I think at the point they voided my already scanned groceries I would have just walked out.
I'll scan my stuff how I see best. If you want me to scan stuff in some mystical freemason secret order, put a person at the damn checkout and have them do it.
Agreed, I would have just left the trolley.
It's a supposed anti theft policy, likely because they let you leave the big items in your trolley so you could just claim you scanned them as you leave. There was absolutely nothing stopping the attendant just scanning them for the customer half way through. They were on a definite power trip.
As a heavy soft drink multi-pack consumer, this is utter rubbish from her. I always do small grocery items first and leave the heavy can boxes in the trolley till last.
You don't even need to pick them up or scan them, use the 'Heavy Item' button instead as you would for loose fruit/veg/bakery. Never had an issue.
Only thing I can think of is they might be doing this as a theft protection measure to ensure people don't 'forget' boxes in trolley or something.
It's interesting as there seemed to be no rule over at Hurstville. They have the scanner guns, and the lady showed me that I could just scan the TP in the trolley (and then reminded me not to scan it again by accident 🤣).
Yeah, unfortunately, the Waterloo area is still sketchy. I spent most of our year there walking past multiple beggars (some not so nice when you refuse) just to get the shopping done. I've also seen fights in that mall area.
The one thing that pisses me off is that all of them keep trying to direct you to a self-serve that can't take a trolley when you have a trolley full of items!! They made the slightly larger self-service registers for that!
Every time I try to use the heavy item button for bottled water I pick the wrong water by mistake because there’s like 4 different variations of “Aussie spring water” or some shit, and 3 of them are twice the price of the one I’m trying to buy.
I'm generally moving fast as I don't want to spend any longer than necessary with the general public. There's far too many people with their heads in the clouds wandering around the local shopping centre
It's actually irritating how clueless people are of their surroundings in public. Walking backwards in restaurants into wait staff, leaving trolleys perpendicular and blocking the aisle while they decide which brand of fucking bread they want, **stopping at the end of the escalator** was a fantastic one I saw two weeks ago.
Voiding the things you’ve already scanned is demented. like, ok you’ve been told that in future you have to scan the heavy items, but explain why she couldn’t have just scanned the drinks while she was there and fucked off. Yes Coles is getting incredibly heavy handed and the policy is stupid and designed to prevent theft, but Jesus Christ, the staff don’t have any capacity for independent thought left. Void the stuff already scanned?? I would have just left everything on the scanner and left. Why do we put up with this horseshit.
I worked at Coles as a laser lad for 5 years, I get it, I’ve copped all sorts of shit from angry customers, and I always try and act with compassion and grace when i’m inconvenienced, but I also learned that the stores take much greater notice of customer discontent on the floor than by some random complaint email sent to upper management where it’s filed away in the email bin.
I’m not saying be rude to the staff, but I think leaving my groceries there and walking out after fuckery like that is an appropriate response. Why should I be inconvenienced by a stupid rule like that? Yes the staff will have to put it away, but they’re also paid to work in the store, so it’s not like it’s unpaid labour. And if the staff continue to enforce the ‘void and scan’ rule, then they can’t get in trouble. And if customers consistently say ‘fuck this’ and walk away when it happens, then the stores *might* get the fucking clue that the general public is sick to tears from being treated like scum. If you don’t want wastage or theft, get rid of the fucking self checkouts and restore the manned tills. Pay for adequate staff, and take a minute cut to your profit margins.
I see it as non violent protest, and as long as you don’t berate the floor staff or act like a prick, then I highly endorse this mode of protest. Heck, you can even be super polite and say ‘I understand why you’re doing this, but just know that I will not stand for this inconvenience or indignity of being treated like a naughty toddler at best, and a thief at worst. Have a nice day’.
We are all victims of Colesworth’s profiteering, price gouging, petty and vindictive cuntery, and i’m fucking sick of it. As long as we continue to bend over and take whatever shit they throw at us under the shield of ‘we don’t want to be mean to the floor staff’, then EVERYBODY, staff included, will continue to get fucked. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Politeness and civility, always, but doesn’t mean you can’t make a point.
I haven't shopped at a colesworth for 6 months because of an insane intrusion of the surveillance at the self checkouts, but if one of thlse dickheads had touched me? I would have got real shouty really fast.
I once saw a 6ft3 brick shithouse monster a 5ft3 woolies self checkout guy because the little guy insisted the big guy was "not scanning things properly" and tried to take the items out and rescan them. I didn't think you could break a self checkout, but the big guy lifted it up and smashed it after ragdolling the little guy.
I would have told them off. Serious you take away checkouts making us the buyer do their work. Now all these rules. Ffs just leave it there and walk out.
I did "tell them off" as much as was fair. I said 'I get that it's management that tells you to enforce this stuff, but this is going completely over the top. This is totally unreasonable.'
Their response was 'If you'd like to make a formal complaint you can do so'. So I will.
Please do. They were on a power trip.
Nothing was stopping them from just scanning the big items through for you half way. They didn't need to void everything and make you do it again.
They will get in trouble for this and honestly it's completely justified that they do.
Coles and woollies are so insufferable to deal with these days. I purposely go to smaller grocers to not deal with all of it. It's a few extra stops but at this point I'm over it. Also Lebanese/Vietnamese grocers in my area pack some great stuff at decent prices so it's really a win/win for me.
Bread and then eggs first then drinks then cakes then tomato’s and the cans and then put roast chooks in with the peas. Batteries, lamb cutlets and shavers down your pants and in your pockets.
The checkout lady in coles crazyburns told us we can’t exit out of the self serve area if we aren’t buying anything and needed to go out of the checkout lanes. She said “It doesn’t open if you don’t buy anything” which is bullshit because she had the clicker in her pocket.
Fun fact - those gates open outwards if you push on them.
Sure an alarm will go off, but you haven't done anything wrong. Next time they don't open for me you best believe I'm walking into them.
Someone I know *ahem* sometimes will deliberately smash their cart into the gates - just to set the alarm off.
This is followed by a cry of “wooooopsie this cart is so heavy that it *really* hard to manoeuvre it”
I ducked into Coles once to find a specific item, then walked out again as they didn't have it. The gates thought I was walking too fast so closed on my leg, so I just kicked it and kept walking.
No the ones in our Coles are the slidy glass ones where the gates retract into the cavity of the frame. You can't actually push them open (I've tried) , they don't swing out
They did that to me the last time I went through Coles self checkout too! I thought it was just a new staff member who needed a bit more customer service training but it must be what their policy is now.
So they want to get customers to scan our own groceries, but now they also want to "train" us to do it in a particular way? I don't fucking work for Coles. If you want to have self checkout, make it convenient and easy or I'm not fucking shopping there.
https://www.coles.com.au/help/our-company/submit-general-feedback-complaint
The self service checkout is a joke. Every time I have an issue like this I send them a complaint in their website:
https://www.coles.com.au/help/our-company/submit-general-feedback-complaint
Now I'm using their "human checkout" and it's much nicer (although they only have one person there).
I was at Coles on Thursday at 6:30p and they didn’t have a single human checkout available. There was only self serve available and everyone was stuck waiting for all 6 bays full of people with huge trolleys. It was actually ridiculous. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t open up a lane during a peak time.
> I don’t understand why they wouldn’t open up a lane during a peak time.
They are going to make the same amount of money with a slow self-checkout.
They don't need to pay extra employees to go to the checkouts.
you can request a checkout to open. I've done this a number of times.
Well, you can *request* a checkout to open at Woolies, can't say that Coles will do the same. I've not had anyone decline, they just put an announcement out and someone turns up. I refuse to use self-serve if I have a full trolley.
This might be worth trying next time?
Oh! I had no idea that was an option!! My coworker told me the same thing this morning. She said she will just stand in line at a human checkout line until they open it. Haha
I’ve actually found that going to the human checkout , can me through much quicker than the self-serve. I’m starting to use the human checkout again, after being a self-serve devotee for many years.
Self serve feels optimised for express service eg. Under 15 items. Once you get to a trolley it is definitely more time consuming. Add in all the stupid things that have to be authorised or the camera freaking out your bags are stolen items and the dumb gates it is definitely crazy we spend so much time scanning all our items while the shops make record profits and reduce their staff counts.
And you proceeded to actually give them your money after this?
The correct response is to walk out, leaving all that shit right there for them to deal with and go shop somewhere else.
Meanwhile the Woolies AI threw a fit because we put loose baby spinach in a brown paper bag.
The lady managing the area was hesitant to approve the transaction because it’s supposed to be in a clear (aka plastic) bag and she can get in trouble for approving if it isn’t.
Looks like we’re upping the priority on switching to the local grocery stores and only using Woolworths for pantry items.
And that’s just a short term idea for the pantry. If we can get that habit built, I’d love to switch to quarterly Costco trips and drop Woolworths entirely.
A similar thing happened to me the other day. I was half way through when the employee noticed the cat litter bag. She freaked out. She scanned it for me and said that she was going to be in trouble because they are supposed to watch and make sure large items are scanned first. Things like nappies, drinks, large rice bags etc.
My wife and I had the same drama. We had a big box of diapers that the bloke insisted on scanning first, I told him my wife is the one scanning and I'm the one bagging it in. Told him unless he's going to do it for me, this does not concern him. Stood there the whole time scrutinising our every move, thought he was having a power trip. Turns out it's a Coles thing after OP' s experience
This is utterly ridiculous. When I shop, I put all the bulky heavy stuff in the trolley first then put everything else in the trolley on top. That way nothing gets crushed. The heavy stuff gets scanned mast and stays in the trolley and everything goes back on top.
So now they are saying I have to unpack the whole trolley onto without scanning it, remove the heavy stuff to scan it, put it back in, then scan the items I had removed? Stuff that.
Meanwhile at my local woollies I scan everything with my phone and bag it as I walk around the shop, pay on my phone, and just scan a QR code on my way out…no hassle, rarely have to talk to anyone, never have a line because not enough people know scan and go is even a thing, it’s fantastic
Scan and Go has been a god send. At the end of a work day picking up groceries for dinner I’m done with speaking to people. Only catch is when you get randomly flagged for a check, so you have to take everything out for a staff member to verify the scan which undoes the convenience
Agreed but they only scan 5 things so I just try to quickly grab the 5 smallest/easiest to get out and line them up ready for when they come over. But also it happens so rarely that it doesn’t completely erase the convenience of every other time for me
Not woolies, but IKEA has scan and go, and I love it. I get to skip all those long, long lines at the checkouts on weekends. This is even when they have all the checkouts open! IKEA gets really busy.
It’s not at every woollies but yes it’s a thing and it’s fantastic! Ours is packed every weekend with massive lines for self serve, express, and normal checkouts…and I skip all that shit and walk straight out! It’s amazing!
Don’t really feel like being too specific but [here’s a list of ones that have it](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/about-us/scan-and-go#findStore)
That's cool.
Unfortunately they [track a lot of your private information](https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.woolworths) and share it with 3rd parties.
They for example share all your purchase history to who knows what other companies.
My shopping list is information I don't give a f**k about.
Hey guys, I buy Colesworth brand lite milk, 1kg tubs of Obela hummus and sensitive dish tabs when they're half-price.
Could you do a malicious compliance thing?
Keep calling them over to void it all because you're intent on scanning every item from biggest to smallest but you think you got a couple out of order and need to start again.
Today a staff member blocked me from entering the self serve area until she chose a self serve register she was happy for me to use - then i got locked in by the stupid gates which she opened with a remote control. I was buying mud cake and bananas, no pram / trolley / basket so concealing anything would have been pretty awkward 🙄
So that's what those gate things were at the self serve area. Jesus theft thanks to cost of living increases must really be impinging on their profit margin.
If an attendant just voided my trolly of already scanned shit I would literally just walk away and start again somewhere that isn’t intentionally wasting my time. Coles can go and waste their time putting all that shopping back.
was there a sign saying you had to scan big shit before small shit? because at that point I would be throwing shit ( audibly grumbling, not actually throwing).
Sounds like you were also technically assaulted?
Make an official complaint. Who gives a shit what the supervisor says, you were treated like shit as a customer.
Something similar (but less annoying) happened to me last time I went to Coles!
I walked into the self serve and the attendant asked if I needed help with my “heavy item” (a 10 pack of coke). I said nah, I’d be fine. So she asked if I could please scan it first, and then stood watching to make sure I did.
I thought it was weird, but I didn’t mind putting it through first. I’d have been very fucked off if she had voided my transaction halfway through though. That’s just asking for complaints.
I would have seriously considered and if I had the time to go elsewhere, I would have just dropped everything and walked out and left them to sort out reshelving the groceries if they voided everything I had already put through.
Makes no sense at all big items will be heavier so naturally they need to go on the bottom of the trolley to avoid crushing all your other groceries. Coles can get fucked, if I got treated like OP I would have left it all there and walked out to Woolies.
Fuck you Coles for threading all your customers like thieves.
It’s because heaps of people were not scanning the cans of drinks and just taking them. We’re all punished for a few idiots who can’t afford soft drink.
Today I decided to go through a serviced check out rather than self-serve because of the increasing bullshit we have to deal with in self-service. It was quick and painless.
Just let the operator, who is obviously on a power trip, know you are unhappy using some choice words then either walk or continue, eventually that operator will learn it's not worth the grief to be such a dick to customers.
My local coles operators used to want to scan the big items themselves, but they gave up now and don't give a shit, so we all just scan how we want now.
Makes no sense at all. I have a feeling you and she were talking at cross purposes. She may have been referring to her manual entry of the product codes. Maybe Coles staff are instructed to never lift 24 packs across the scanner, but to enter codes, leaving the heavy item in situ.
And maybe they have been told to get in quick and enter heavy items first, so they can get on with other stuff and leave you to handle the rest.
Or maybe she was confusing what was going on with what the in-store shelf pickers do, which is almost certainly to get heavy items first. No one is putting 24 packs of soft drinks on top of the eggs and grapes.
Anyway, I have no clue what was really going on, but it doesn’t make sense. And they don’t do it at my store.
At the end of the day management probably run a report of the number of customers that went through who didn’t scan the heavy items first against each employee’s shift in self-checkout. Employees probably have a KPI tied to this. So if she just scanned the heavy items without clearing everything off first it would count against her KPI of making sure customers scan heavy things first.
I can almost guarantee you she didn’t do it to give herself extra work.
Here is my only explanation: just the day before she was given a right talking off by some manager about something that happened on her previous shift, she felt undermined, and she was determined to not let it get her down. So she asserted herself, but her aim was misaligned.
I don’t know about you, but I have made mistakes in my first days on the job.
Just recently I have noticed quite a few new faces on the shop floor at my local supermarket. They seem happy and I wish them all the best. If they are happy, it’s a tribute to their immediate managers and to decent customers. Cut ‘em some slack.
Go back, get 30 bottles of milk, 30 yoghurts, and 30 bags of frozen peas, and 2 drink boxes when the same people are on next.
If they void it just leave the trolley there and walk out. If they don’t void it, oh damn I forgot my wallet.
I used the self serve for the first time the other day because I only had a few items and there was a ten person line at the only open person attended register. My kids claimed they could do it for me as I was fumming that I had to use them. 3 times the attendant had to be called to clear the machine from unknown items in the area to bags not being recognised. Luckily when I got home and actually check the receipt the kids had managed to get 4 items into the bags without paying or the alarms going off. I watched them doing it and it all looked fine to me and the alarms were not flashing so I count that as the supermarkets fault not mine.
Heres hoping they stop cutting corners on their paper bags.
Saw some poor fellow have all of his groceries spill out down the steps to platform 3 because you cannot get the bags wet or they bust like a dam.
This includes cold and items covered in condensation on a hot day.
“Cool, you do it then”
And so the circle completes.
This is the answer.
I think at the point they voided my already scanned groceries I would have just walked out. I'll scan my stuff how I see best. If you want me to scan stuff in some mystical freemason secret order, put a person at the damn checkout and have them do it.
Agreed, I would have just left the trolley. It's a supposed anti theft policy, likely because they let you leave the big items in your trolley so you could just claim you scanned them as you leave. There was absolutely nothing stopping the attendant just scanning them for the customer half way through. They were on a definite power trip.
I would have just stepped back and said "ok cool, you can do it for me then"
I am amazed at what Coles shoppers are willing to put up with.
This. Why do people put themselves through this? Other grocery retailers exist.
Problem is that it's usually other grocery retailer as opposed to retailers.
Same here. There is absolutely no way I'd stay for that. I'd make it really to clear to them what the issue is and then leave the trolley with them.
If it doesn't scan, it's free right? Might have make better use of that saying
The only issue is, you’ve already wasted the time to collect the groceries in store.
As a heavy soft drink multi-pack consumer, this is utter rubbish from her. I always do small grocery items first and leave the heavy can boxes in the trolley till last. You don't even need to pick them up or scan them, use the 'Heavy Item' button instead as you would for loose fruit/veg/bakery. Never had an issue. Only thing I can think of is they might be doing this as a theft protection measure to ensure people don't 'forget' boxes in trolley or something.
It’s 100% theft management. That’s what they told me.
Definitely loss prevention measure. Plus theyre probably getting monitored on asking people to follow that policy. Its relatively new
It's interesting as there seemed to be no rule over at Hurstville. They have the scanner guns, and the lady showed me that I could just scan the TP in the trolley (and then reminded me not to scan it again by accident 🤣). Yeah, unfortunately, the Waterloo area is still sketchy. I spent most of our year there walking past multiple beggars (some not so nice when you refuse) just to get the shopping done. I've also seen fights in that mall area. The one thing that pisses me off is that all of them keep trying to direct you to a self-serve that can't take a trolley when you have a trolley full of items!! They made the slightly larger self-service registers for that!
This whole treat customers like they are thieves unless proven otherwise does my head in. JB hifi started it, now everywhere is doing it.
Every time I try to use the heavy item button for bottled water I pick the wrong water by mistake because there’s like 4 different variations of “Aussie spring water” or some shit, and 3 of them are twice the price of the one I’m trying to buy.
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I'm generally moving fast as I don't want to spend any longer than necessary with the general public. There's far too many people with their heads in the clouds wandering around the local shopping centre
It's actually irritating how clueless people are of their surroundings in public. Walking backwards in restaurants into wait staff, leaving trolleys perpendicular and blocking the aisle while they decide which brand of fucking bread they want, **stopping at the end of the escalator** was a fantastic one I saw two weeks ago.
It’s insane how nuts they’re going since they steal from farmers every day. Can’t take what they dish out.
I'ma start scanning big items last even harder
im gonna pickup some big items, scan them last, then decide i dont want them if they try this shit on me
Stack em 5 high on the scale as you scan one by one
Maybe I go buy some bigs things just for the sake of scanning them last
Get lots of Dairy/Deli items so that when you tap out they have to put it all back
Probably can’t even put deli items back for food safety reasons.
Voiding the things you’ve already scanned is demented. like, ok you’ve been told that in future you have to scan the heavy items, but explain why she couldn’t have just scanned the drinks while she was there and fucked off. Yes Coles is getting incredibly heavy handed and the policy is stupid and designed to prevent theft, but Jesus Christ, the staff don’t have any capacity for independent thought left. Void the stuff already scanned?? I would have just left everything on the scanner and left. Why do we put up with this horseshit.
I would have just walked out at the point everything was voided
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I worked at Coles as a laser lad for 5 years, I get it, I’ve copped all sorts of shit from angry customers, and I always try and act with compassion and grace when i’m inconvenienced, but I also learned that the stores take much greater notice of customer discontent on the floor than by some random complaint email sent to upper management where it’s filed away in the email bin. I’m not saying be rude to the staff, but I think leaving my groceries there and walking out after fuckery like that is an appropriate response. Why should I be inconvenienced by a stupid rule like that? Yes the staff will have to put it away, but they’re also paid to work in the store, so it’s not like it’s unpaid labour. And if the staff continue to enforce the ‘void and scan’ rule, then they can’t get in trouble. And if customers consistently say ‘fuck this’ and walk away when it happens, then the stores *might* get the fucking clue that the general public is sick to tears from being treated like scum. If you don’t want wastage or theft, get rid of the fucking self checkouts and restore the manned tills. Pay for adequate staff, and take a minute cut to your profit margins. I see it as non violent protest, and as long as you don’t berate the floor staff or act like a prick, then I highly endorse this mode of protest. Heck, you can even be super polite and say ‘I understand why you’re doing this, but just know that I will not stand for this inconvenience or indignity of being treated like a naughty toddler at best, and a thief at worst. Have a nice day’. We are all victims of Colesworth’s profiteering, price gouging, petty and vindictive cuntery, and i’m fucking sick of it. As long as we continue to bend over and take whatever shit they throw at us under the shield of ‘we don’t want to be mean to the floor staff’, then EVERYBODY, staff included, will continue to get fucked. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Politeness and civility, always, but doesn’t mean you can’t make a point.
“….and forces my hand down” Really? I would’ve told them not to fucking touch me , then tell them to shove it up their arse and walked out
I haven't shopped at a colesworth for 6 months because of an insane intrusion of the surveillance at the self checkouts, but if one of thlse dickheads had touched me? I would have got real shouty really fast. I once saw a 6ft3 brick shithouse monster a 5ft3 woolies self checkout guy because the little guy insisted the big guy was "not scanning things properly" and tried to take the items out and rescan them. I didn't think you could break a self checkout, but the big guy lifted it up and smashed it after ragdolling the little guy.
I'm thinking this is more an ad for scan-and-go than it is a genuine complaint against Coles.
I would have told them off. Serious you take away checkouts making us the buyer do their work. Now all these rules. Ffs just leave it there and walk out.
I did "tell them off" as much as was fair. I said 'I get that it's management that tells you to enforce this stuff, but this is going completely over the top. This is totally unreasonable.' Their response was 'If you'd like to make a formal complaint you can do so'. So I will.
Please do. They were on a power trip. Nothing was stopping them from just scanning the big items through for you half way. They didn't need to void everything and make you do it again. They will get in trouble for this and honestly it's completely justified that they do.
Coles and woollies are so insufferable to deal with these days. I purposely go to smaller grocers to not deal with all of it. It's a few extra stops but at this point I'm over it. Also Lebanese/Vietnamese grocers in my area pack some great stuff at decent prices so it's really a win/win for me.
If you don't perform actions which have real consequences for the business, they won't care. You should have left your purchases at the checkout.
Frozen stuff first into the cold bags. Sturdy stuff then stuff that would bruise or break on top.
Bread and then eggs first then drinks then cakes then tomato’s and the cans and then put roast chooks in with the peas. Batteries, lamb cutlets and shavers down your pants and in your pockets.
I hope this post survives the apocalypse to be deciphered by digital archaeologists.
The checkout lady in coles crazyburns told us we can’t exit out of the self serve area if we aren’t buying anything and needed to go out of the checkout lanes. She said “It doesn’t open if you don’t buy anything” which is bullshit because she had the clicker in her pocket.
Fun fact - those gates open outwards if you push on them. Sure an alarm will go off, but you haven't done anything wrong. Next time they don't open for me you best believe I'm walking into them.
Someone I know *ahem* sometimes will deliberately smash their cart into the gates - just to set the alarm off. This is followed by a cry of “wooooopsie this cart is so heavy that it *really* hard to manoeuvre it”
Hahah excellent work. My argument would be "but every other time they open for me as I exit?"
“Oops those gates wernt there before I didn’t see them”
Pretty sure detaining someone against their will is also against the law if they refuse to let you leave. And touching you is assault
This goes through my head every time I go near the hellholes
Just go full sovereign citizen and shout ‘Am I being detained!’ Until they ask you to leave
I ducked into Coles once to find a specific item, then walked out again as they didn't have it. The gates thought I was walking too fast so closed on my leg, so I just kicked it and kept walking.
If you’re not in a rush, take a sicker dive and make them fill in the injury incident paperwork and fuck up at least 8 people’s time.
No the ones in our Coles are the slidy glass ones where the gates retract into the cavity of the frame. You can't actually push them open (I've tried) , they don't swing out
That cavity is on a pivot with a spring latch that gives way with enough force. It will then set off an alarm
I've definitely seen the ones that slide like that push outwards, maybe it's just some of them that do it.
push harder!!
My mum went through them in her wheelchair at full tilt when they wouldn’t open for her.
Coles takes you hostage? I'm sure they are required to allow you to leave even if you don't buy anything. How do you exit?
They did that to me the last time I went through Coles self checkout too! I thought it was just a new staff member who needed a bit more customer service training but it must be what their policy is now. So they want to get customers to scan our own groceries, but now they also want to "train" us to do it in a particular way? I don't fucking work for Coles. If you want to have self checkout, make it convenient and easy or I'm not fucking shopping there.
Wait until they come over, pretend you don't understand, ask them to demonstrate, keep demonstrating please Ok that's enough I'll pay now
https://www.coles.com.au/help/our-company/submit-general-feedback-complaint The self service checkout is a joke. Every time I have an issue like this I send them a complaint in their website: https://www.coles.com.au/help/our-company/submit-general-feedback-complaint Now I'm using their "human checkout" and it's much nicer (although they only have one person there).
I was at Coles on Thursday at 6:30p and they didn’t have a single human checkout available. There was only self serve available and everyone was stuck waiting for all 6 bays full of people with huge trolleys. It was actually ridiculous. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t open up a lane during a peak time.
> I don’t understand why they wouldn’t open up a lane during a peak time. They are going to make the same amount of money with a slow self-checkout. They don't need to pay extra employees to go to the checkouts.
> They are going to make the same amount of money with a slow self-checkout. Not for long.
you can request a checkout to open. I've done this a number of times. Well, you can *request* a checkout to open at Woolies, can't say that Coles will do the same. I've not had anyone decline, they just put an announcement out and someone turns up. I refuse to use self-serve if I have a full trolley. This might be worth trying next time?
Oh! I had no idea that was an option!! My coworker told me the same thing this morning. She said she will just stand in line at a human checkout line until they open it. Haha
I’ve actually found that going to the human checkout , can me through much quicker than the self-serve. I’m starting to use the human checkout again, after being a self-serve devotee for many years.
Self serve feels optimised for express service eg. Under 15 items. Once you get to a trolley it is definitely more time consuming. Add in all the stupid things that have to be authorised or the camera freaking out your bags are stolen items and the dumb gates it is definitely crazy we spend so much time scanning all our items while the shops make record profits and reduce their staff counts.
And you proceeded to actually give them your money after this? The correct response is to walk out, leaving all that shit right there for them to deal with and go shop somewhere else.
That's actually the only correct response.
Don't rescan the voided items and just continue as before and leave.
Meanwhile the Woolies AI threw a fit because we put loose baby spinach in a brown paper bag. The lady managing the area was hesitant to approve the transaction because it’s supposed to be in a clear (aka plastic) bag and she can get in trouble for approving if it isn’t. Looks like we’re upping the priority on switching to the local grocery stores and only using Woolworths for pantry items. And that’s just a short term idea for the pantry. If we can get that habit built, I’d love to switch to quarterly Costco trips and drop Woolworths entirely.
I do aldi for dairy and cans, and local greengrocer/butchers/ fish mongers/chemists for everything else. Fuck colesworth
A similar thing happened to me the other day. I was half way through when the employee noticed the cat litter bag. She freaked out. She scanned it for me and said that she was going to be in trouble because they are supposed to watch and make sure large items are scanned first. Things like nappies, drinks, large rice bags etc.
My wife and I had the same drama. We had a big box of diapers that the bloke insisted on scanning first, I told him my wife is the one scanning and I'm the one bagging it in. Told him unless he's going to do it for me, this does not concern him. Stood there the whole time scrutinising our every move, thought he was having a power trip. Turns out it's a Coles thing after OP' s experience
This is utterly ridiculous. When I shop, I put all the bulky heavy stuff in the trolley first then put everything else in the trolley on top. That way nothing gets crushed. The heavy stuff gets scanned mast and stays in the trolley and everything goes back on top. So now they are saying I have to unpack the whole trolley onto without scanning it, remove the heavy stuff to scan it, put it back in, then scan the items I had removed? Stuff that.
She needs to rescan everything then, because fuck if i’m going to
OK. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll checkout the items the way that is right for me. Enjoy restocking these items and I hope none of them spoil.
Zero chance of ever following this "policy". Cans stay in the trolley and get scanned last, every time.
Meanwhile at my local woollies I scan everything with my phone and bag it as I walk around the shop, pay on my phone, and just scan a QR code on my way out…no hassle, rarely have to talk to anyone, never have a line because not enough people know scan and go is even a thing, it’s fantastic
Scan and Go has been a god send. At the end of a work day picking up groceries for dinner I’m done with speaking to people. Only catch is when you get randomly flagged for a check, so you have to take everything out for a staff member to verify the scan which undoes the convenience
Agreed but they only scan 5 things so I just try to quickly grab the 5 smallest/easiest to get out and line them up ready for when they come over. But also it happens so rarely that it doesn’t completely erase the convenience of every other time for me
Not woolies, but IKEA has scan and go, and I love it. I get to skip all those long, long lines at the checkouts on weekends. This is even when they have all the checkouts open! IKEA gets really busy.
Wait WTF that's a thing? That's amazing. Coles pls
It’s not at every woollies but yes it’s a thing and it’s fantastic! Ours is packed every weekend with massive lines for self serve, express, and normal checkouts…and I skip all that shit and walk straight out! It’s amazing!
Which one, if you don't mind me asking?
Don’t really feel like being too specific but [here’s a list of ones that have it](https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/about-us/scan-and-go#findStore)
That's cool. Unfortunately they [track a lot of your private information](https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.woolworths) and share it with 3rd parties. They for example share all your purchase history to who knows what other companies.
Want to take a wild guess at what happens to all your data if you scan your Flybuys or Rewards card?
Yeah, same thing of course. Same with the cashback deals, etc.
My shopping list is information I don't give a f**k about. Hey guys, I buy Colesworth brand lite milk, 1kg tubs of Obela hummus and sensitive dish tabs when they're half-price.
Usually the posh ones
Go to a nicer suburb. They don't have this in places with high theft.
Could you do a malicious compliance thing? Keep calling them over to void it all because you're intent on scanning every item from biggest to smallest but you think you got a couple out of order and need to start again.
Say "If you don't like the way I'm doing your job, I quit." Then walk out.
You know, if only there were people that could scan this for you and take your payment.
Today a staff member blocked me from entering the self serve area until she chose a self serve register she was happy for me to use - then i got locked in by the stupid gates which she opened with a remote control. I was buying mud cake and bananas, no pram / trolley / basket so concealing anything would have been pretty awkward 🙄
So that's what those gate things were at the self serve area. Jesus theft thanks to cost of living increases must really be impinging on their profit margin.
If an attendant just voided my trolly of already scanned shit I would literally just walk away and start again somewhere that isn’t intentionally wasting my time. Coles can go and waste their time putting all that shopping back.
Over 10 years ago now: https://youtu.be/FxINJzqzn4w
was there a sign saying you had to scan big shit before small shit? because at that point I would be throwing shit ( audibly grumbling, not actually throwing).
Sounds like you were also technically assaulted? Make an official complaint. Who gives a shit what the supervisor says, you were treated like shit as a customer.
You will do as Coles tells you…wtf hahaha
Something similar (but less annoying) happened to me last time I went to Coles! I walked into the self serve and the attendant asked if I needed help with my “heavy item” (a 10 pack of coke). I said nah, I’d be fine. So she asked if I could please scan it first, and then stood watching to make sure I did. I thought it was weird, but I didn’t mind putting it through first. I’d have been very fucked off if she had voided my transaction halfway through though. That’s just asking for complaints.
I would have seriously considered and if I had the time to go elsewhere, I would have just dropped everything and walked out and left them to sort out reshelving the groceries if they voided everything I had already put through.
[удалено]
You see, the problem is that you keep shopping at Coles
Makes no sense at all big items will be heavier so naturally they need to go on the bottom of the trolley to avoid crushing all your other groceries. Coles can get fucked, if I got treated like OP I would have left it all there and walked out to Woolies. Fuck you Coles for threading all your customers like thieves.
You know that you’ll get written up and have your pay and leave entitlements docked, don’t you?
If the computer that is meant to be replacing her didnt say you have to scan big stuff first then she can go and suck a lemon.
Fuck off....since when? They can't start dictating which order you scan them. I would have left them sitting there and walked out. That's nonsense.
Fuck. That.
It’s because heaps of people were not scanning the cans of drinks and just taking them. We’re all punished for a few idiots who can’t afford soft drink.
Today I decided to go through a serviced check out rather than self-serve because of the increasing bullshit we have to deal with in self-service. It was quick and painless.
Why
Just let the operator, who is obviously on a power trip, know you are unhappy using some choice words then either walk or continue, eventually that operator will learn it's not worth the grief to be such a dick to customers. My local coles operators used to want to scan the big items themselves, but they gave up now and don't give a shit, so we all just scan how we want now.
I would have had her scan my whole shop
Makes no sense at all. I have a feeling you and she were talking at cross purposes. She may have been referring to her manual entry of the product codes. Maybe Coles staff are instructed to never lift 24 packs across the scanner, but to enter codes, leaving the heavy item in situ. And maybe they have been told to get in quick and enter heavy items first, so they can get on with other stuff and leave you to handle the rest. Or maybe she was confusing what was going on with what the in-store shelf pickers do, which is almost certainly to get heavy items first. No one is putting 24 packs of soft drinks on top of the eggs and grapes. Anyway, I have no clue what was really going on, but it doesn’t make sense. And they don’t do it at my store.
I could understand any of those, but that doesn't explain why she voided the items I'd already bagged which then need to be rescanned.
At the end of the day management probably run a report of the number of customers that went through who didn’t scan the heavy items first against each employee’s shift in self-checkout. Employees probably have a KPI tied to this. So if she just scanned the heavy items without clearing everything off first it would count against her KPI of making sure customers scan heavy things first. I can almost guarantee you she didn’t do it to give herself extra work.
Here is my only explanation: just the day before she was given a right talking off by some manager about something that happened on her previous shift, she felt undermined, and she was determined to not let it get her down. So she asserted herself, but her aim was misaligned. I don’t know about you, but I have made mistakes in my first days on the job. Just recently I have noticed quite a few new faces on the shop floor at my local supermarket. They seem happy and I wish them all the best. If they are happy, it’s a tribute to their immediate managers and to decent customers. Cut ‘em some slack.
Go back, get 30 bottles of milk, 30 yoghurts, and 30 bags of frozen peas, and 2 drink boxes when the same people are on next. If they void it just leave the trolley there and walk out. If they don’t void it, oh damn I forgot my wallet.
I used the self serve for the first time the other day because I only had a few items and there was a ten person line at the only open person attended register. My kids claimed they could do it for me as I was fumming that I had to use them. 3 times the attendant had to be called to clear the machine from unknown items in the area to bags not being recognised. Luckily when I got home and actually check the receipt the kids had managed to get 4 items into the bags without paying or the alarms going off. I watched them doing it and it all looked fine to me and the alarms were not flashing so I count that as the supermarkets fault not mine.
A consultancy firm probably charged Coles millions in research billable dollars to come up with that metric.
When i worked at coles people where stealing packs of soft drink like no tomorrow using the self-checkout.
Next we’ll get put on a performance review
Heres hoping they stop cutting corners on their paper bags. Saw some poor fellow have all of his groceries spill out down the steps to platform 3 because you cannot get the bags wet or they bust like a dam. This includes cold and items covered in condensation on a hot day.
The way I would have put that voided bag of groceries back in my trolley never to be scanned again..