Just been to ASDA and they didn't have one staffed checkout open.

This store has about 10-12 self service checkouts for baskets and 5-6 self sevice checkouts with conveyor belts for full trolley shops.
All with only one young girl to cover all of them and I hardly every get through a self service encounter without something going wrong and needing assistance.

Grrrr....

I just ask the girl to get someone on the till

If she can't I hand her my basket and ask her to use the self service till.........

Why can't you do it? If it's the only facility available why not just use it instead of wasting time making an issue of it.

As an OAP am I allowed to say I find self serve checkouts quite convenient and simple?

I do too, and if there is a problem it only takes a couple of seconds to put right.

no........if it's the only facility available I go somewhere else

Fortunately I have a lot of supermarkets within easy walking distance

I just can't be bothered learning how to do it

Self service works if you use it correctly, A manned checkout can have issues too

Never had a problem with self service but plenty of issues with someone on a till

The ones with the conveyor belts at Asda are good, plenty of room unlike some of the other stores.

Not taking the cashback is easily done so they need to redesign the machines.

They seem to be improving. I certainly don't have as many problems with them as I used to, and any problem that does arise is easily sorted by the staff member on duty.

I used to avoid these self service machines at all costs, but soon realised they were not going away - so I had better get used to them. I now prefer them.

I even use the self service machines in banks too. Far better than standing in a queue for the single window that's open.

I do use the machine in the bank.......

I'm determined to hold out against self service shopping though.........

I can be pretty stubborn.........I've never adopted mobile phones or wifi or a DVD player.......I think at some point I just decided that everything was getting too complicated or fiddly and I'll just stick with what I know

I'm sure you'll always find somebody really old using all the latest technology but I guess for most people there just comes a point where they give up learning new things..........and then the fingers stiffen up and the eyesight isn't what it used to be and the jargon looks incomprehensible...........and you just think 'I can't be bothered with this new thing'..........

I don't know what it is about these self-services tills but they seem to make my mind go all flustered and I really hate using them. I feel like I have pressure on me to be really quick and this just seems to make me slower, then I always get that "please place items in the bagging area" voice coming up, even though I already have and when that happens I become flustered and feel like everyone is looking at me and laughing at what a retard I appear to be.

I admit I love them, except when you're buying something so light that it doesn't register on the weighing side of the system, or when you're buying paracetamol, which has to be approved ('permission to have a headache' is what I usually say - these items usually being the ones that are too light to register on the weights too grrrr).

On the whole, though, I head for the self-service if at all possible, fewer queues generally.

Our big Sainsburys, which I avoid if possible anyway but they do have a monopoly in our city so there is often no other choice, closes all manned tills at around 6-6:30, which for some reason surprises me. It's as if they don't want any customers after that time (as they don't re-stock the shelves after about 5pm either!)

You sound like the lovely couple I came across who had just signed to to 'Self Scan' in Sainsbury's. Nobody had bothered to explain that you need to scan at 90 degrees to the bar code. Sometimes people need to take a step back and see that not everyone understands or gets new technology as quickly as others.

Because there isn't a single time in living history, with or without the help of an assistant, that I've used the blasted horrible things without something going wrong.

I point blank refuse to use them.

I experienced the opposite to the OP a few weeks ago in an ASDA store - there was a problem, I think, with the self-service checkouts because they were all closed and there were 2 manned tills running. Sadly that particular ASDA doesn't have the conveyer belt self-service checkouts yet either. This was around 9:30pm on a midweek evening and there were quite a few customers waiting. It got quite bothersome and they eventually opened an extra 2 tills just as I was being served after waiting around for 10 minutes. I wasn't best pleased.


Birthday cards... grrrr! I used to have problems with individual packs of Wrigleys Extra too.

So how are you posting on here since 2002?

You're pretty much up on computing though so what's the difference?

I use the self service checkouts exclusively nowadays. lets me keep my headphones in and listen to music while i'm shopping. it's often the only way i can cope with everyone else wandering around with their collective heads in the clouds, getting in the way, blocking the aisles and all sorts of things.

but then i was using one during one shopping trip and was happily scanning and packing whilst listening to music and then i turn around to find a woman literally standing next to me holding something that i think was a loaf of bread up.

I took my headphones out and she said "Can you do this for me?". I was rather incredulous at her cheek and said "NO!"

See ,you have touched on the issue I have with people in general today, why is the need not to waste time so important? - we all need to calm down and take the time we need to accomplish tasks, it's irritated people sighing and fidgeting about behind me, that ensures I will take my time.
If people do not have the time to shop then don't come into the shop and expect everyone else to go at your pace.Do your shopping at mid night and leave the rest of us alone.

So, you "can't be bothered" to spend less than 5 minutes to learn how to operate a simple machine but you can be bothered to walk to a completely different supermarket and re-do your entire shop? Surely that's far more effort.


I hate slow people and dawdlers. The way I look at it is that I prefer to spend my time doing things that are fun and enjoyable, shopping and other chores aren't fun and enjoyable so should be completed as quickly as possible to allow more time for fun and enjoyable things.


As for the self service checkouts, I love them, I think they're up there with Sky+ and smart phones as one of the best inventions of recent times. I never have any issues with them. Even better is the "Scan as you shop" that our local Tesco has, everything is scanned and packed as you go round the store, then you simply pay and leave. So much quicker and you get the added bonus of a running total of how much you've spent and handy reminders of any special offers. I can't remember the last time I used a manned checkout.

Plus the can sack workers.

It's win win win.

I always have a problem with self service, as so it seems do most people in front of me. Same with library. Awful things, I don't go to a shop to do someone else s job, I prefer service and interaction from another human.

When they first appeared (I think B&Q was my first experience) I wasn't too keen but either they're getting better or I am (or both). Still some way to go but now I've started to think twice about using shops that don't have them if there's a convenient alternative.

Unfortunately the nearest fair-sized food store to where I live is a Co-Op and it doesn't have self-service yet.

I use the self service checkout in Tesco/M&S quite often but can still sometimes be confused about which side to start on and which side is the "bagging area"

That is my problem with them, yes they are convenient, but all it does is take jobs away from people.