Technological Advances and Staffing Levels

[DaleCooper]

To those defending self service tills I say this:

One of the privileges that come with old age is that you get to complain about change however outdated and ill-founded our fears may be, please don't deny us oldies one of our few remaining pleasures.

 

[Mojo]

The hatred for self-service tills always amuses me. It's as if people see technology and immediately hate it.

If you're physically capable of doing so, just use it. If you have any problems (that you haven't deliberately set out to cause), then ask for someone.

I avoid self-service checkouts because in too many cases, they do not work.

I tend to find that the likelihood of failure increases with the number of items I am trying to buy, but on at least 25% of transactions the machine determines that I require a humanoid to assist me.

Brought your own bag? Forget it. Some people say "put the bag in the bagging area before you click start" - doesn't work. Others say "press using your own bag" - I press this and I am told "please wait for assistance whilst we verify your bags." I now put everything in the bagging area and then pay, before packing my bags, which is a bit of a pain.

Tesco have been introducing new machines that don't weigh your shopping. My success rate on these is higher because you don't get the "unexpected item in bagging area" nonsense; but the barcode scanner is very difficult to operate, and you have to weigh all loose produce on separate scales (which, unlike in Waitrose, are only by the checkouts and not in the loose produce aisle).

 

[DarloRich]

Why are you obsessing over your bills?

Surely the point of all this is to reduce the costs the store has to meet.They should then pass some of those savings on make their products more attractive to customers.

PS must be nice not to have to worry about paying bills.

It's been mentioned several times in this thread that the purpose is to increase customer throughput. That doesn't necessarily translate into massive savings for the shop, but it does allow more customers to be served, reducing queues and increasing customer satisfaction.

No - the point, which you wont admit for some reason, is to increase profitability by reducing overheads and getting the cash in the tills as fast as possible.

There is nothing wrong with that, I would just like to see some of those savings returned to the customers. After all we are doing their work for them

I can confidently say that the checkouts you use do not "reject about 1 in 3 of the things [you] buy". Not least because they're connected to the same system as the manned checkouts that you seem to think work perfectly.

I can confidently say you are talking out of your hat!

Try buying a bottle of wine. You have to wait while the harassed overseer finishes verifying the purchases of 12 other people in the queue before pressing 3 buttons to confirm you are over 18. How long does that take a checkout operative?

That is before we discuss the "unexpected item in bagging area" rubbish!

Are you now being deliberately obtuse, or do you genuinely not see the difference between a small checkout operated by the customer and the larger checkout space required to accommodate an operator as well as allowing customers through?

You stated it was new technology. I am stating it is the same technology as it has always been although I will happily admit it is held in a nice new box.

To those defending self service tills I say this:

One of the privileges that come with old age is that you get to complain about change however outdated and ill-founded our fears may be, please don't deny us oldies one of our few remaining pleasures.

I am not old! I can just see that many of the "improvements" were are offered are nothing of the sort!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Surely the point of all this is to reduce the costs the store has to meet.They should then pass some of those savings on make their products more attractive to customers.

How do you know they don't? The prices charged to customers are going to be based in part on all the wide variety of costs that supermarkets incur, including staffing, technology, the cost of buying the food, rent, etc. Unless you have detailed access to the supermarket's private accounting information, there's no way for you to tell exactly how each supermarket decides what price to charge each food item.

However, supermarkets are not, on the whole, monopolies. They operate in a very competitive environment in which any customer perception of price differentials is likely to see custom migrate to their competitors. In that environment, it would be astonishing if any savings the supermarkets make through technology don't have some effect on the prices they charge.

You stated it was new technology. I am stating it is the same technology as it has always been although I will happily admit it is held in a nice new box.

The technology for self-service checkouts appears to include:
1. The ability to automatically work out what money you've paid, and give you back the correct change.
2. The ability to weigh the items you've bought and cross-check against the expected weight of what you've bought (albeit, as a few people have commented, not 100% reliably) in order to prevent fraud.
3. A customer-friendly UI.

None of that is revolutionary, but it's all important for self-service checkouts, and presumably not particularly required for manned checkouts. And I would imagine that none of that would have been possible to implement in a cost-effective and reliable manner, say, 25 years ago. So it does appear to answer to the description 'new technology'.

 

[Metrailway]

I tend to find self service checkouts to be slower than manned tills.

Using an unscientific example, on Thursday I was with a colleague in a supermarket in central Birmingham around lunchtime. I had about five items whilst my colleague had one. I opted for the manned tills (which had about five people in the queue) whilst my colleague chose the self-service with no queue. I was quicker by about a minute.

Some blame the self-service for the massive increase in carrier bag use. It'll be interesting once the 5p bag charge becomes mandatory in England. I noticed when I've used WH Smith, most people take a carrier bag but do not pay the 2p charge.

I believe there is more fraud/shoplifting with self-service checkouts but clearly supermarkets feel the benefits outweigh these losses.

 

[radamfi]

Some blame the self-service for the massive increase in carrier bag use. It'll be interesting once the 5p bag charge becomes mandatory in England. I noticed when I've used WH Smith, most people take a carrier bag but do not pay the 2p charge.

What happens in Wales and Scotland?

 

[Bald Rick]

I tend to find self service checkouts to be slower than manned tills.

I guess we all have our own experiences. At my local Tesco near work at lunchtime, there is usually a queue of 7-10 people waiting for the manned tills, and upwards of 50 for the self tills. Without exception the latter will be quicker, and I can often be through the queue and checked out before the manned till queue has advanced at all.

I do sense, though, that London customers appear to be better versed at operating them than elsewhere, probably through practice, possibly as everything seems to happen more quickly in London. Unless you are on a train from Blackfriars to Croydon.

 

[marks87]

Surely the point of all this is to reduce the costs the store has to meet.They should then pass some of those savings on make their products more attractive to customers.

PS must be nice not to have to worry about paying bills.

Who said anything about not worrying about bills?

The point I'm making is that the installation of these checkouts isn't necessarily to save supermarkets money, and then pass those savings onto customers.

No - the point, which you wont admit for some reason, is to increase profitability by reducing overheads and getting the cash in the tills as fast as possible.


There is nothing wrong with that, I would just like to see some of those savings returned to the customers. After all we are doing their work for them

As has been said, you can fit more self-service tills into the same space as fewer normal tills, while still employing the same number of staff for supervision purposes.

The savings are minuscule, if they even exist.

I can confidently say you are talking out of your hat!

Try buying a bottle of wine. You have to wait while the harassed overseer finishes verifying the purchases of 12 other people in the queue before pressing 3 buttons to confirm you are over 18. How long does that take a checkout operative?

But that's not the system rejecting your attempted purchase. That's the licensing laws requiring all alcohol sales to be approved.

That is before we discuss the "unexpected item in bagging area" rubbish!

Which I haven't had happen to me, in three different supermarkets, in about 4 years.

Sometimes I think people just go looking for problems.

You stated it was new technology. I am stating it is the same technology as it has always been although I will happily admit it is held in a nice new box.

It is new technology. As said already, the payment process, the user-friendly interface and the smaller size are all innovations.

What happens in Wales and Scotland?

In some shops it's honesty, in others you need to request bags from the people supervising the checkouts.

 

[Metrailway]

I guess we all have our own experiences. At my local Tesco near work at lunchtime, there is usually a queue of 7-10 people waiting for the manned tills, and upwards of 50 for the self tills. Without exception the latter will be quicker, and I can often be through the queue and checked out before the manned till queue has advanced at all.

I do sense, though, that London customers appear to be better versed at operating them than elsewhere, probably through practice, possibly as everything seems to happen more quickly in London. Unless you are on a train from Blackfriars to Croydon.

Apart from the annoying unexpected item in the baggage area mentioned by others, I find most of the delay is caused by bagging up items.

In my local Tesco Express, the bags tend not to open when you pull them off the rack, so you spend a minute trying to prise them open. In contrast in my local Sainsbury's, the bags usually open when pulled so the delay is minor.

In the basket only manned checkouts, the operator scans and bags items and are far quicker than me presumably due to training and experience. I rarely use the traditional long manned checkouts so can't comment on them.

 

[Mojo]

Which I haven't had happen to me, in three different supermarkets, in about 4 years.

Sometimes I think people just go looking for problems.

You are incredibly lucky. As per my post above, I require staff assistance on typically 1 in 4 transactions because of "unexpected item in bagging area." I don't think I've ever been able to buy more than 10 items without assistance.