We went in Aldi the other day. I like perusing the Special Buys in the middle aisle.
You find your self picking up 4 tins of El Cheapo baked beans for 27 Cents and pick up a flat screen 32 inch television for 500 Euros. I have said it a million times I exaggerate.
Any way or any road. We had completed our shopping and I had my usual hissy fit rant speech of there being no English beers to purchase
A nice looking and helpful Irish lady shop assistant offered to help us negotiate with the "Self Service" machines.
We were very reluctant but we sheepishly walked to the slaughter, I mean checkout.
One by one we gingerly took each item out of the trolley and scanned it and of course it didn't work.
The lady pressed a button and she smiled and we tried again. Of course it would not allow our shopping to scan nor to put the items in the bag.
The lady asked us if we had any identification? I said: " No" and J said: " Yes!"
The shop assistant said: "I am only joking."
We managed to stop the machine six times. Other people paying with cards sailed by with their shopping using the machines beside us.
We managed to get the machine camera/scanner to be unable to process our shopping six times.
Eventually we paid.
The lady said: " I think I best follow you home to see you're ok?"
So much for technology and machines that don't like cash or daft folk in their sixties.
I think a human cashier could of served six people in the time the unmanned machine took to serve us. Progress I guess or not?
Stop the world I want to get off.
Anyone else had similar problems with these self service machines in your local supermarket?
Yes!!
ReplyDeleteWe thought it was just us GZ😊.
ReplyDeleteEvery darned time.
ReplyDeleteAren't they annoying? Give me a human any day of the week.
DeleteHate them.
ReplyDeleteWe won't be repeating our exercise in self service till machines. Why don't they close the supermarkets and sell out of the back of the van? I hope they don't take me up on that labour cost saving idea.
ReplyDeleteI get along ok with self-scan machines. I am always helping other people use the ones in WH Smiths at the station though. I helped a lady today. They are generally in a hurry to catch a train and there are no staff around, ever, to help.
ReplyDeleteI think discount supermarkets and WH Smiths never seem to have enough staff or checkouts open. Thanks Rachel.
DeleteThey generally work okay at my regular supermarket. But I usually scan my items and bag them as I shop, then simply pay at the machine before I leave. It's much quicker.
ReplyDeleteYou sound very organised Jules. I do noy like the machines. I prefer to pay and chat.
ReplyDeleteDo they have ordinary tills too? I would hate to have to use one of the damn things though I have been shown how and it seemed very easy. Fortunately I had my grandkids with me to give me courage!
ReplyDeleteIt will be many long years before anything like that arrives on the island. I hope Lidls doesnt install the damn things. It s our special outing in a city near us. Wouldnt want to spoil that!
They do have ordinary tills but they usually only have one or two open Linda. They encourage you to use the self service machines. I am all for employing people and not replacing them with a machine.
ReplyDeleteTrain stations with no offices open or no one to get train times and which platform information also really annoy me.
I hate self-service checkouts. It's like I am doing the supermarket's job for them and they are always going wrong. Give me a human every time, preferably a dolly bird who asks me if I am all right. "No love! I am as mad as a friggin' hatter!"
ReplyDeleteDolly Bird supermarket sounds great YP. I think supermarkets should be like a builders merchants. You go up to the counter and give them your order. A bit like Argos but they fill your van or truck for you. "The customer is always right".
ReplyDeletePersonally, I prefer self-checkout tills. I can scan things and pack bags in my own time without feeling pressured by the waiting queue of shoppers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Will. Perhaps if we keep trying to use the self check outs we will master them?
ReplyDeleteWhat I detest is that if you are getting some small things, and you make the decision not to use a bag because you are trying to be ecologically aware. You scan your first item, and it tells you to put it in the bag. Everything stops until the powers that be come over and let the machine know that you are not using a bag. It takes a manager to bypass that step. I hate it. But we use the self checkouts regularly.
ReplyDeleteWe had issues with putting thing in the bag Debby. It would allow us to put a plastic ketchup bottle in our shopping bag. That had to go in last on top of our shopping after the lady pressed the button yet again. I found it a pointless exercise and waste of their money and our time.
ReplyDelete