, which sometimes happens to be a supermarket, to buy a drink. I wouldn't want to wait behind two people with full trollies to pay for a single item.

But I hate that my local Aldi shuts all tills after about 8 o'clock and you have to use scab tills. I like to go shopping later, and like to do a Big Shop. But then it takes forever to scan it all, and needs multiple interventions from asisstants because the machine doesn't recognise my items, or to switch bags because one is full.



I used to love this about their machines, too. One thing that was great was you could part pay in coins, then top up with your card. So I would empty my pockets of shrapnel and then have something silly like 13p to pay on the card.

I like this feature but they’re taking away the scab tills with cash options, which is discriminatory towards those of us who have to use the last of our change to pay for things, without the embarrassment or inconvenience of using a manned till.
I often pay with cash and would prefer not to interact with another person to do so in certain situations

 

[NoXion]

I don't think self-service tills are going anywhere. Some posh supermarket bringing back more crewed tills is just part and parcel of the upmarket branding.

I prefer to use self-service as it's quicker (even when buying booze) and involves minimal human interaction. I've never had to have my receipt scanned or any of that dystopian nonsense. I just leave and walk home on my scab legs (depriving some poor cabbie or bus driver of my custom), so I can use the ingredients I bought to cook a scab meal (thus depriving some poor chef or fry cook my custom).

The real issue I have with such tills is that they don't offer a discount to the customers who use them. Calling them "scab" tills dilutes the real meaning of scabbing, and just comes across as a ham-fisted attempt at shaming ordinary punters when the ire should be directed at the supermarkets.

 

[Orang Utan]

I complained to a manager about them (oh god I’m becoming that person) recently and they said the cash self-serves were unlikely to return. Can’t recall his specific reason but it was to do with them taking too much time to maintain or something.

 

[marty21]

I tend to use tills that have a person scanning - but Mrs21 is happy to use the self-service ones - although for big shops she is fine with using proper tills.

 

[Serge Forward]

it;s simply a symptom of the inability of people to/ follow instructions

It's not inability. Some of us don't want to follow instructions given by a fucking machine

 

[moochedit]

It's not inability. Some of us don't want to follow instructions given by a fucking machine

Obey your instructions carbon unit

 

[liquidindian]

Are we still trying to get this stupid phrase for self-checkout to stick?

 

[Serge Forward]

Yes.

 

[Fez909]

I've never had to have my receipt scanned or any of that dystopian nonsense.

I doubt there's any way to enforce this. You've paid for your good, and you want to leave the shop - why do you have to show a receipt? What are they going to do if you don't? Call the police?

I wish some FOTL/SovCit types would take up this kind of thing, instead of some of the weird nonsense they choose as their last stand.

I am curious as to what the setup is at your Sainsbury's girasol. I can only imagine a train station-style turnstyle. Otherwise, what's to stop you walking past whatever barrier/check in place?

Speaking of train stations - what's the legality there? Can I hop over a train barrier to leave a station? Leaving aside the potential for getting gunned down by BTP, is there any legal way they can stop you doing this? Assume a fully paid and checked (on the train) ticket etc.

 

[Fez909]

Are we still trying to get this stupid phrase for self-checkout to stick?

FREE THINKER IN THE GROUP THINK AREA

Please wait, an assistant will be with you shortly.

 

[brogdale]

Are we still trying to get this stupid phrase for self-checkout to stick?

"we"?

You don't sound very convinced.

 

[liquidindian]

Please wait

Too late, I've already scanned my shopping with my phone, paid, and left.

 

[seeformiles]

I have an ambivalent relationship with self service tills. When I worked for a budget retail chain, the best job was shelf stacking but you could get hauled off at any time to staff the tills. I admit I can be a bit misanthropic but working with the “general public” often as not meant dealing with rude and unreasonable twats who can fuck up your day good and proper with their unreasonable demands and outright stupidity.

The reason Booth’s have stopped them is that, like Waitrose, much of their custom comes from an older monied clientele who long for the days where you bought your goods at a counter where it was cut and weighed before you and there was plenty of time for a chat. My local Waitrose fits this profile pretty well. It’s like God’s waiting room sometimes with some shoppers accompanied by nurses with oxygen cylinders. While I don’t begrudge these people what is possibly their most meaningful social interaction of the day, I’m glad of a self-service till so I can get in and out quickly because I’ve got stuff to do.

 

[brogdale]

For the record, I do scab at the "self-service" tills when I need to buy a £1.70 tin of (branded) soup using the 19p spaghetti rings 'decoy.

 

[Fez909]

Too late, I've already scanned my shopping with my phone, paid, and left.

You're unstoppable

 

[Orang Utan]

I doubt there's any way to enforce this. You've paid for your good, and you want to leave the shop - why do you have to show a receipt? What are they going to do if you don't? Call the police?

My local big Sainsbury’s has gates at the scab till exit that open when you scan your receipt, but I nearly always just force the gate open and unhurriedly walk away. It does set an alarm off but no-one’s ever spoken to me or stopped me. But I am dressed for work and have a council ID lanyard on, so I guess that insulates me from suspicion.
It’s interesting observing people meekly obeying these rules that literally imprison them. Some even swipe their receipts when the gates are already open!

 

[moochedit]

I doubt there's any way to enforce this. You've paid for your good, and you want to leave the shop - why do you have to show a receipt? What are they going to do if you don't? Call the police?

I wish some FOTL/SovCit types would take up this kind of thing, instead of some of the weird nonsense they choose as their last stand.

I am curious as to what the setup is at your Sainsbury's girasol. I can only imagine a train station-style turnstyle. Otherwise, what's to stop you walking past whatever barrier/check in place?

Speaking of train stations - what's the legality there? Can I hop over a train barrier to leave a station? Leaving aside the potential for getting gunned down by BTP, is there any legal way they can stop you doing this? Assume a fully paid and checked (on the train) ticket etc.

At sainsburys near me, they have a gate that opens when you scan the receipt. I guess you could try and hop over it or quickly follow someone else before it closes, but i guess the security guard by the door would notice.

 

[brogdale]

Too late, I've already scanned my shopping with my phone, paid, and left.

The corporates' dream consumer; you win.

 

[liquidindian]

literally imprison them

I remember the bit in Oz where a guy has to move a bit of paper three feet. Brutal.