Tesco new self service checkouts...

Archytas

Saw these for the first time in naas on friday?? What are peoples opinion of these? Now at the minute there only for those "10 or less" queues.

Good use of new technology? More trouble than its worth? I was talkin around and there's some pretty funny views on them - "stealing our jobs(seriously...)" etc,

What do the enlightened say?

tba

I find the one with the three scanners and a cashier at the end very fast...

tk123

I like them - it's handy when you're paying with Laser since you don't have to wait for the receipt to be printed, sign the receipt, give it back etc. Also there's gobsheens in our tescos who like to comment on everything you buy so you can avoid them using express scanner things....

Stephen

I think they're brilliant. Oul' wans seem to be afraid of them, so they're usually free/very quiet. Saves me queueing for 10 minutes.

loz

and you only pay for half your items !


:cool:

tba

is that a buttocks in your sig loz?

Endurance Man

They are great, never had a problem with them.

loz

tba wrote:

is that a buttocks in your sig loz?

nooooooooooo

its a giftwraped peach !

beaker

tba wrote:

is that a buttocks in your sig loz?

Endurance Man wrote:

They are great, never had a problem with them.

I agree. Buttocks are great. And I've never had a problem with them either...

muppetkiller

Do you think they'd notice me bringing the PC through the scanner (after replacing the barcode with one of a toffee crisp )

themole

they are fast.

the prob i have with them is paying with visa.

i swiped my card it then said than you. and that was that.

no pin to enter, no receipt to sign. a bit dodge if ya ask me. they should have a card reader with pin entering numpad thing.

Ruu_Old

when the first came out in America, the midwest i believe no one thought they would catch on at all, but they are everywhere now. only the expensive yokes had the security device on them. I put in an extra yogurt and got away with it the other day.

gline

Ruu wrote:

I put in an extra yogurt and got away with it the other day.

tut tut, hehehe.. i wonder do many do that.. i wonder do tesco lose a lot from ppl nicking the odd thing here and there

JPA

How easy is it rob stuff though?
Not that I want to but surely you can just scan half your items?

Ruu_Old

i actually didnt notice but i had 8 yogurts and i scanned them really fast and i guess i didnt register. Id say it would be easy enought to get away with it, but there are people watching you of course, so you could get away with a few small things i suppose. A few weeks ago i was walking out the door and the alarm went off and i went back in, what set it off, a box of condoms. Even though i had paid for them, there is some security yoke on them. There was me with bag of shopping, having to empty everything and check everything, then found out it was the condoms

homerjay540

two things:
1.) Not enough of them
2.) You have to scan all of your beers individually, ripping all the cans out of the holder in the process

Archytas

Ruu wrote:

There was me with bag of shopping, having to empty everything and check everything, then found out it was the condoms

That brings me back to last summer in toronto - I was in a supermarket... Picked up a 12 pack of condoms and bought some other items(like ya do), Got to the check out.. They didn't scan.. The lady on the till turned to me and just said sorry before going on to the PA "Price check on Durex, studded for her pleasure, .....

aoa321

Lads there's some excellent ideas here for thieving stuff, I especially like the one about the Toffee Crisp barcode on the Tesco PC.

I'm open to persuasion on this, but at the moment I don't use these checkouts as I believe that if I don't demand a service I will not receive it. In this case I demand to be served by a properly paid human rather than a machine. I believe that if there are enough properly paid humans in our society we have a better chance of maintaining a healthy society that does not tend towards being controlled by fewer and fewer people and lead to the exclusion of masses of low-skilled people that have no way of earning a living, these people may eventually become dependent on the state.

I'm not a Luddite but I have chosen to make a stand on this.

It is frustrating at 11 o'clock in the night when I am queueing up to be served by the only human on duty, there is somebody in front of me with a full trolly and there are 3 automatic checkouts free - but that's the choice I've made.

My reasoning is that if I (and enough people like me) go to one of the automatic checkouts then the human will not be rostered for that slot next week.

I do see the case for using these checkouts if you have some "personal" items that you do not wish to have checked out by sombody that you do not know, or even worse somebody that you do know.

themole

what would be interesting to know is how much these machines cost and how much person working the checkout costs.

i would be interesting to see if they are saving any money at all

Stephen

I would think they'd pay for themselves over time, if it wasn't for all the thievery evident in this thread

magick

however (well in waterford anyway) they have 2 counters and only one staff member manning them, does that mean , if all the counters were self service, they would only emply hlaf the staff they have now?

aoa321

I would imagine that in the long term the aim would be to have 1 staff member covering 4 or more of these lanes. I would also imagine that the Tesco spokesperson would say something like...

"it's good for the customer, the people that were serving at check-outs will now be re-deployed into other areas to offer better service, if there is any slight reduction in staff this will reduce Tesco's costs and the customer can then be offered even more competitive prices"

tba

I prefer the the other methods to be honest,

You know, the one where you pick, process and pack your own food in China, then transport it by raft to Ireland where you promtly send Tesco a check for the value of the goods....

Or the one where you enter a huge warehouse inhabited by wild rabid dogs, armed only with a grocery list and climbing equipment you must collect your shopping. The first one to the cash register gets to but their products, the loser go home empty, or in a body bag.

Archytas

themole wrote:

what would be interesting to know is how much these machines cost and how much person working the checkout costs.

i would be interesting to see if they are saving any money at all

They dont need holidays or time off... or get pregnant... or breaks... While they may break down.. they can be fixed and they don't have to advertise to replace them....

But I saw one fella nearly kill his children... they were packing and he was scanning and they weren't goin nearly fast enough... although he was in the 10 items or less queue with a full trolley....

gline

Archytas wrote:

... although he was in the 10 items or less queue with a full trolley....

thats his problem then, screw him. lol

netwhizkid

They are the biggest waste of time going, They are slow fiddly, They don't say hello or smile, They cost jobs and when it come to giving the change back, say if i was owed €9 it will make sure to give it all back in singles, and if that isn't enough they spit out the coins so fast that they will fall out and roll all over the place. A complete cod, imo

Ruu_Old

netwhizkid wrote:

They are the biggest waste of time going, They are slow fiddly, They don't say hello or smile, They cost jobs and when it come to giving the change back, say if i was owed €9 it will make sure to give it all back in singles, and if that isn't enough they spit out the coins so fast that they will fall out and roll all over the place. A complete cod, imo

Dont blame the machines for the crappy money the EU brought out and since when do human cashiers smile at you? Like never, grumpy baxtards the lot of them. I wouldnt blame them for being grumpy either.

Rb

netwhizkid wrote:

They are the biggest waste of time going, They are slow fiddly, They don't say hello or smile, They cost jobs and when it come to giving the change back, say if i was owed €9 it will make sure to give it all back in singles, and if that isn't enough they spit out the coins so fast that they will fall out and roll all over the place. A complete cod, imo

I find them extremely quick, easy to use and whenever I've gotten change I've always got notes and as little change as possible.
Also, the coins have NEVER fallen out for me before, and I use those machines at least 6 times a week.
Have you ever even used them?From what you're saying about them, I sincerely doubt it.

Tar.Aldarion

They are handy if i'm just popping in for a bottle of coke otherwise they are just a nuisance when something goes wrong.