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I wish to gripe about the Self Service checkout tills that have been springing up everywhere including my local branch of Tesco.
It is so disgustingly obvious that these things have been put there to save the company employing checkout staff. I would imagine one of these machines will pay for itself within two years. These machines are definitely not there for the convenience of Tesco customers, that's for sure. It takes twice as long to unload, scan, and pack your own shopping as it would for an assistant to do it for you.
I work in I.T. myself, I love computers and machines, but even I recognise the value of simple human contact in retail environments. There is a lot to be said for a simple "hello" or "thank you" from a checkout assistant at the supermarket. Not to mention the much nicer feeling of handing your money to a human being instead of a machine. So many aspects of life are already impersonal enough as it is without a soulless shopping experience as well.
Unmanned checkouts - a cynical attempt to force customers to use the self service tills?
What really winds me up, though, is when you go into Tesco at certain times of day, and of 10 "manned" checkouts, only one of them is actually "manned", the rest are left unattended, presumably in a cynical attempt to force customers to use the self service tills.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not an "anti-Tesco" person by any means. I like the shop. I just find these self service checkouts smack of laziness and penny pinching on the part of Tesco, and I find their very existence a bit of an insult.
The joke is, at busy times Tesco have to employ a member of staff to attend the "self service" checkouts. They're there to assist all the poor shoppers who get befuddled trying to use these machines, and all of these shoppers are noticeably annoyed and angry at having to use them in the first place!
If anything I'd say I'a Tesco fan, but I don't see one single redeeming feature in these "do it yourself" checkouts. Come on Tesco - surely you can afford to ditch them and go back to good old fashioned "members of staff"? Your customers would really appreciate it.
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It seems they do not hold 50 or 10pence pieces, so unable to dispense all my change.
So....how often is this happening ?
I'm sick of hearing 'they take away jobs' They don't just magically appear! Get rid of them you say! So what about the people making them and creating the software, what about their jobs? Or does that not matter as long as you get your ten items scanned for you? Besides, if they weren't there they wouldn't hire more staff, we'd just have bigger queues. Supermarkets are a business, they are there to make money and that is one way of doing it without having to raise prices to unaffordable levels. And if I hear another person say 'oh, I should get a 5% discount for doing YOUR job" I will scream because if you think I make 5% from every customers shopping going through my till then you are a moron. If you don't like them, don't use them.
"Self Service" petrol used to cost less than having someone fill the car up for you, and bring you the change.
The only purpose of "self service" on Tesco tills is to deprive someone of a job, thus bringing greater rewards to Tesco executives. Well, it doesn't get so much of mine anymore - since over half the tills are "self service" now, I go to Sainsbury's.
Still wondering at the sudden loss of market share, you Tesco executive dunderheads?
Fat cat