I refuse to use them, i pay enough money for my goods i want the service that goes with it, at the airport last Saturday it around thirty quids worth of stuff went in smiths ,got to the till and was told to use the self service so i handed the attendant the basket and walked out, i wont use self service fuel pumps either...
call me a miserable old sod but i expect to get the service i paid for not do their job

I appreciate what you mean and I don't think that they should replace human service all together but be more widly avaliable to those of us that do.

well I DO think they're a good idea....but I ALWAYS get in mucking fuddle with them! Today for instance....in M&S..queues for tills...queues for express till...so I trundle off to the self service. Straight away I've confused it because it doesn't give me another option ...'own bags?' just a 'yes'...so ok...I decide I can fit a whole basket of groceries into my handbag LOL! I put my bag in front of the carriers...put first item in ...and it pings saying I need to weigh it!!! It was a sandwich ROFL!

Bloke comes over...I explain...then ...HE is rummaging about in me handbag like I was a thief I ask CAN I please use carrier bags....yes! phew!

Get through rest of stuff THEN WHERE DO I PUT ME MONEY??

I'm sure I'd have been quicker just lining up ....especially as I then went the wrong way out ..back up the line of people waiting to come int! MUST be an age thing

I quite like them if I only have a handful of bits and bobs to put through. I tend to weigh up what is going to be the quickest and use that. Ive got quite adept at using them, if I was buying 6 bottles of wine i would know to go to a personed till.

Not much use if you need to do a big shop though.

They don't really do away with many staff as most of the supermarkets I use have a couple of staff working on the self scan as well, to authorise alcohol, meds, vouchers, car park tickets, barcode issues etc

Doe

I don't like shopping at all really so I go the other extreme pick it all on line and let Sainsbury bring it to me - I know some people hate it, but I love it - and never had issues with freshness or anything - the odd strange substitution, but apart from that wonderful

I don't like them.

They don't like the bags I take with me for my shopping. I take a backpack with me and soon a wheely thing I hope as I am a weakling and I can't carry bags which weight more than a couple of bags of sugar for long. Carrying the basket is hard and painful

I work in a shop , but not for any of the big supermarkets who do self service scanning , I can see why they are popular with some because if you're in a rush you don't have queue and like Phil said you don't have to interact with anyone which is a godsend for the till operators as they don't have to initiate another mind numbing conversation with a customer not sure who gets the best end of this deal
I can understand some people not wanting to use self scanning because despite what seems an easy and fairly menial task some might hesitate at the technological complexity of swiping a barcode over some shiny lights , it really is not as easy some might think First of all you have to find the barcode on the product ! Now even though nearly every retailer has a scanning system which requires the swiping of a barcode the suppliers and manufacturers have their own system of placing the barcode in random places so you generally have to view all the sides of the box or packet to hunt down the barcode , they really like to place bar codes on parts of the packaging that is crinkled or curved because the quickest way for the barcode to be "read" is if the barcode is straight and even .
There is also the manual dexterity needed to place the scanned product into a bag , an experienced till operator has this acquired skill often at a highly impressive speed that shows a truly professional standard of work.
I'm sure some think this is a cost cutting exercise , and that is probably true , perhaps this is the thin end of the wedge and eventually supermarkets will create a system whereby customers can fill up the shelves as they wander around or tidy the products to the front of the shelf to make the environment more pleasant and eye catching for other customers , I'm all for this because I'm totally run off my feet trying to keep up with this shelf filling lark
The only problem with letting customers near the expensive computerised self service checkout is the potential damage that can be done , how can we can be sure that they will be able to operate the system safely when they struggle to operate what is simply a big basket on wheels ?

I hate them . It take me longer faffing about on those than it would to just queue up.

call me a miserable old sod

Brian............. your a 'miserable old sod'

Nothing like that in Cyprus. Ask us again in about another 10 years.

lynwestie wrote:

I hate them . It take me longer faffing about on those than it would to just queue up.

LOL do you end up being all fingers and thumbes at them Lyn ? if you go to some places like the Tesco in Canary Wharf they have nearly as many self scans as they do proper tills. I guess it's because most people are only buying a sandwich, piece of fruit & a drink so it's logical they would want to scan and move on quickly rather than queue up. It's only people like me who have forgotten to sort out that evenings supper that end up at the proper tills.

I don't know what happens chris . I seem to go into brain freeze /overload when they don't do what I want them to do . Im fine with the scanning bit but then Im trying to look all professional like by moving on to the next item at the speed of light as a cashier would but of course it won't let me because I havent put last item in the bag . My co-ordination doesnt seem to work as I go into panic overload . And that's before I've even tried to pay .

I don't like them. They are totally unable to deal with lightweight products, like birthday cards, CDs, a bag of nuts, crisps, etc. Waste of time.

These drive me nuts and I've only used them a couple of times. The last time the machine kept telling me there was an unexpected item in the bagging area. I looked at the bagging area and the only item there was... a bag! (Not my handbag - a normal supermarket carrier bag). It's a bagging area - how unexpected could that have been?!

I hate them but my OH loves them as he can rid of the small change he seems to accumulate every day.
I always get the one that does not want to play or I have a bottle of wine and nobody wants to come and sort it out for me.

Oh - I forgot - I like the ones in Ikea as I can play with the torch thing that is there for the scanning :-)

I've only used them a couple of times and I really don't like them. I kept being told there was an unknown item in the bagging area. I really should persevere with them but I can't be bothered!

I'm not keen on them especially if your using your own bags but for one or two items they are quicker.

I used to love the self scanner they had a few years back in Safeway where you had a hand held scanner and scanned as you were going round good for keep track of what your spend was. But it was really open to abuse and I think the shoplifters would have stole a fortune as they didn't last that long.

nejulie wrote:

I'm not keen on them especially if your using your own bags but for one or two items they are quicker.

I used to love the self scanner they had a few years back in Safeway where you had a hand held scanner and scanned as you were going round good for keep track of what your spend was. But it was really open to abuse and I think the shoplifters would have stole a fortune as they didn't last that long.

They have the self scanners in Waitrose. I love them.
I always head for self service petrol pumps and tills wherever possible. Much prefer to just get on with it myself. I can scan my shopping in half the time some of the till operators take.

Sunaddict wrote:

They have the self scanners in Waitrose. I love them.
I always head for self service petrol pumps and tills wherever possible. Much prefer to just get on with it myself. I can scan my shopping in half the time some of the till operators take.

But if you were doing it all day , you'd soon get fed up / slow down It is actually a great idea , because the staff can then do something useful like fill up empty shelves , because no one is going to make a profit from " selling" empty shelves ! and if they're empty you can't buy what you want ! Kinda defeats the object of going shopping , I suppose they could always employ more staff , but then your shopping is going to cost more .