Reply to: DIY grocery shopping

[tim123]

I don't think that would work technically. What if one tag is sitting on top of another,

The system copes with that

or you have frozen stuff in tin foil packaging in the way?

More difficult, but I guess they will just dispense with tin foil packaging

tim

[Sysman]

It would be a lot easier if the items all had RFID tags, so you could just wave a wand over a trolley or basket and price the whole lot in one swell foop. That way you'd need only one checkout in even the largest store.

I don't think that would work technically. What if one tag is sitting on top of another, or you have frozen stuff in tin foil packaging in the way?

[OwlHoot]

It would be a lot easier if the items all had RFID tags, so you could just wave a wand over a trolley or basket and price the whole lot in one swell foop. That way you'd need only one checkout in even the largest store.

[pmeswani]

I've seen (but not used) self-service check-outs in Waitrose in operation many moons ago, where you carry a scanner as you shop and I think you also had to join the scheme or something. Anyway, there were only one or two tills dedicated to this quite unused self-service. Yesterday was the first time I've walked into a supermarket and all the tills were self-service, and there was no special scheme to join or anything to do differently from usual, except you do cashiers work. Are you telling me that what I'm describing was being done back in 2003?

It was introduced in Sainsbury's in Winchester in 1998. So it goes further back than what some people think.

[TimberWolf]

A week or so later they put some human operated tills out too.

[Sysman]

Watch out for them though, the last one I used short changed me by 10p. I mentioned it to one of the cashiers at the main tills and he said it happens quite a lot.

So it could actually be classed as a profit centre.

<mischief mode>
Methinks someone ought to tell the Daily Mail
</mischief mode>

[TimberWolf]

do you live in some rural backwater that has only just received this technology?

tim

Judging by the responses here, yes.

[BrilloPad]

Watch out for them though, the last one I used short changed me by 10p. I mentioned it to one of the cashiers at the main tills and he said it happens quite a lot.

It has happened to me 3 times : but would have happened whoever the cashier.

[Spacecadet]

I was at a tesco Metro this afternoon buying a couple of bits.

They should have had the automatic tills there.. would have been a lot quicker than the bunch of assorted idiots they had employed trying to "work" the tills

EDIT: I've seen the self service checkouts at B&Q as well. very handy

[tim123]

do you live in some rural backwater that has only just received this technology?

tim

[PRC1964]

I use self serve every day when buying my breakfast at tesco. I think they are great.

Watch out for them though, the last one I used short changed me by 10p. I mentioned it to one of the cashiers at the main tills and he said it happens quite a lot.

[BrilloPad]

I use self serve every day when buying my breakfast at tesco. I think they are great.

[Cyberman]

Personally, I find it quicker just to go to a normal cashier. By the time I've put my shopping on the conveyer, I am next to be served anyway. The problem I had with Tesco was that their self-service did not handle points, which seemed a bit stupid !!

[TimberWolf]

Welcome to 2003

I've seen (but not used) self-service check-outs in Waitrose in operation many moons ago, where you carry a scanner as you shop and I think you also had to join the scheme or something. Anyway, there were only one or two tills dedicated to this quite unused self-service. Yesterday was the first time I've walked into a supermarket and all the tills were self-service, and there was no special scheme to join or anything to do differently from usual, except you do cashiers work. Are you telling me that what I'm describing was being done back in 2003?

[Platypus]

Which comedian quipped "I went to the self-service checkout the other day, you know, the one with 2 checkout assistants ... "

Bill Bailey I think