Harlan Cage
Member
- Joined
- 3 Jun 2015
- Messages
- 75
Note: This thread has been split from the RMT and Network Rail strikes thread.
Ultimately less staff more automation!
Ultimately less staff more automation!
Ultimately less staff more automation!
Just as a comparison to what is said above, I wonder how many W H Smith staff will eventually suffer the consequences of that new-fangled customer-processed till operation that the company introduced.
Whenever I visit any of their larger high-street stores or railway station retail outlets, I now make a point of asking for a staff member to process my transactions. One time, a W H Smith"managerial-type" made the suggestion that this was a modern idea, to which I responded that if I had ever wished to perform the duties of a checkout operator, I would have joined a company to do that task as an employee...not as a customer....
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.
Tempora mutantur and all that.
Not that old chestnut again.i think you may be missing the point that some of us don't like to do people out of a job to save tesco a couple of quid!
Not that old chestnut again.
If we avoided technological advancements in order to keep people in jobs, we'd never have moved out of the dark ages.
This isn't a technological advancement at all. it is exactly the same technology the checkout operator uses! The only difference is that by removing the checkout operator and getting the shopper to scan their own produce you remove the need to pay someone to do the job.
Not personally, no.Does anyone know of anyone that has actually lost their job because of these self service tills?
It is a technological advancement. The technology in checkouts is now capable of being squashed into smaller boxes and new software allows for simple touchscreen-based interaction.
But the substantial difference is the checkout capacity. My local Asda replaced four basket-only ordinary checkouts with 10 self-service checkouts, more than doubling capacity. Even allowing for occasional problems and the need to approve certain purchases, it still reduces queues and lowers customer frustration.
They also managed to replace two ordinary checkouts with four larger self-service ones (with a conveyor belt so can be used by those with trolleys). This was achieved because there's no need for space behind the checkout for an operator.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Not personally, no.
My suspicion is that nobody lost their job, but as people left they simply weren't replaced.
Thus depriving someone else of a job. So yes the end result is less jobs.
Thus depriving someone else of a job. So yes the end result is less jobs. More profit.
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..
Tempora mutantur and all that.
My wife works for Sainsburys. When they introduced the self service check outs they actually employed more staff to help customers. They're not about cutting staff costs (they actually increase them) but getting more people through the tills more quickly to part with their hard earned cash.
i think you may be missing the point that some of us don't like to do people out of a job to save tesco a couple of quid!
I would have thought an experienced operator could do the job much quicker than the average shopper. But then what do I know?
By the way I voted with my feet and do most of my shopping at Aldi, as more and more people are doing.
But the substantial difference is the checkout capacity. My local Asda replaced four basket-only ordinary checkouts with 10 self-service checkouts
I would have thought an experienced operator could do the job much quicker than the average shopper. But then what do I know?
By the way I voted with my feet and do most of my shopping at Aldi, as more and more people are doing.
They can, but a manual till takes up more space, and costs more (when you pay for the human) than several automated ones.
Depends what it is. Off you're talking about a big shop then yes the staff are quicker. If you're talking a basket full then the self service checkout probably wins. Also you can fit a bank of 6 self service checkouts in the space of one traditional checkout. So even if the self service ones take twice as long to process a transaction, more transactions have been completed overall.
In my usually known seeking for the most oblique of comparisons to the despair of many on this website, this could well have been said in the post-Russian revolution days when some of the former aristocracy left to live were put on demeaning manual labour work programmes.
Reductio ad absurdum.
I didn't bother going past this point with your post. Sorry.
..... but my area is that of the very best part of the Cheshire Golden Triangle where we still see the benefits of employing good honest fully-trained workmen to perform tasks that we are neither capable of nor ones that we could achieve to the same standard of excellence.
*I have got my transaction time for lunch down to under 10 seconds with contactless on the card only machines, far quicker than is possible with a conventional checkout. I much prefer them.
It is a technological advancement. The technology in checkouts is now capable of being squashed into smaller boxes and new software allows for simple touchscreen-based interaction.
But the substantial difference is the checkout capacity. My local Asda replaced four basket-only ordinary checkouts with 10 self-service checkouts, more than doubling capacity. Even allowing for occasional problems and the need to approve certain purchases, it still reduces queues and lowers customer frustration.
They also managed to replace two ordinary checkouts with four larger self-service ones (with a conveyor belt so can be used by those with trolleys).This was achieved because there's no need for space behind the checkout for an operator.
Do you find the contactless card works reliably? I have constant problems with mine on the M&S self-service tills (and my local Tesco doesn't operate contactless).
Has my bill at the store gone down because of all of this wonderful "new" technology? Has it balls!
Of course Aldi has a very effective system - because you repack your trolley as your stuff is scanned and pack it into your bags away from the checkout, the checkout operator is used much more efficiently and is as such affordable even with the low prices.
I like Aldi and would use it more if there was one nearer me.
I only wish there were an Aldi (or even better, a Lidl) near me, but there isn't.
Has my bill at the store gone down because of all of this wonderful "new" technology? Has it balls!
Show me some evidence that these wonderful "new" tills, which seem to reject about 1 in 3 of the things I buy
PS as for new they still seem to scan a bar code with a beam of light. I am fairly sure that is the same system in use when i worked in a super market many years ago!