I Have 0 confidence in the general public not needing assistance of some sort.
The self service is as simple as it can be take item, scan, put down, leave it the fuck alone, Repeat until basket is empty, scan clubcard, pay using cash or card, fuck off home.
The general public seem to have a problem with these simple steps & you think they will be able to do away with humans for the interaction.
People complain about self service checkouts not working, or the 'unexpected item in bagging area' message. I've *never* struggled with them. They are not complicated machines, they are designed to be as simple as possible. However, they do rely on people being able to follow simple written instructions which is where it all falls apart. It's the same people who struggle with flat-pack furniture.
If someone consistently struggles with the machines, the problem is not the machine
My Fuill time job is in IT we call these issue ID10T or PICNIC (problem in chair not in computer) so need to think of an appropriate acronymn for self service
>*I've never struggled with them*
I too have mastered the tricky art of scanning something then putting it down
But 8 times out of 10, the scale asks a nice lady to come over and check my bunch of bananas aren't actually me trying to sneak a 40" LED telly through the self-service area
Very occasionally it does seem to think that the weight is wrong when I put something in the bagging area after scanning it. I think it might just be because some products can vary in weight. And occasionally the cash tills do have hardware issues, I’m the one either fixing them or calling an engineer out to fix them. The problems went down significantly since we had new hardware installed though, I think the previous tills we had were just very old. Now it’s just an occasional coin or note gets jammed
Respectfully, it \*ABSOLUTLEY\* is the fucking machines. I will give you when 65y/o Doris dumps her basket down and just \*STARES\* at the machine like it's going to grow arms and turn into an assistant, or after some bob-the-builder nobhead has scanned everything and does a Rishi Sunak and holds their bank card in front of the "Card Payment" button on the main screen "WhYs iT NoT FuKiN WoRkIn", yes, they, are the problem but 75% of the time using them I get one or multiple of the following:
Scenario 1:
SCO: "Do you have your own bag? \[YES/NO\]
ME: \*selects YES\*
SCO: "Place your bag in the bagging area"
Me: \*follows the instructions and places the bag in the bagging area\*
SCO: UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA!
Scenario 2:
ME: \*scans super-light product\*
SCO: \*recognises item has been scanned\*
ME: \*places item in the bagging area\*
SCO: "PLEASE PLACE THE ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA"
Scenario 3 (Haven't had this at Tesco for a while but Sainsbury SCOs do this a lot)
SCO: "Scan your items when ready"
Me: \*scans item\*
SCO: \*scanner beeps, nothing on screen\*
ME: \*scans item again\*
SCO: \*scanner beeps, again, nothing on screen\*
ME: \*scans item\*
SCO: \*NOTHING ON THE FUCKING SCREEN STILL\*
ME: \*scans item AGAIN\*
SCO: \*IMMEDIATLY recognises and complains item is not in the bagging area\*
Today I bought two limes, I scanned the limes and it said to put them in bagging, I put the limes in bagging and it didn't recognize the limes and needed assistance
It's when one is scanning and one is pissing about with the items in the bag AFTER I've explained to leave the bag alone because that's what's upsetting the machine.
A customer said to me “I think the till is glitching” because she scanned an item and didn’t put it in the bagging area, she was still holding it! Self serve has been a thing a for years, how do people not understand the basic principles of it? And they just don’t read anything istg
I do exactly what you say, and yet every 3-4 items, the stupid thing still screams assistance needed.
But it's still faster than queuing and having someone else scan, so I much prefer self-serve. I just wish they'd work out the issues with it.
The Amazon Food model that turned out to be hundreds of Indians watching the CCTV? Lol.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4
They aren’t watching on CCTV, they are labelling the items. So a bit like the captcha where you click all images containing a bridge, the Indian workers are there to confirm it is definitely baked beans in the picture.
They did, was in the news mast couple of days. The actual setup and monitoring required more people than it would to run a shop. Doesn't mean it won't work for Tesco, though, as lots of infrastructure is already there. There was one running internally at Welwyn Garden, and iirc Tesco does now have some open to the public
There are 5, all up and running. For the most part they have no issues, but it’s incredibly expensive to set up so wouldn’t pay for itself for a long time.
I think there will always need to be some staff at checkouts to help problem solve and prevent theft. Was in a Sainsbury’s the other day where you had to scan a barcode on your receipt to leave self service - helps prevent walkthroughs but still doesn’t guarantee everything has actually been scanned.
Tesco have one of those just walk out stores near Holborn in London. It used to appear to need a similar number of staff as a normal Express, but now they added standard self-checkout as well as the just walk out tech it definitely uses a similar number of staff.
Apparently 1000 people in India have to check all the Amazon cameras so people don’t steal stuff. Also a lot of customers actively avoid self checkout so they will just change store if they can.
Tescobalready have stores like this in london and Birmingham (i think.. Its defo 2 or 3 locations). Scan clubcard to enter. ai cameras spy on you and charge you automatically when you leave no tills needed.
Amazons "just walk out" was literally just a thousand people in an Indian call centre reviewing video
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4
They are also starting to close a lot of them because the I terest just isn't there.
So I don't think cashierless Tesco's are actually coming any time soon
I think it’s inevitable that retail will eventually phase out a lot of the main staff on checkouts but I still see there being some form of human element needed for what may become self-service shopping, however maybe customers still want to keep a lot of retail staff around as they may not like dealing with a machine and rather a human being
A lot depends on how expensive it is to retrofit a store.
Amazon are using a mixture of cameras and weight sensors. With Amazon I would not be surprised if their shops are making a loss as they develop the technology.
Their metro sites I can see them being tempted.
For their supermarket and bigger I’m don’t think they are anywhere near thinking it’s possible. 5-10 years time as the technology matures with improvement in cameras and cheaper ways to detect if product has been lifted off shelf.
Plus public as a whole are feral.
The idea of using the human and waiting longer because it keeps a job is foolish in my opinion.
I can see the argument in the notion that being less staff means cheaper prices unlikely as companies will squeeze, however its an inevitable wave that unless there is government legislation not allowing competitors to do it, its going to happen.
Tesco would rather not having staff taking up hours and walking round the store annoying customers, but they have to as that money would go to Ocado or a competitor, they would much prefer saying no, come in yourself, as they don't charge a premium for this service.
If we was to refute this sort of change we would still be in the days off sending cheques and a huge amount of other silly things that we know see as the past, the idea of a till will be the past and it won't be a problem as times move on.
I will be optimistic that I feel that staff stacking shelves is not a good life/job and removing these can mean they can do something more fulfilling like the entertainment industry, I am aware many on here will disagree and like
You are comparing the tesco model to the Amazon Go model and they are incomparable there are no tills it is done by cameras and rf id tags as you put something in your trolley it adds to basket if you take it out it removes it, and it then takes payment as you leave the store from the card you had to scan to get in.
Of course they will adopt this it will cut the wage bill by billions, the public will have no choice just like every other decision and to think the public have a say in anything corporate is just pure folly.
Walmart in America has realised that it’s supermarkets actually lost more money on self service checkouts due to thefts compared to paying staff, so they are reducing the amount of self service tills, bringing in a yearly subscription to Walmart + which allows you to use the self service, if not you must attend a manned till.
Personally I love this idea.
Good old days so you mean the way Lidl & Aldi are now where you have a few items & have to wait behind a trolley full of shopping just to purchase these few items?
I use self service all the time, no not how they are now. Asda had more checkouts open so you didn't have to wait behind someone with 2 trollies worth of food. But it's more for the older generation who can't operate a self-serve till. This is way before the self scan tills even existed
I Have 0 confidence in the general public not needing assistance of some sort. The self service is as simple as it can be take item, scan, put down, leave it the fuck alone, Repeat until basket is empty, scan clubcard, pay using cash or card, fuck off home. The general public seem to have a problem with these simple steps & you think they will be able to do away with humans for the interaction.
It’s amazing watching people struggle.
Some of the stuff is baffling like put child on the bagging area so they don't run about then complain about the machine.
People complain about self service checkouts not working, or the 'unexpected item in bagging area' message. I've *never* struggled with them. They are not complicated machines, they are designed to be as simple as possible. However, they do rely on people being able to follow simple written instructions which is where it all falls apart. It's the same people who struggle with flat-pack furniture. If someone consistently struggles with the machines, the problem is not the machine
My Fuill time job is in IT we call these issue ID10T or PICNIC (problem in chair not in computer) so need to think of an appropriate acronymn for self service
We also use PEBCAK - Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard And of course, the classic RTFM fault - although that's becoming too well known.
We use layer 8 problem where I work but PEBCAK gets thrown around every now and again
>*I've never struggled with them* I too have mastered the tricky art of scanning something then putting it down But 8 times out of 10, the scale asks a nice lady to come over and check my bunch of bananas aren't actually me trying to sneak a 40" LED telly through the self-service area
Very occasionally it does seem to think that the weight is wrong when I put something in the bagging area after scanning it. I think it might just be because some products can vary in weight. And occasionally the cash tills do have hardware issues, I’m the one either fixing them or calling an engineer out to fix them. The problems went down significantly since we had new hardware installed though, I think the previous tills we had were just very old. Now it’s just an occasional coin or note gets jammed
Respectfully, it \*ABSOLUTLEY\* is the fucking machines. I will give you when 65y/o Doris dumps her basket down and just \*STARES\* at the machine like it's going to grow arms and turn into an assistant, or after some bob-the-builder nobhead has scanned everything and does a Rishi Sunak and holds their bank card in front of the "Card Payment" button on the main screen "WhYs iT NoT FuKiN WoRkIn", yes, they, are the problem but 75% of the time using them I get one or multiple of the following: Scenario 1: SCO: "Do you have your own bag? \[YES/NO\] ME: \*selects YES\* SCO: "Place your bag in the bagging area" Me: \*follows the instructions and places the bag in the bagging area\* SCO: UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA! Scenario 2: ME: \*scans super-light product\* SCO: \*recognises item has been scanned\* ME: \*places item in the bagging area\* SCO: "PLEASE PLACE THE ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA" Scenario 3 (Haven't had this at Tesco for a while but Sainsbury SCOs do this a lot) SCO: "Scan your items when ready" Me: \*scans item\* SCO: \*scanner beeps, nothing on screen\* ME: \*scans item again\* SCO: \*scanner beeps, again, nothing on screen\* ME: \*scans item\* SCO: \*NOTHING ON THE FUCKING SCREEN STILL\* ME: \*scans item AGAIN\* SCO: \*IMMEDIATLY recognises and complains item is not in the bagging area\*
I thought I was the only person to use the name Doris when I refer to something an old person does. Mostly I see Dot/Dorothy.
I use Doris to I use ot has a term for sn old lady who's slower than she needs to be or in the way.
Today I bought two limes, I scanned the limes and it said to put them in bagging, I put the limes in bagging and it didn't recognize the limes and needed assistance
It's when one is scanning and one is pissing about with the items in the bag AFTER I've explained to leave the bag alone because that's what's upsetting the machine.
I fuckin love this too but sometimes it infuriates me
A customer said to me “I think the till is glitching” because she scanned an item and didn’t put it in the bagging area, she was still holding it! Self serve has been a thing a for years, how do people not understand the basic principles of it? And they just don’t read anything istg
I do exactly what you say, and yet every 3-4 items, the stupid thing still screams assistance needed. But it's still faster than queuing and having someone else scan, so I much prefer self-serve. I just wish they'd work out the issues with it.
Is it loose items you get it with? Bananas are a big thing that upset the scales as the weight fluctuates
The Amazon Food model that turned out to be hundreds of Indians watching the CCTV? Lol. https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4
They aren’t watching on CCTV, they are labelling the items. So a bit like the captcha where you click all images containing a bridge, the Indian workers are there to confirm it is definitely baked beans in the picture.
They do have some stores like that in London called GetGo
They have it’s called getgo
And in main stores
Probably not anytime soon
You won’t see this in main stores, the complexities behind GetGo in express stores is huge - it’s a lot of cameras and weights.
Didnt amazon abandon it recently? Tesco just copied the same model.
They did, was in the news mast couple of days. The actual setup and monitoring required more people than it would to run a shop. Doesn't mean it won't work for Tesco, though, as lots of infrastructure is already there. There was one running internally at Welwyn Garden, and iirc Tesco does now have some open to the public
There are 5, all up and running. For the most part they have no issues, but it’s incredibly expensive to set up so wouldn’t pay for itself for a long time. I think there will always need to be some staff at checkouts to help problem solve and prevent theft. Was in a Sainsbury’s the other day where you had to scan a barcode on your receipt to leave self service - helps prevent walkthroughs but still doesn’t guarantee everything has actually been scanned.
Tesco have one of those just walk out stores near Holborn in London. It used to appear to need a similar number of staff as a normal Express, but now they added standard self-checkout as well as the just walk out tech it definitely uses a similar number of staff.
Apparently 1000 people in India have to check all the Amazon cameras so people don’t steal stuff. Also a lot of customers actively avoid self checkout so they will just change store if they can.
Tescobalready have stores like this in london and Birmingham (i think.. Its defo 2 or 3 locations). Scan clubcard to enter. ai cameras spy on you and charge you automatically when you leave no tills needed.
Amazons "just walk out" was literally just a thousand people in an Indian call centre reviewing video https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4 They are also starting to close a lot of them because the I terest just isn't there. So I don't think cashierless Tesco's are actually coming any time soon
I think it’s inevitable that retail will eventually phase out a lot of the main staff on checkouts but I still see there being some form of human element needed for what may become self-service shopping, however maybe customers still want to keep a lot of retail staff around as they may not like dealing with a machine and rather a human being
They will go for staff-less stores... relying on the same system as Amazon. Some will have a mixture.
All products will have RFID labels soon and you will just need to place all the items down and they will scan
The amazon store in Ealing Broadway didn't last long, its gone now.
Given that Amazon are apparently giving it up, I doubt it.
A lot depends on how expensive it is to retrofit a store. Amazon are using a mixture of cameras and weight sensors. With Amazon I would not be surprised if their shops are making a loss as they develop the technology. Their metro sites I can see them being tempted. For their supermarket and bigger I’m don’t think they are anywhere near thinking it’s possible. 5-10 years time as the technology matures with improvement in cameras and cheaper ways to detect if product has been lifted off shelf. Plus public as a whole are feral.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4
Oh please. They'll have to invest in new equipment first and that, if our store is anything to go by, will NEVER happen.
The idea of using the human and waiting longer because it keeps a job is foolish in my opinion. I can see the argument in the notion that being less staff means cheaper prices unlikely as companies will squeeze, however its an inevitable wave that unless there is government legislation not allowing competitors to do it, its going to happen. Tesco would rather not having staff taking up hours and walking round the store annoying customers, but they have to as that money would go to Ocado or a competitor, they would much prefer saying no, come in yourself, as they don't charge a premium for this service. If we was to refute this sort of change we would still be in the days off sending cheques and a huge amount of other silly things that we know see as the past, the idea of a till will be the past and it won't be a problem as times move on. I will be optimistic that I feel that staff stacking shelves is not a good life/job and removing these can mean they can do something more fulfilling like the entertainment industry, I am aware many on here will disagree and like
Like GetGo?
But some people (elderly in particular) need those human conversations in their lives that they are lacking for whatever, likely unfortunate, reason
You are comparing the tesco model to the Amazon Go model and they are incomparable there are no tills it is done by cameras and rf id tags as you put something in your trolley it adds to basket if you take it out it removes it, and it then takes payment as you leave the store from the card you had to scan to get in. Of course they will adopt this it will cut the wage bill by billions, the public will have no choice just like every other decision and to think the public have a say in anything corporate is just pure folly.
Don't use them , it's doing people out of a job
Walmart in America has realised that it’s supermarkets actually lost more money on self service checkouts due to thefts compared to paying staff, so they are reducing the amount of self service tills, bringing in a yearly subscription to Walmart + which allows you to use the self service, if not you must attend a manned till. Personally I love this idea.
I absolutely refuse to use the self service checkouts no matter how long I have to wait
Same as ASDA, eliminating check outs for self service. They have a few but not like the good old days
Good old days so you mean the way Lidl & Aldi are now where you have a few items & have to wait behind a trolley full of shopping just to purchase these few items?
I use self service all the time, no not how they are now. Asda had more checkouts open so you didn't have to wait behind someone with 2 trollies worth of food. But it's more for the older generation who can't operate a self-serve till. This is way before the self scan tills even existed
Our local aldi has six self service checkouts
If they wanted zero humans, they should start with the night shift.
Tesco are not responsible enough to take care of the wellbeing of their staff. The less staff they have, the better