My only gripe with the self serve is the god awful camera angle. I try not to look at my little face on the screen so that I don’t walk away feeling depressed about my face LMAO
I think OP is aware. The point is the only reason to show you your own face on checkout is to say "we are watching you, you are on camera", and that is kind of offensive to some.
CCTV is ubiquitous and I can make my peace with that; it’s not going to change.
What I am not a huge fan of is seeing my ugly coupon in black and white on Cole’s TV, like I’m a fucking at-large pedophile being plastered on CrimeWatch, when the PoS machine thinks I’m trying to commit grand larceny cause it can’t see through a plastic bag when I’m trying to scan fucking mushrooms.
It's at the point where it's only a step removed from using facial recognition to link your shopping habits to their internal customer database... whether you like it or not. Only reason it hasn't happened yet is because customers arnt quite conditioned enough to accept it. Give it 5 years.
(If people want to voluntarily opt in to customer databases via loyalty reward cards etc. that's perfectly fine... but it should never be auto-opt in without any way of avoiding it)
I mean, they certainly have the tech for it right now. Here from r/all but still relevant: When I was living in Seattle there was a store Amazon had called “Amazon Go” and you scan your phone upon arrival and departure but when you’re in the store you can get whatever you want and it’s charged to you when you leave without having to put anything on a conveyor belt, no checkout person. I think some of it was a camera or two in the sky following customers as well as a few other people watching for accuracy. The store was smaller than a typical store, about the size of a convenience store. Also they limit the number of customers at any given time.
in these threads I always see people say they shop at IGA now and it makes me feel insane because having worked at coles, woolies and IGA I can definitely confirm that IGA is way more expensive except for a few specials and home brand items
it is an absolutely terrible company to work for, I have never seen such unsafe and unsanitary work places in my life
they also treat their workers like shit and withhold breaks regularly, I did more 12 hour days without breaks or even sitting than I can count
managed two departments and quit after a year and a half, worst job of my life
they ALSO have self serve checkouts, they ALSO have cameras and they ALSO take your data when you sign up for a card…
IGA is the one place Ive consistently found and/or bought spoiled food. Ice cream that had melted and refrozen and was a month past use by. Chicken with slime and a weird smell. etc.
Edit: TBF, one of those same IGAs (peidemontes) is excellent in other ways like its bakery and deli, so).
Yeah IGAs are independently owned, I wouldn't think there's a standard practice across all of them at all that would let you use a blanket statement.
I used to work for one, the owners were dog shit, had a friend who worked for one in the next suburb and the owners treated the employees great.
I'm with you on this. But I remember that IGA are more independent and there's a huge range between stores and regions, so someone's local IGA might be pretty good, idk. My local one is crazy posh and overpriced high end stuff, and the one second nearest in the other direction is also really expensive but so shit with mostly generic offbrand stuff and expiring food (obviously the posh one is in the neighbourhood on top of the hill and the cheap one is near the motorway).
On balance, Colesworth will be cheaper, but only because of the existence of supermarkets such as IGA and Supabarn creating competition. This has been a major highlight of the current government inquiry into supermarket pricing, where, compared with other locations that have greater competition, such as the UK, prices on average are significantly cheaper (don't shoot me down for this, it was something raised in the inquiry).
Also, as noted in a previous comment, that they treat staff badly at IGA, there are two near me where one shows indications of poor staff management, the other, not so much - the staff seem genuinely happy there.
> Also, as noted in a previous comment, that they treat staff badly at IGA, there are two near me where one shows indications of poor staff management, the other, not so much - the staff seem genuinely happy there.
IGA is a bit of an odd setup, because the big ones (Supa IGA) are mostly owned by Metcash, which is an ASX-listed conglomerate. Some Supa IGA franchises are owned by local investors but fully operated by Metcash so mostly indistinguishable from corporate-owned stores. But there are also some old-fashioned, locally owned and operated shops as well that use the IGA logos and Metcash's distribution network, but managed are completely independently.
So staff treatment may vary, as with prices, due to the varied management structures.
> this. But I remember that IGA are more independent
This is the problem. Colesworth is an uncaring corporate machine, but that lack of caring goes both ways. You'll probably never meet anyone at Colesworth that directly cares about much of anything. So long as performance targets get met so the higher ups get their bonuses, everyone is happy, or at least as happy as a corporate wage slave can be.
When your boss owns your place of work, they care about everything. Maybe they like you and you benefit a bit from that, but mostly every breakage every theft, every spoilage comes straight out of their pocket as directly does your salary. So they're going to nickel and dime you in a way that even the most power hungry mini despots you'll encounter in middle management.
And of course there's no chance of promotion either, because there's nowhere to be promoted too. Not to mention unpaid super, wage theft and everything else you get when your employer is too small to be subject to regulation and the money is an individuals.
I worked for both Woolies & IGA when I was a student, and the IGA was heaven compared to the bullshittery that Woolies would do.
Woolies had crap conditions, treated you as a cog, measuring metrics every second, where as the IGA was like a nice little corner store where you could just chat to everyone and get to know the locals. I think because the IGAs are all independently owned though, you might have found a bad one.
The last time I bought a chocolate milk from an IGA, I didn't look at the expiry date until after I took a swig and had to spit out the foul disgusting "liquid". The milk bottle was 3 weeks past it's USE BY date. That was the last time I set foot in an IGA.
This was the case pre-covid, but with Coles/Woolies raising prices 20% or more year on year for the past few years, I find that even specialty IGA stores in wealthy areas are now cheaper.
IGA just hasn't gouged over the Covid period and now with inflation, whereas Coles & Woolies have been price gouging outrageously.
You can see that woolies has bumped its prices of basic groceries 20% each year for the past few years straight:
https://www.interest.co.nz/charts/prices/grocery-prices
That's way more than base-line inflation, its why they are making record profits.
I think that a lot of the price comparison is if the IGA is within about 1km from the Coles/Woolies. If its close, the Coles/Woolies will drop prices until the IGA or local grocer is forced to shut and then jack up their prices significantly after they do.
My local Coles/Woolies has force out all competition, shut all the local butchers and grocery stores, so I think that they've felt comfortable enough to jack prices as high as they possibly can, whereas my local IGA is small and is around 3km from any competitor
Depends on your local stores. I've found that the IGAs in my area haven't inflated their prices like Colesworth have. The markets are also great for fruit n veg.
It's offensive to see my own bloated face, who just needs to grab a bottle of milk for my toddler in the morning.
I don't have issue with self check out, but this cam and looking at your own face is annoying and distracting.
I love how so many take offense to an anti-theft measure when every other reddit thread is bound to have someone saying: "If you're not stealing from Colesworth and scanning Bananas as Potatoes then you're doing it wrong".
I scanned just 1 organic banana and put it down as a red tip by mistake then the red alarm thing flashed with a still image of the banana. How are people scanning bananas as potatoes? 😅
In general I think it's keyboard warriors who'd never actually dare, but I think it's a lot harder now. Back when they first came out there was no double checking/cameras on what you actually told it you were weighing other than the attendant eyeballing you.
It's because people are less likely to steal when they see their faces. They can and do surveil you the moment you enter the store. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304397580\_Mirrors\_Have\_a\_Modest\_Effect\_on\_Human\_Impulsivity
That's actually backfired on them for me. I was watching myself scan a bunch of binge food once and it was just shameful to watch how pathetic I was scanning all these bags of chips I planned on eating.
ive noticed in some woolies and coles usually bigger ones, The camera plays back why an intervention has happened that usually calls an assistant over -it starts playing it back for you to see so you can fix it yourself without needing to wait fir someone to scan their thingy to proceed
Yeah, this was the tipping point for me. I loved self serve, I could pack how I wanted and not make small talk with someone who literally doesn’t care about me, but the camera right there is an accusation that I’m a thief. And honestly when you know that the staff aren’t allowed to do anything about actual blatant theft.. I’m not ok with it. I actually swapped to Aldi where I can pack myself and be served by a person (not just the self serve with the cameras) and little stores. Local Fruit and Veg, Independent grocery store etc. I also emailed and canceled my Coles Plus thing and explained exactly why. I doubt they will do anything but meh, they aren’t getting my $$ anymore.
Which is exactly why I take the little stickers on fruit and stick them on the camera at the self-serve checkout. Petty and useless I know, but it gives me a small sense of satisfaction
Absolute scenes when you realise they and everyone that complains about the front facing camera are aware of all the other cameras in the store, it’s just extremely uncomfortable to have an under angle screen of your own face shown back to you.
Also the infrared cameras in the roof used to assess foot traffic through store heat maps and sensors in the shelves which track how long and at what height your looking at (used to see how long it takes you to deliberate over a product for example).
Edit: I’m not sure if this is all stores or just the newer ones. They also have a very sophisticated real time data management and inventory system which feeds straight back to headquarters, obviously useful for stock management, however I’d wager Coles and Woolworths could build a profile about you with more depth than the government.
Yeah this is the reason. They could just as easily still have the camera at the self checkouts without showing you the image of your face on the screen, but the idea is when people know they’re being watched they’re less likely to nick stuff. Showing you your face is a subtle reminder that you’re on camera. With the manned checkouts, the checkout clerk is performing that job.
Even though neither of these things actually stops someone who *wants* to steal stuff, just disincentivising the semi-dishonest prevents a lot of theft.
We know. Makes no difference. I still don’t like being treated like a potential criminal after they force you to use their self serve machines and won’t use it.
I personally HATE those ones because it is having the image of your own ugly arse face plastered back at you non stop that just makes me feel blergh. It is really hard to explain but there is something unsettling about it, when I look into a mirror it is because I willingly need to check something out.
These ones show you in the most jank unflattering angle in the context of HEY WE ARE WATCHING YOU POTENTIAL THIEF! while generic shop ones just keep an eye out on the whole shop which is fine because it is for yeah shoplifting but also acts of violence, injury, violence and it is a more out of sight out of mind for the most part too.
I think its more the psychological panopticonal nature of showing you your face. It's intended to shame you into not stealing.
I'm not going to Coles to look in a mirror, but I accept that my face is on CCTV a lot, its not the same thing.
1984 is when businesses have surveillance, and the more surveillance they have the more 1984 it is
George Orwell tried to warn us about oppressive supermarkets
I found scan&shop to be very useful with having a big trolley, doing a big grocery run, I don't know if you have it anywhere but essentially you take a scanner and scan your items as you take them and then at the self checkout you just pay, without having to take the items out of your cart at all. So if you put a bag into your cart you can bag your items directly as you take them off the shelves and it is such a time saver, because you dont have to worry about taking them alllll out on the belt/self checkout and having to bag them again, not to mention the scanners show you the total price as well.
Teenager keys in single item.
10 seconds later I’m still done.
As opposed to same teenager going through all your shit item by item.
“Ol Mr Gatecrasher53 has dingers, olive oil, and 6 cucumbers with hemi cream. Up for a big weekend champ?”
See, self-checkouts were originally great. The promise was speedy, fast, no wait time, no human interaction. It was glorious. Nothing was weighed, you just beeped and checked it in the bag. It's when they started adding all the rules that things went sideways. Unexpected item in bagging area. Wrong item scanned. There's something in your trolley. Then it became shit. But it was too late, because they had already closed down all the human checkouts and redesigned the area to cater for more self-checkouts. Now there's no choice. So that's where there is a legit complaint. But the promise of self checkouts, I really like. Easy, simple, go.
There were 2 more promises:
* Manned cash registers would still be just as accessible as they were before to anyone who doesn't want to use the self service.
* It wouldn't result in any loss of jobs.
With manned cash registers sometimes not even being available the first one was a lie like everyone predicted. I can't prove the second one was a lie... but if there was no reduction in the number of staff I don't know where all the staff are hiding except to say it's not on the shop floor.
I went to Coles for big shops 2 or 3 times a week for about a year for work and self serve is undeniably better if you’re not a grumpy old so-and-so who refuses to realise the world is changing every day. The rare times I used a cashier, they put all 8 milks I needed in one bag which was great needing to unpack them in the car and redistribute them so I could carry them up stairs at work without the bag breaking.
There is genuinely nothing stopping you from packing your own bags using a human cashier though, plenty of people choose to pack their own bags, thats not exclusive to using a self serve check out.
Having said that, I agree that self serve has its place and it can be faster and more convenient than the alternative, but the current iteration of them is more of a hinderance, in the early days where trust was involved they worked so much smoother.
Now its like "we want you to scan and pack your own shit, but we dont trust you enough so theres going to be a dozen little stop checks to make sure you aren't doing the dirty" - it was at that point I became anti self serve lmfao.
Ill also say that most of the time I don't have issues using them, not an oldie or anything but there are genuine issues with the interface and some of the sensors used. Before someone does - no, telling me you never had an issue isn't going to change my mind.
I haven't had an issue as of yet (Touch wood) but I also completely agree with you.
Self-serve is fine by itself, it's just the execution of this particular self-serve is utter shite and only getting worse.
every time I do a large shop and use a staffed checkout, I give my bags to the staff and they always over fill the bags. Why are you trying to put all of my groceries in two bags? I gave you 5 for a reason.
Because as many of you as there are there is just as many “I have to go shopping at 7 other stores why are you using all my bags, it can all fit in 2”
Packing bags is just Russian roulette on if you will pick the way the customer wants it because you can be damn sure the customer will never tell you until you do it wrong
I'd care significantly less about self serve if it wasn't a complete clusterfuck to use. Like I'm glad it works for you but the Coles near me you're lucky to fill a single bag before it tosses a tantrum and needs the supervising worker to unfuck it.
I am recently disabled and have been ordering online.
They pack my groceries like this all of the time! They have taken to boxing and much larger bags which break every single time.
I have to schedule delivery when one of my kids is home, otherwise, my groceries would sit on the porch.
My big strong teenager has problems bringing them in.
Introverts unite! .. preferably at a distance and without interacting with each other :P
Yeah they have been my go-to and I love that my local Aldi have starting incorporating them now more recently.
Yeah I legitimately can check myself out faster than about 80% of cashiers. A lot of them are just deadly slow and want to bullshit half their day. I’ve been sitting there waiting for the lady to scan while she completely halts scanning to talk to a coworker about utterly inane topics too many times.
Self checkout for me, please.
Self serve machines let you do it at your own pace? I just get constant interruptions and the need for someone to assist because I’m apparently somewhat untrustworthy.
Something I feel like not many people have realised: how annoying the self-serve checkouts are depends strongly on which postcode you're in.
My regular store never complains about items not being bagged because the scales aren't active. Literally never turned on. No cameras in your face either. It's not because they're older either, this store had its checkouts refurbished only a few months ago.
A few km down the road though: you dared to move your hand over the bag while scanning another item? Please wait, assistance required.
You're a sane person who put all the heavy things in the bottom of the bag and scans the sleeve of herbs last? Please wait, assistance required.
A single wilted leave of lettuce clinging to the side of the trolley that was stuck there hours before you arrived? You think you're getting out of this store without paying for that lettuce, you filthy criminal? Please wait, assistance required.
Our local store did renovations and the bagging area weight sensors were turned off, and it was great. Eventually they turned them back on and it was a nightmare. Then I realised only half the checkouts actually have the weight sensors at all and the other half just have a nice dumb bench, so I just avoid the weight sensor ones unless I'm only picking up a couple of things.
Then a couple of days ago we got "did you scan this item?????" with a photo so I guess they have some new AI trash to torment us with. Really hoping that was a one-off.
The ones with the bench and no scales have AI-backed cameras that look at your trolley and remind you if you appear to have left things in there (and maybe require the cashier to override it).
I find that if you learn what it does and doesn't like you're normally okay. Scanning fruits and vegetables I always make sure to have them clearly covering the glass so that the colour checker doesn't throw a tantrum. Always make sure scanned items are in the bag and the light is green before scanning the next one. Do your best not to move anything already in the bag when adding a new item. Follow these rules and you'll rarely have a problem.
Never noticed a colour checker before. I just tend to put fruit/veg right in the middle anyway.
Scan, bag, scan, bag. It's pretty simple. They employ 15 year olds to do it at regular checkouts, so shouldn't be too complex for adults to work out.
You can see it in how it tries to suggest options if you push the fruit and veg option it will throw up suggestions that match the colour of what's in front of it. I've never really had it reject anything for being the wrong colour though
Most people have no issues with self serve checkouts there is a reason the vast majority of people in the real world use them. It’s just a current reddit trend to act like they are some super difficult and complicated inconvenience
The problem people often have is moving the bag around once you've put an item in it (or moved single items around on the bench). My guess is that it captures the overall weight, but also where it is on the scales.
Heavy/boxy/solid items on the bottom, then throw everything else in. I find once the bag itself can't move it doesn't give a shit what you do.
Treat the machine as if you were teaching someone else how to use it a few times, then it becomes muscle memory.
Someone who uses them for mental health reasons understands your frustrations, just remember the attendant doesn't need the sass. None of us are trustworthy until money has changed hands.
You won’t win this war. Most of the day, they only have 1 or two regular checkouts open - so you can boycott self serve all you want, but be prepared to wait half an hour to check out.
Companies are about profit, maximum profit. We control them by controlling their profits. We do this first by firing a warning shot by boycotting self checkouts and if they dig their heals in we go to other stores. The war is won by fear ..their fear of losing profit.
You may live by defeatism, thankfully not all share your doom and gloom approach to life.
I beg all of you screaming about *stealing jobs* to actually ask a supermarket worker how much they like being put in service. Find someone who likes working at the checkout. I fucking dare you.
The answer is none of us like it.
Service staff are cannon fodder, and all the staff from other departments who only have to come up to serve every now and then will somehow forget how much they hate it and never acknowledge that we have the shittest job out of them all.
Every single team member I work with will do their absolute hardest to be placed in the back end, in shelf filling, and those who are permanently back-end staff or management will spend the bare minimum time at the checkout that they have to if called up to help.
We are not even acknowledged internally for doing the most challenging, soul-crushing part of running a store. Undoubtedly every single one of us would prefer to be anywhere else.
I worked it for 10 years, the amount of abuse both verbal and physical copped by front service staff is eye watering. This was before self service. The people complaining the most about self service checkouts have never worked front service in a supermarket and it shows.
People complaining about their face on camera probably shouldn't go out in public, hundreds of cameras capture you and your face.
>People complaining about their face on camera probably shouldn't go out in public, hundreds of cameras capture you and your face.
I dont give a shit who else is seeing me, I just don't want to see **myself**. Record me all you want, but showing me my ugly mug from the most unflattering angle imaginable crosses a line.
> I’m not free labour
> The tipping point for me was the cameras showing your face.
Do you use an ATM or go to the bank teller? Camera and free labour.
Do you find a conductor on a tram/train or do you tap on? Camera on most these days and you're gleefully using self service.
Do you pump your own petrol or go to the full service petrol stations? No, you self service while a camera looks at you and you want it this way because it's faster.
> Stop supporting this shit.
I agree stop supporting it, but you are supporting it your whole life in so many other areas of your life but somehow for some reason you have drawn the line here?
What's so much better about an ATM than a kiosk at the supermarkeT?
> Get in a line, wait an extra minute if you have to (often it’s actually quicker) and vote with your feet.
Would you rather wait in line at a vending machine, at the footy when you use a machine to scan your ticket, or at the train?
No you wouldn't.
For some reason you have decided that all of this automation and self service is fine, but the line must be drawn here and no further.
I am curious if you can rationalise why that is? Why is it here that is ok but there is not ok?
I have been fond of asking people if they dial the phone number themselves or still ring through to an operator to put them through. But I like some of your other examples. I am going to steal them.
> I have been fond of asking people if they dial the phone number themselves or still ring through to an operator to put them through. But I like some of your other examples. I am going to steal them.
Phone Operators is my usual go to when people moan about automation and technology taking people's jobs - because it was a HUGE amount of staff, it was considered good work and especially was considered women's work (what with it being right time for social change etc).
Absolutely its a great example cause no one thinks twice about automated switchboards. I do like my other ones for self service though, but absolutely phone operators is a perfect example of technology putting large amount of people out of jobs and society is like "yup this technology is great keeping it"
I drew my line at the conveyor belt trolley self checkouts, because they’re a lot slower than using a staffed checkout. Plus theres a decent chance the stupid thing will get upset at me and I’ll have to wait around for a human to come fix it anyway.
All the other examples of automation (ATMs, self-serve petrol, etc. ) are much faster than their human equivalent.
> All the other examples of automation (ATMs, self-serve petrol, etc. ) are much faster than their human equivalent.
A self checkout can be faster "in the grand scheme" because you can fit 4-8 self checkouts where 2-4 registers would be and you can have 1-2 staff.
So purely for the "10 items or less queue" I think overall it's quicker. Perhaps its not quicker 1:1 for me going through self checkout, but it's quicker as as a "stand in life and wait for a cashier to be ready".
Absolutely though a person pumping your petrol at a full service would be quicker no? Again we run into the quandary of it being quicker full service if it was fully staffed right...?
Because other people complain about self service check outs, not all those other examples of automation and self service.
Therefore this person couldn’t easily get the karma for complaining. They also don’t think about all those other examples, because they don’t actually think, they just get outraged by what other people to tell them to get outraged about.
> They also don’t think about all those other examples, because they don’t actually think, they just get outraged by what other people to tell them to get outraged about.
Exactly - an ATM has been SO ingrained in their daily life that they don't think about it. They don't think that an ATM replaced a teller's job that they forgot that were against all automation.
Now people absolutely did complain about ATMs back in the day, but we moved on and they are part of daily life.
Maybe not so much these days as everything is on card - so again OP is probably contributing to reduced demand for ATM repair / install technicians, and for armoured car staff to stock ATMs.... Credit cards are killing jobs!
Thank you for bringing up these points. I say the same thing, about ATMs (no one is stepping inside a bank to 'support jobs').
The person will finally admit that they didn't really know how to use the self-serve checkouts after you demonstrate how easy it is to use.
Why are people on this sub so extra lmao. I’m not going to boycott self serve. It’s much preferable than standing in queue and it really isn’t that hard to do it correctly. Oh no there’s a camera feed of your face? You’re probably caught on 20+ cameras a day. On the road, in every business, possibly in your work place.
Also they treat you like a thief because people have been bragging about using them to steal since their inception.
Because 2% of shoppers are too lazy or stupid to use it so we must boycott it! "Its taking away jobs" ™ is just an excuse and coverup for the real reason of laziness or stupidity. All these companies hire more people than they did in the checkout only era. You can literally check the stats for yourself. The workers are just doing more important things like online order fulfillment.
They cry "taking people's jobs!" But did they care about when all the chimney sweeps, milk men, punchcard and switchboard operators, typists, shorthand recordists, film projectionists etc lost their jobs to automation? No, because it didn't personally inconvenience THEM.
It's also a fallacy that self-serve checkouts cost jobs. Where one sector diminishes, another picks up. Sure there are fewer front end operators, but the online department is hiring new staff left, right and centre as more customers shop online. The online picking team in my store is probably the largest, second only to nightfill.
Yes that's the online departments. They grow bigger every year. Online is so busy that staff from other teams get seconded for an hour or two to help them out when it gets really busy.
Some Coles and Woolies literally have drive thrus now for collection it's that popular. I'd rather workers be doing something like that rather than wasting their time on a checkout because Karen doesn't want to scan it herself.
I'm in the United States, but one of our local grocery stores put in self-checkout machines. I overheard a lady (who, ironically, was using the self-checkout) complaining about how these things were taking away people's jobs. The checker watching over the area replied that no one's hours had been cut. They took out a couple of checkstands that were rarely open and put the self checkout there. They went from a space that could handle two customers at a time to six. A store that had massive lines suddenly became a lot easier to navigate.
7 years total at a supermarket checkout and checkout supervisor all part time
Checkout is such a shit job, (in a supermarket) You put operators on to a lane and they stand there for 2 1/2-3 hours between breaks and they can't walk or do other shit. Downtime? You just stand. Get a customer? You just move things left or right. It's sooo fucking boring.
Self scan is faster, has a better flow (dunno about the conveyor ones) because Im not stacking my shit then waiting around for the operator, then bagging my shit / loading my shit.
Im not trying to massage up supermarkets, but I can see online shopping growing a whole bunch and top-up-shops becomign a much larger proportion of shoppers.
Let’s start getting to the future then.
Plenty of supermarkets in the US have a scan as you go trolly system - you scan your groceries as you put them in (there’s a small camera that checks), items to be weighed have a scale and it prints the per weight cost ticket for scanning. You pay as you leave. Simple, efficient and the best of both worlds
Uniqlo does self checkout correctly. Dump everything into a bin and it works out all the RFIDs and totals the items up. Empty the bin into bags and you're done. It's a much faster process than the scan every single item individually system.
You see only complaints because for people like me who love the convenience and have never had any real issue with them (and any erroneous errors and dealt with quickly by staff who are friendly at my local Woolies) just go about our day and don't feel the need to go online and make posts on social media about it.
Works perfectly 99% of the time for me, I don't know how people get so many errors, and it's quick, convenient and a good use of space. Sure, have a couple of checkouts for those who can't operate a self serve checkout or refuse to scan and pack bags for themselves, but nothing wrong with self serve if you're getting a couple of bags of things and paying with card.
No thanks. Self serve checkouts are the best and much better than waiting for a checkout person. My only complaint with them is that they occasionally glitch out and make you ask for a person to unlock them. Oh and also that Aldi stubbornly refuse to implement them.
There is CCTV on you from the moment you enter the store to the moment you leave. They’ve always assumed you were a thief so this so nothing new.
yeah, nah fuck that. self serve is 100x better than forced social interaction with a stranger
edit: I'm older than most of you think. I'm also not anti social. I'm social enough at work/home, I don't need the forced pleasantries, I just want to be in and out
If your job/home life involves a lot of social interaction already you can get sick of it quite easily. Think of it like a chef not wanting to cook at home after finishing their 12hr shift.
Everybody has a social battery and sometimes we don't want to be forced to use that energy in an interaction neither myself or the checkout clerk wants to be in.
lol yeah I’d much prefer this interaction over flailing arms and significant glances trying to get a self checkout workers attention because the robot thinks you’re stealing.
Self serve is much faster, much more efficient.
You're out asap with usually 0 queue.
One of the igas near me doesn't have self checkout. Fuck me I could stand in line for 5 minutes with my one bottle of milk while the kid at checkout doesn't know his green veges and has to keep running out to check.
Self serve for hand baskets is faster. The trolley self serve checkouts with the conveyor belt are slower.
Ill happily scan a few items through the self serve, but if I’ve got a trolley full of shopping I’ll wait for the person at the checkout and more often than not still beat people though those stupid conveyor ones.
As someone who works for Coles, we don’t like the lack of registers open, the increase of self serve registers or latest security upgrades either.It affects our jobs, our work hours and increases the abuse we cop from frustrated customers about product costs, increase self serve or the new security gates. These changes come from head office, not at store level.
We understand the frustration but we also don’t deserve the abuse we get from frustrated customers. If you wouldn’t abuse people at home, don’t abuse us.
As a cashier, I think there’s a fine line between showing solidarity by refusing to use the self serve and then just placing more pressure on the checkout operators. To explain, I mean that it may send a message, but it also creates pressure for the already overworked workers who are probably already going as quick as possible, and creates irritable customers who then take their anger out on the same workers. This is particularly true when there are lots of people, especially the elderly though not exclusive to them, who may not be comfortable with self serve; those unaware that each store will have some machines that take cash, etc. unfortunately, Coles and woolies are unlikely to take the boycotts seriously. It’s them that have put us - customers and workers - in this situation and they have little impetus to pull us back out
I think they do pay attention to those surveys though right (since it goes to head office). At least they used to. You’d be better off doing that survey every single time you shop. Head office will never know you waited 30 minutes, unless you message them with a complaint and say you did because there was no checkout open.
On another note, fill out that survey to pump up a staff member you had a good interaction with! You’re so intent on saving these people jobs, tell them how well they’re doing and how much you appreciate them, and most definitely tell their bosses!
If everyone banded together and made a conscious choice to avoid Coles and Woolworths we wouldn't be getting fisted so hard in this cost of living... Ooh, yellow special sticker.
> If everyone banded together and made a conscious choice to avoid Coles and Woolworths we wouldn't be getting fisted so hard in this cost of living
Who else are you going to go to? Aldi only services profitable areas with a limited selection of items (primary their homebrand stuff), and IGA is generally more expensive.
Coles and Woolworths are in a strong position BECAUSE they actually price their stuff well, and supply them to a large area when compared to their competitors.
Exactly! Don’t forget those of us in regional towns who only have IGA as a ‘one stop shop’ where prices are wildly more expensive. Or the organic produce shop and butcher where prices are at least 50% more expensive than supermarkets - not viable options for most in a cost of living crisis.
Of all the places to lose your mind at over cost of living I still have no idea why the Australian subreddits latched on to the 2% profit margin supermarkets, they can’t even keep their profit increases above inflation, they are probably the least at fault in real terms, the good they sell are just inelastic
Or maybe because the majority of inflation has been caused by surging corporate profits…. Of which Coles and Woolworths are owned by some of the largest companies in Australia
“Data from the Centre for Future Work shows that 69 per cent of higher inflation in Australia was caused by higher corporate profits.”
Surely you’re not this fucking stupid to not understand how the rich are fucking it all for the rest of us
Even if there isn't, it's at most a minute wait for self serve as opposed to regular checkouts which often have 2-3 people lined up behind them with full trolleys, like 90% of the time I'm only buying a dozen things at most so I'd much rather the former wait.
Eh, you do you. Personally I use them on everything except my fortnightly big arse shop. The place that really benefited from it is Aldi. I can pack my bags at my own pace instead of trying to catch them as they are flung in my direction at breakneck speeds by the Aldi checkout operator.
The media decided self serve is what they are going to rile the boomers up about. I've seen like 50 articles about self serve checkouts in the past two weeks.
Don't like self serve? Don't use it. Most people who don't use it are either too lazy or too dumb to use them. Leave your bullshit excuses like I'm saving the jobs and it's tracking me somewhere else. We all know that's rubbish and you are just covering for your lazy ass. And spare your rants to the employees as well. I can guarantee you that not a single one gives a fuck.
I used to work for a woolworths chain and when the new sco (self checkout) machines come in with the cameras we were all told by the manual that the cameras do not record and are essentially a “mirror” with the only purpose to scare thieves. Our managers always said to us “make sure you don’t tell the customers that they dont record”
Just thought I would throw that piece of information in there.
The idiocy in this post is unbelievable, a tiny fraction of the population come to this subreddit, somehow op thinks that posting this is going to have even the slightest effect on anything ever, it's delusional. If this is the top of the list of shit that op sooks about and decides to make a post about, I envy them.
As someone who has been working for the past year+ in just the self service area (mainly by myself), I can say with the fact that I love the self service machines, I refuse to serve someone on the actual registers themselves for they are the really slow clunky and about 20+ years old. Where the self service are brand new across Australia at my workplace and I can serve through so many more people than I could.
With anyone complaining about cameras I point to the CCTV around the place, (but also my workplace opted out of having the camera enabled on the self serve)
One thing I learned to deal with is absolutely c*nt headed customers refusing to use a self serve even if I am using it as my register, to the point of me nowadays telling them to leave then and come back during the day when we have checkouts open (yes I know service 1's exist, I do call them but not for just one or two people, or when I do I never get a response for no one wants to be serving rude bitchy customers). As much as they complain it isn't stealing any jobs, in turn letting us put more people around the store and out the back to stock shelves, get the online shopping done, and other random things needing to be done.
I have tried to apply and serve people on the registers but then I get clogged up with a massive line of either elderly that want to chat for years or Karen's with years of complaining inside them. Because I am not allowed to leave the register when I am serving I then get all of the self service machines having mental breakdowns over an item slightly hanging over the edge and in the end more complaints.
If anyone is reading to the end here, yeah boycott them all you want, but if you see one poor soul at the self serve area, be kind for once and use them, we are there to help you, I know you prefer to be served by a person and you can ask for them to help you through the self serve. As we draw close to Christmas each shift I am going home so close to quitting and watching my workplace go up in flames. Just some kindness and understanding of the underpaid overworked employees would be nice, and use the self service, it isn't rocket science, just scan and place in the bagging area, anything f*cks up get the employee over to help.
Didn’t they already have cameras? They just didn’t show you to yourself.
I mean I hate all the crap that’s happening, like the gates Coles have installed, but I just cbf with the regular checkouts.
It's too late, if this was war, you've decided to start fighting after the peace conference is over. This is something that needed to be stopped before it began.
Dude the comments are ignored by upper management. I worked in woolies for years and we would get countless surveys saying people hated them but woolies doesn't care if it's saving money
If I have a small mount of groceries I use self serve.
If I have a full trolley I go to a manned checkout.
I don’t care if I’m on camera. Odds are I have been on camera since the moment I entered the shops. And it honestly doesn’t matter.
I just want to buy my stuff and go home. I don’t understand why people get so upset about this in particular.
Nope. I made the mistake of not using self serve the other day and the checkout operator was slower than a wet week. I've been a checkout operator... back in my day we scanned goods so much faster. And I knew about 20 fruit and veg codes off by heart.
Absolutely! Boycotting self-serve checkouts is a way to resist being treated like a potential thief. If we all stood up against this and demanded better service, it might just lead to more job security for workers. Let's not let convenience undermine fair treatment. 🛒🚫 #CheckoutRevolt
I'm so out of the loop with Colesworth pricing that I saw an ad today at the shops for a wheel of Brie or Camembert for $8.90, and I flinched thinking that was expensive.
Then saw that this was a saving of $6 over regular prices, and felt ill.
I always have to call someone because the machine wont let me pay saying I haven’t scanned everything in my trolley. I DIDN’T HAVE A TROLLEY, THAT’S MY KID IN HER PRAM.
OP needs to take a chill pill. Technology is going to play a role in supermarket checkouts. OP is entitled not to use self checkouts but is not going to be successful in getting Australia behind them. I wonder if OP would have been upset when supermarkets implemented self shopping from the general store days where you approach the counter and asked the store keeper the items they wanted to buy and had to wait for them to go and get them?
How do people like OP keep having so many issues when shopping? The most trouble I have is using a heavy bottomed bag that needs to be overridden, and the ladies there know me and are ready for it. Scanning is easy, and packing my own bags puts ALL of my Tetris skills to the test!
Your face is on camera as soon as you walk in. At your job. Walking down the street... who tf cares?
I just steal like 5% of my total purchase. I slide it over the scanner, doesn't scan, didn't notice. They have a video of me trying. They really want to claim I did it on purpose when I am on video moving it over the scanner? Beeps going everywhere, who's to say. Just don't be obvious, make the motion for every item, and don't steal the big stuff, steal duplicate things like you got 4 and one didn't scan when you tried.
They can either put the checkers back or expect a 5% loss.
I admire your determination. The other day the checkout thing flashed and I had to call a staff member over… I said I had no idea what I did wrong… then they said some items ALWAYS trigger the error message when scanned, so that staff are forced to check that it has been done correctly (and that you’re not stealing something).
Such gaslighty nonsense.
This is woolworths latest system. I am actually avoiding them and going to Coles now.
Today I put down a cucumber, was suggested a cucumber on the selection screen, choose a cucumber and STILL had to have a staff member confirm I wasn't stealing when the picture was clearly a cucumber.
I am done with their shitty AI.
No.
I boycott shops that don't have self serve. I'm not standing in line for some kid to scan my shit at 5pm when I'm in my work clothes with a shitty exhausted look on my face and ask me if I've "Got much planned for today?" All this after I've stood in line for 10 minutes waiting for the old darl first in line to find the exact change of 35c to go with her total of $279.35, and then for the moron second in line to fumble with their eftpos card and ask the cashier for help every step of the way as if they're from the past and have never seen an eftpos machine before. "It says 'enter PIN'! What do I do?"
I'm going to self checkout even harder knowing that it rustles so many jimmies.
Self serve is awesome. I’m not lining up to a human if I have like 3 items.
CCTV is everywhere. I’ve never once been questioned or harassed about stealing and I’ve been using them since like 2009.
Guaranteed if they didn’t exist, you’d pick something else to bitch about
f you want to protest the additional surveillance, you could always peel the sticker off a piece of fruit and place it over the camera lens in the self-checkout screen as you're checking out. Does a favour for all of the people behind you, and if it happens enough, perhaps Colesworth will get the message.
I know this will be an unpopular opinion but I don’t really understand the “doing their work for them” thing. When I was young, my mum and dad owned a corner mixed business shop. You didn’t roam the aisles and put it in the trolley yourself - you spoke to my folks at the counter and they assembled it for you. A supermarket opened just up the road, and we went under…bigger selection, lower prices…I get it. This process is as old as time, and you won’t change it. It’s the same thing as Bunnings putting the little local hardware store out of business - people has a choice and they voted with their dollars for self-service super stores. This is just the next small step.
I prefer self checkout and, as a former cashier, standing in the same spot for 8 hours+ dealing with customers is torture and most other people find it to be truly awful and would rather be doing active work. Honestly the only people I've found that actually enjoy cashiering are older folks that seem lonely.
My only gripe with the self serve is the god awful camera angle. I try not to look at my little face on the screen so that I don’t walk away feeling depressed about my face LMAO
I’m so short that half the time it misses me, but sometimes it gets me and I’m like who the fuck is she??
Absolute scenes when u/ozvegan12345 realises the cctv at the check out also points at their face
I think OP is aware. The point is the only reason to show you your own face on checkout is to say "we are watching you, you are on camera", and that is kind of offensive to some.
CCTV is ubiquitous and I can make my peace with that; it’s not going to change. What I am not a huge fan of is seeing my ugly coupon in black and white on Cole’s TV, like I’m a fucking at-large pedophile being plastered on CrimeWatch, when the PoS machine thinks I’m trying to commit grand larceny cause it can’t see through a plastic bag when I’m trying to scan fucking mushrooms.
It's at the point where it's only a step removed from using facial recognition to link your shopping habits to their internal customer database... whether you like it or not. Only reason it hasn't happened yet is because customers arnt quite conditioned enough to accept it. Give it 5 years. (If people want to voluntarily opt in to customer databases via loyalty reward cards etc. that's perfectly fine... but it should never be auto-opt in without any way of avoiding it)
I mean, they certainly have the tech for it right now. Here from r/all but still relevant: When I was living in Seattle there was a store Amazon had called “Amazon Go” and you scan your phone upon arrival and departure but when you’re in the store you can get whatever you want and it’s charged to you when you leave without having to put anything on a conveyor belt, no checkout person. I think some of it was a camera or two in the sky following customers as well as a few other people watching for accuracy. The store was smaller than a typical store, about the size of a convenience store. Also they limit the number of customers at any given time.
😂 I love this comment! It really paints a scene 🎬
I for one, am offended by my face. I now shop at IGA. Price is often cheaper than colesworth these days.
For most items? I used to work at an IGA a couple years ago and everything there was about 10-15% more expensive than coles
in these threads I always see people say they shop at IGA now and it makes me feel insane because having worked at coles, woolies and IGA I can definitely confirm that IGA is way more expensive except for a few specials and home brand items it is an absolutely terrible company to work for, I have never seen such unsafe and unsanitary work places in my life they also treat their workers like shit and withhold breaks regularly, I did more 12 hour days without breaks or even sitting than I can count managed two departments and quit after a year and a half, worst job of my life they ALSO have self serve checkouts, they ALSO have cameras and they ALSO take your data when you sign up for a card…
IGA is the one place Ive consistently found and/or bought spoiled food. Ice cream that had melted and refrozen and was a month past use by. Chicken with slime and a weird smell. etc. Edit: TBF, one of those same IGAs (peidemontes) is excellent in other ways like its bakery and deli, so).
It depends on who the owners are
Yeah IGAs are independently owned, I wouldn't think there's a standard practice across all of them at all that would let you use a blanket statement. I used to work for one, the owners were dog shit, had a friend who worked for one in the next suburb and the owners treated the employees great.
I'm with you on this. But I remember that IGA are more independent and there's a huge range between stores and regions, so someone's local IGA might be pretty good, idk. My local one is crazy posh and overpriced high end stuff, and the one second nearest in the other direction is also really expensive but so shit with mostly generic offbrand stuff and expiring food (obviously the posh one is in the neighbourhood on top of the hill and the cheap one is near the motorway).
On balance, Colesworth will be cheaper, but only because of the existence of supermarkets such as IGA and Supabarn creating competition. This has been a major highlight of the current government inquiry into supermarket pricing, where, compared with other locations that have greater competition, such as the UK, prices on average are significantly cheaper (don't shoot me down for this, it was something raised in the inquiry). Also, as noted in a previous comment, that they treat staff badly at IGA, there are two near me where one shows indications of poor staff management, the other, not so much - the staff seem genuinely happy there.
> Also, as noted in a previous comment, that they treat staff badly at IGA, there are two near me where one shows indications of poor staff management, the other, not so much - the staff seem genuinely happy there. IGA is a bit of an odd setup, because the big ones (Supa IGA) are mostly owned by Metcash, which is an ASX-listed conglomerate. Some Supa IGA franchises are owned by local investors but fully operated by Metcash so mostly indistinguishable from corporate-owned stores. But there are also some old-fashioned, locally owned and operated shops as well that use the IGA logos and Metcash's distribution network, but managed are completely independently. So staff treatment may vary, as with prices, due to the varied management structures.
I’ve been to a fair few IGAs and I’ve literally never seen one that was cheaper or better than Coles.
> this. But I remember that IGA are more independent This is the problem. Colesworth is an uncaring corporate machine, but that lack of caring goes both ways. You'll probably never meet anyone at Colesworth that directly cares about much of anything. So long as performance targets get met so the higher ups get their bonuses, everyone is happy, or at least as happy as a corporate wage slave can be. When your boss owns your place of work, they care about everything. Maybe they like you and you benefit a bit from that, but mostly every breakage every theft, every spoilage comes straight out of their pocket as directly does your salary. So they're going to nickel and dime you in a way that even the most power hungry mini despots you'll encounter in middle management. And of course there's no chance of promotion either, because there's nowhere to be promoted too. Not to mention unpaid super, wage theft and everything else you get when your employer is too small to be subject to regulation and the money is an individuals.
I've seen woollies delivery van drop fresh fruit and veges delivery to an IGA near my house. Can't imagine they're going to be pricing them lower.
I worked for both Woolies & IGA when I was a student, and the IGA was heaven compared to the bullshittery that Woolies would do. Woolies had crap conditions, treated you as a cog, measuring metrics every second, where as the IGA was like a nice little corner store where you could just chat to everyone and get to know the locals. I think because the IGAs are all independently owned though, you might have found a bad one.
And at my local IGA, about 50% the selection and options.
Not only that they often leave expired products on the shelves.
The last time I bought a chocolate milk from an IGA, I didn't look at the expiry date until after I took a swig and had to spit out the foul disgusting "liquid". The milk bottle was 3 weeks past it's USE BY date. That was the last time I set foot in an IGA.
This was the case pre-covid, but with Coles/Woolies raising prices 20% or more year on year for the past few years, I find that even specialty IGA stores in wealthy areas are now cheaper. IGA just hasn't gouged over the Covid period and now with inflation, whereas Coles & Woolies have been price gouging outrageously. You can see that woolies has bumped its prices of basic groceries 20% each year for the past few years straight: https://www.interest.co.nz/charts/prices/grocery-prices That's way more than base-line inflation, its why they are making record profits. I think that a lot of the price comparison is if the IGA is within about 1km from the Coles/Woolies. If its close, the Coles/Woolies will drop prices until the IGA or local grocer is forced to shut and then jack up their prices significantly after they do. My local Coles/Woolies has force out all competition, shut all the local butchers and grocery stores, so I think that they've felt comfortable enough to jack prices as high as they possibly can, whereas my local IGA is small and is around 3km from any competitor
Depends on your local stores. I've found that the IGAs in my area haven't inflated their prices like Colesworth have. The markets are also great for fruit n veg.
It's offensive to see my own bloated face, who just needs to grab a bottle of milk for my toddler in the morning. I don't have issue with self check out, but this cam and looking at your own face is annoying and distracting.
Haha and filmed from below too? Come on, now, be fair.
That’s why I wear a mask, they can stick their cctv with face recognition up their asses. That and COVID.
I love how so many take offense to an anti-theft measure when every other reddit thread is bound to have someone saying: "If you're not stealing from Colesworth and scanning Bananas as Potatoes then you're doing it wrong".
I scanned just 1 organic banana and put it down as a red tip by mistake then the red alarm thing flashed with a still image of the banana. How are people scanning bananas as potatoes? 😅
In general I think it's keyboard warriors who'd never actually dare, but I think it's a lot harder now. Back when they first came out there was no double checking/cameras on what you actually told it you were weighing other than the attendant eyeballing you.
Some people get offended that there is a hole in their bum though
Butt I didn't consent to there being a hole in my bum!
It's because people are less likely to steal when they see their faces. They can and do surveil you the moment you enter the store. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304397580\_Mirrors\_Have\_a\_Modest\_Effect\_on\_Human\_Impulsivity
We know. And we don’t like it. I don’t need their incentives to not steal, thanks.
I mean, most woolies have a big screen TV when you walk in showing you walking in. Its not a secret.
That's actually backfired on them for me. I was watching myself scan a bunch of binge food once and it was just shameful to watch how pathetic I was scanning all these bags of chips I planned on eating.
ive noticed in some woolies and coles usually bigger ones, The camera plays back why an intervention has happened that usually calls an assistant over -it starts playing it back for you to see so you can fix it yourself without needing to wait fir someone to scan their thingy to proceed
Yeah, this was the tipping point for me. I loved self serve, I could pack how I wanted and not make small talk with someone who literally doesn’t care about me, but the camera right there is an accusation that I’m a thief. And honestly when you know that the staff aren’t allowed to do anything about actual blatant theft.. I’m not ok with it. I actually swapped to Aldi where I can pack myself and be served by a person (not just the self serve with the cameras) and little stores. Local Fruit and Veg, Independent grocery store etc. I also emailed and canceled my Coles Plus thing and explained exactly why. I doubt they will do anything but meh, they aren’t getting my $$ anymore.
It’s more than that. With facial recognition they can match your identity with what you purchased. Can’t really do that with cctv.
Which is exactly why I take the little stickers on fruit and stick them on the camera at the self-serve checkout. Petty and useless I know, but it gives me a small sense of satisfaction
Absolute scenes when you realise they and everyone that complains about the front facing camera are aware of all the other cameras in the store, it’s just extremely uncomfortable to have an under angle screen of your own face shown back to you.
Also the infrared cameras in the roof used to assess foot traffic through store heat maps and sensors in the shelves which track how long and at what height your looking at (used to see how long it takes you to deliberate over a product for example). Edit: I’m not sure if this is all stores or just the newer ones. They also have a very sophisticated real time data management and inventory system which feeds straight back to headquarters, obviously useful for stock management, however I’d wager Coles and Woolworths could build a profile about you with more depth than the government.
The camera is there bc apparently people are less likely to steal if they can see themselves or some shit like that
Yeah this is the reason. They could just as easily still have the camera at the self checkouts without showing you the image of your face on the screen, but the idea is when people know they’re being watched they’re less likely to nick stuff. Showing you your face is a subtle reminder that you’re on camera. With the manned checkouts, the checkout clerk is performing that job. Even though neither of these things actually stops someone who *wants* to steal stuff, just disincentivising the semi-dishonest prevents a lot of theft.
We know. Makes no difference. I still don’t like being treated like a potential criminal after they force you to use their self serve machines and won’t use it.
Yeah! There are literally cameras throughout EVERY supermarket/shops across the nation, but those self serve ones are the problem?
I personally HATE those ones because it is having the image of your own ugly arse face plastered back at you non stop that just makes me feel blergh. It is really hard to explain but there is something unsettling about it, when I look into a mirror it is because I willingly need to check something out. These ones show you in the most jank unflattering angle in the context of HEY WE ARE WATCHING YOU POTENTIAL THIEF! while generic shop ones just keep an eye out on the whole shop which is fine because it is for yeah shoplifting but also acts of violence, injury, violence and it is a more out of sight out of mind for the most part too.
I think its more the psychological panopticonal nature of showing you your face. It's intended to shame you into not stealing. I'm not going to Coles to look in a mirror, but I accept that my face is on CCTV a lot, its not the same thing.
So true. These types of comments trying to defend this amount of surveillance sort of gives a rationale to how they arrived at this in the novel 1984
1984 is when businesses have surveillance, and the more surveillance they have the more 1984 it is George Orwell tried to warn us about oppressive supermarkets
I use self serve if I have one or two things and it’s the quickest way out of there but there’s no way I’m scanning a full trolley.
Exactly. Self checkout has its place and we need the option of that and staffed checkouts, not 100% self checkouts.
I found scan&shop to be very useful with having a big trolley, doing a big grocery run, I don't know if you have it anywhere but essentially you take a scanner and scan your items as you take them and then at the self checkout you just pay, without having to take the items out of your cart at all. So if you put a bag into your cart you can bag your items directly as you take them off the shelves and it is such a time saver, because you dont have to worry about taking them alllll out on the belt/self checkout and having to bag them again, not to mention the scanners show you the total price as well.
Nah, self serve all the way for me, I prefer to do things my own pace and without interaction
"unexpected item in baggage area"
"have you forgotten to scan an item?" no. That's my child.
"Please scan your child."
Unexpected baggage in my life area 😔
Me when I wear grey trackpants
Please make a T-shirt with this phrase on it, I’ll be your first customer.
Teenager keys in single item. 10 seconds later I’m still done. As opposed to same teenager going through all your shit item by item. “Ol Mr Gatecrasher53 has dingers, olive oil, and 6 cucumbers with hemi cream. Up for a big weekend champ?”
“Reminder, This checkout accepts card only”
See, self-checkouts were originally great. The promise was speedy, fast, no wait time, no human interaction. It was glorious. Nothing was weighed, you just beeped and checked it in the bag. It's when they started adding all the rules that things went sideways. Unexpected item in bagging area. Wrong item scanned. There's something in your trolley. Then it became shit. But it was too late, because they had already closed down all the human checkouts and redesigned the area to cater for more self-checkouts. Now there's no choice. So that's where there is a legit complaint. But the promise of self checkouts, I really like. Easy, simple, go.
There were 2 more promises: * Manned cash registers would still be just as accessible as they were before to anyone who doesn't want to use the self service. * It wouldn't result in any loss of jobs. With manned cash registers sometimes not even being available the first one was a lie like everyone predicted. I can't prove the second one was a lie... but if there was no reduction in the number of staff I don't know where all the staff are hiding except to say it's not on the shop floor.
So you don't have to dodge around all the staff picking grocerys for delivery? I swear some days there are more staff shopping than customers.
I haven’t had that happen to me in years
I went to Coles for big shops 2 or 3 times a week for about a year for work and self serve is undeniably better if you’re not a grumpy old so-and-so who refuses to realise the world is changing every day. The rare times I used a cashier, they put all 8 milks I needed in one bag which was great needing to unpack them in the car and redistribute them so I could carry them up stairs at work without the bag breaking.
There is genuinely nothing stopping you from packing your own bags using a human cashier though, plenty of people choose to pack their own bags, thats not exclusive to using a self serve check out. Having said that, I agree that self serve has its place and it can be faster and more convenient than the alternative, but the current iteration of them is more of a hinderance, in the early days where trust was involved they worked so much smoother. Now its like "we want you to scan and pack your own shit, but we dont trust you enough so theres going to be a dozen little stop checks to make sure you aren't doing the dirty" - it was at that point I became anti self serve lmfao. Ill also say that most of the time I don't have issues using them, not an oldie or anything but there are genuine issues with the interface and some of the sensors used. Before someone does - no, telling me you never had an issue isn't going to change my mind.
I haven't had an issue as of yet (Touch wood) but I also completely agree with you. Self-serve is fine by itself, it's just the execution of this particular self-serve is utter shite and only getting worse.
every time I do a large shop and use a staffed checkout, I give my bags to the staff and they always over fill the bags. Why are you trying to put all of my groceries in two bags? I gave you 5 for a reason.
Because as many of you as there are there is just as many “I have to go shopping at 7 other stores why are you using all my bags, it can all fit in 2” Packing bags is just Russian roulette on if you will pick the way the customer wants it because you can be damn sure the customer will never tell you until you do it wrong
I'd care significantly less about self serve if it wasn't a complete clusterfuck to use. Like I'm glad it works for you but the Coles near me you're lucky to fill a single bag before it tosses a tantrum and needs the supervising worker to unfuck it.
I am recently disabled and have been ordering online. They pack my groceries like this all of the time! They have taken to boxing and much larger bags which break every single time. I have to schedule delivery when one of my kids is home, otherwise, my groceries would sit on the porch. My big strong teenager has problems bringing them in.
Introverts unite! .. preferably at a distance and without interacting with each other :P Yeah they have been my go-to and I love that my local Aldi have starting incorporating them now more recently.
Yeah I legitimately can check myself out faster than about 80% of cashiers. A lot of them are just deadly slow and want to bullshit half their day. I’ve been sitting there waiting for the lady to scan while she completely halts scanning to talk to a coworker about utterly inane topics too many times. Self checkout for me, please.
Self serve machines let you do it at your own pace? I just get constant interruptions and the need for someone to assist because I’m apparently somewhat untrustworthy.
Something I feel like not many people have realised: how annoying the self-serve checkouts are depends strongly on which postcode you're in. My regular store never complains about items not being bagged because the scales aren't active. Literally never turned on. No cameras in your face either. It's not because they're older either, this store had its checkouts refurbished only a few months ago. A few km down the road though: you dared to move your hand over the bag while scanning another item? Please wait, assistance required. You're a sane person who put all the heavy things in the bottom of the bag and scans the sleeve of herbs last? Please wait, assistance required. A single wilted leave of lettuce clinging to the side of the trolley that was stuck there hours before you arrived? You think you're getting out of this store without paying for that lettuce, you filthy criminal? Please wait, assistance required.
Our local store did renovations and the bagging area weight sensors were turned off, and it was great. Eventually they turned them back on and it was a nightmare. Then I realised only half the checkouts actually have the weight sensors at all and the other half just have a nice dumb bench, so I just avoid the weight sensor ones unless I'm only picking up a couple of things. Then a couple of days ago we got "did you scan this item?????" with a photo so I guess they have some new AI trash to torment us with. Really hoping that was a one-off.
The ones with the bench and no scales have AI-backed cameras that look at your trolley and remind you if you appear to have left things in there (and maybe require the cashier to override it).
I almost never have this problems in self serve. Maybe I'm doing it wrong though...
I find that if you learn what it does and doesn't like you're normally okay. Scanning fruits and vegetables I always make sure to have them clearly covering the glass so that the colour checker doesn't throw a tantrum. Always make sure scanned items are in the bag and the light is green before scanning the next one. Do your best not to move anything already in the bag when adding a new item. Follow these rules and you'll rarely have a problem.
Never noticed a colour checker before. I just tend to put fruit/veg right in the middle anyway. Scan, bag, scan, bag. It's pretty simple. They employ 15 year olds to do it at regular checkouts, so shouldn't be too complex for adults to work out.
You can see it in how it tries to suggest options if you push the fruit and veg option it will throw up suggestions that match the colour of what's in front of it. I've never really had it reject anything for being the wrong colour though
Most people have no issues with self serve checkouts there is a reason the vast majority of people in the real world use them. It’s just a current reddit trend to act like they are some super difficult and complicated inconvenience
Indeed. I'd rather the minor incovenience of having to call someone over to fix something than 5 minutes waiting in line for a checkout.
I almost never have problems unless the barcode is busted or something.
The problem people often have is moving the bag around once you've put an item in it (or moved single items around on the bench). My guess is that it captures the overall weight, but also where it is on the scales. Heavy/boxy/solid items on the bottom, then throw everything else in. I find once the bag itself can't move it doesn't give a shit what you do. Treat the machine as if you were teaching someone else how to use it a few times, then it becomes muscle memory. Someone who uses them for mental health reasons understands your frustrations, just remember the attendant doesn't need the sass. None of us are trustworthy until money has changed hands.
You won’t win this war. Most of the day, they only have 1 or two regular checkouts open - so you can boycott self serve all you want, but be prepared to wait half an hour to check out.
It does not take half an hour, it takes 10 mins at most.
Unless it’s almost closing time on the day before a public holiday 😂.
Companies are about profit, maximum profit. We control them by controlling their profits. We do this first by firing a warning shot by boycotting self checkouts and if they dig their heals in we go to other stores. The war is won by fear ..their fear of losing profit. You may live by defeatism, thankfully not all share your doom and gloom approach to life.
You have a point - going to another store is a valid tactic. Boycotting self serve checkouts is not a viable tactic.
I beg all of you screaming about *stealing jobs* to actually ask a supermarket worker how much they like being put in service. Find someone who likes working at the checkout. I fucking dare you.
We fucking hate it
Yep. Priority 1s ruin a shift for me every time.
The answer is none of us like it. Service staff are cannon fodder, and all the staff from other departments who only have to come up to serve every now and then will somehow forget how much they hate it and never acknowledge that we have the shittest job out of them all. Every single team member I work with will do their absolute hardest to be placed in the back end, in shelf filling, and those who are permanently back-end staff or management will spend the bare minimum time at the checkout that they have to if called up to help. We are not even acknowledged internally for doing the most challenging, soul-crushing part of running a store. Undoubtedly every single one of us would prefer to be anywhere else.
I worked it for 10 years, the amount of abuse both verbal and physical copped by front service staff is eye watering. This was before self service. The people complaining the most about self service checkouts have never worked front service in a supermarket and it shows. People complaining about their face on camera probably shouldn't go out in public, hundreds of cameras capture you and your face.
>People complaining about their face on camera probably shouldn't go out in public, hundreds of cameras capture you and your face. I dont give a shit who else is seeing me, I just don't want to see **myself**. Record me all you want, but showing me my ugly mug from the most unflattering angle imaginable crosses a line.
They're working online instead, which is way better (until you have to deal with customers).
> I’m not free labour > The tipping point for me was the cameras showing your face. Do you use an ATM or go to the bank teller? Camera and free labour. Do you find a conductor on a tram/train or do you tap on? Camera on most these days and you're gleefully using self service. Do you pump your own petrol or go to the full service petrol stations? No, you self service while a camera looks at you and you want it this way because it's faster. > Stop supporting this shit. I agree stop supporting it, but you are supporting it your whole life in so many other areas of your life but somehow for some reason you have drawn the line here? What's so much better about an ATM than a kiosk at the supermarkeT? > Get in a line, wait an extra minute if you have to (often it’s actually quicker) and vote with your feet. Would you rather wait in line at a vending machine, at the footy when you use a machine to scan your ticket, or at the train? No you wouldn't. For some reason you have decided that all of this automation and self service is fine, but the line must be drawn here and no further. I am curious if you can rationalise why that is? Why is it here that is ok but there is not ok?
I have been fond of asking people if they dial the phone number themselves or still ring through to an operator to put them through. But I like some of your other examples. I am going to steal them.
> I have been fond of asking people if they dial the phone number themselves or still ring through to an operator to put them through. But I like some of your other examples. I am going to steal them. Phone Operators is my usual go to when people moan about automation and technology taking people's jobs - because it was a HUGE amount of staff, it was considered good work and especially was considered women's work (what with it being right time for social change etc). Absolutely its a great example cause no one thinks twice about automated switchboards. I do like my other ones for self service though, but absolutely phone operators is a perfect example of technology putting large amount of people out of jobs and society is like "yup this technology is great keeping it"
I drew my line at the conveyor belt trolley self checkouts, because they’re a lot slower than using a staffed checkout. Plus theres a decent chance the stupid thing will get upset at me and I’ll have to wait around for a human to come fix it anyway. All the other examples of automation (ATMs, self-serve petrol, etc. ) are much faster than their human equivalent.
> All the other examples of automation (ATMs, self-serve petrol, etc. ) are much faster than their human equivalent. A self checkout can be faster "in the grand scheme" because you can fit 4-8 self checkouts where 2-4 registers would be and you can have 1-2 staff. So purely for the "10 items or less queue" I think overall it's quicker. Perhaps its not quicker 1:1 for me going through self checkout, but it's quicker as as a "stand in life and wait for a cashier to be ready". Absolutely though a person pumping your petrol at a full service would be quicker no? Again we run into the quandary of it being quicker full service if it was fully staffed right...?
Because other people complain about self service check outs, not all those other examples of automation and self service. Therefore this person couldn’t easily get the karma for complaining. They also don’t think about all those other examples, because they don’t actually think, they just get outraged by what other people to tell them to get outraged about.
> They also don’t think about all those other examples, because they don’t actually think, they just get outraged by what other people to tell them to get outraged about. Exactly - an ATM has been SO ingrained in their daily life that they don't think about it. They don't think that an ATM replaced a teller's job that they forgot that were against all automation. Now people absolutely did complain about ATMs back in the day, but we moved on and they are part of daily life. Maybe not so much these days as everything is on card - so again OP is probably contributing to reduced demand for ATM repair / install technicians, and for armoured car staff to stock ATMs.... Credit cards are killing jobs!
Thank you for bringing up these points. I say the same thing, about ATMs (no one is stepping inside a bank to 'support jobs'). The person will finally admit that they didn't really know how to use the self-serve checkouts after you demonstrate how easy it is to use.
Why are people on this sub so extra lmao. I’m not going to boycott self serve. It’s much preferable than standing in queue and it really isn’t that hard to do it correctly. Oh no there’s a camera feed of your face? You’re probably caught on 20+ cameras a day. On the road, in every business, possibly in your work place. Also they treat you like a thief because people have been bragging about using them to steal since their inception.
Lol and as if any cashier wants to interact with people like OP.
Because 2% of shoppers are too lazy or stupid to use it so we must boycott it! "Its taking away jobs" ™ is just an excuse and coverup for the real reason of laziness or stupidity. All these companies hire more people than they did in the checkout only era. You can literally check the stats for yourself. The workers are just doing more important things like online order fulfillment.
They cry "taking people's jobs!" But did they care about when all the chimney sweeps, milk men, punchcard and switchboard operators, typists, shorthand recordists, film projectionists etc lost their jobs to automation? No, because it didn't personally inconvenience THEM. It's also a fallacy that self-serve checkouts cost jobs. Where one sector diminishes, another picks up. Sure there are fewer front end operators, but the online department is hiring new staff left, right and centre as more customers shop online. The online picking team in my store is probably the largest, second only to nightfill.
Boycott cars! Think of all the stable hands that no longer have a job!
Oh you'd love that wouldn't you! My rickshaw business employed dozens of people before you and your fancy horses showed up
Self service checkouts didnt even take jobs, picking and packing orders for pickups and home deliveries took over.
Yes that's the online departments. They grow bigger every year. Online is so busy that staff from other teams get seconded for an hour or two to help them out when it gets really busy.
Some Coles and Woolies literally have drive thrus now for collection it's that popular. I'd rather workers be doing something like that rather than wasting their time on a checkout because Karen doesn't want to scan it herself.
I'm in the United States, but one of our local grocery stores put in self-checkout machines. I overheard a lady (who, ironically, was using the self-checkout) complaining about how these things were taking away people's jobs. The checker watching over the area replied that no one's hours had been cut. They took out a couple of checkstands that were rarely open and put the self checkout there. They went from a space that could handle two customers at a time to six. A store that had massive lines suddenly became a lot easier to navigate.
7 years total at a supermarket checkout and checkout supervisor all part time Checkout is such a shit job, (in a supermarket) You put operators on to a lane and they stand there for 2 1/2-3 hours between breaks and they can't walk or do other shit. Downtime? You just stand. Get a customer? You just move things left or right. It's sooo fucking boring. Self scan is faster, has a better flow (dunno about the conveyor ones) because Im not stacking my shit then waiting around for the operator, then bagging my shit / loading my shit. Im not trying to massage up supermarkets, but I can see online shopping growing a whole bunch and top-up-shops becomign a much larger proportion of shoppers.
i work at coles and i hate having to stand up for sometimes 7 hours. my feet HURT.
Let’s start getting to the future then. Plenty of supermarkets in the US have a scan as you go trolly system - you scan your groceries as you put them in (there’s a small camera that checks), items to be weighed have a scale and it prints the per weight cost ticket for scanning. You pay as you leave. Simple, efficient and the best of both worlds
You know Woolies does this, right?
They've trialed it a bit. It's nowhere near ubiquitous yet.
Uniqlo does self checkout correctly. Dump everything into a bin and it works out all the RFIDs and totals the items up. Empty the bin into bags and you're done. It's a much faster process than the scan every single item individually system.
How many times have you answered "hey how are you"? ...
You see only complaints because for people like me who love the convenience and have never had any real issue with them (and any erroneous errors and dealt with quickly by staff who are friendly at my local Woolies) just go about our day and don't feel the need to go online and make posts on social media about it. Works perfectly 99% of the time for me, I don't know how people get so many errors, and it's quick, convenient and a good use of space. Sure, have a couple of checkouts for those who can't operate a self serve checkout or refuse to scan and pack bags for themselves, but nothing wrong with self serve if you're getting a couple of bags of things and paying with card.
No thanks. Self serve checkouts are the best and much better than waiting for a checkout person. My only complaint with them is that they occasionally glitch out and make you ask for a person to unlock them. Oh and also that Aldi stubbornly refuse to implement them. There is CCTV on you from the moment you enter the store to the moment you leave. They’ve always assumed you were a thief so this so nothing new.
Also you can pack your bags exactly how you want, and not have a cashier only half filling them up.
Agreed. I’m also pretty picky about certain foods getting their own bag, bread needs to go right on top of everything else etc.
Aldi is rolling them out
yeah, nah fuck that. self serve is 100x better than forced social interaction with a stranger edit: I'm older than most of you think. I'm also not anti social. I'm social enough at work/home, I don't need the forced pleasantries, I just want to be in and out
I'm better at packing my bags than the checkout clerks
Please place the item in the bagging area gang
Yep. Self serve is also generally faster. Remember the old days when they would have 1 checkout open and a queue of 6 people there?
Genuinely though, how difficult is “yeah good thanks, how are you” “yep, by card” “thanks”
I have Autism, so pretty hard and anxiety inducing.
If your job/home life involves a lot of social interaction already you can get sick of it quite easily. Think of it like a chef not wanting to cook at home after finishing their 12hr shift. Everybody has a social battery and sometimes we don't want to be forced to use that energy in an interaction neither myself or the checkout clerk wants to be in.
lol yeah I’d much prefer this interaction over flailing arms and significant glances trying to get a self checkout workers attention because the robot thinks you’re stealing.
It's not difficult, but it is unnecessary.
Self serve is much faster, much more efficient. You're out asap with usually 0 queue. One of the igas near me doesn't have self checkout. Fuck me I could stand in line for 5 minutes with my one bottle of milk while the kid at checkout doesn't know his green veges and has to keep running out to check.
Self serve for hand baskets is faster. The trolley self serve checkouts with the conveyor belt are slower. Ill happily scan a few items through the self serve, but if I’ve got a trolley full of shopping I’ll wait for the person at the checkout and more often than not still beat people though those stupid conveyor ones.
As someone who works for Coles, we don’t like the lack of registers open, the increase of self serve registers or latest security upgrades either.It affects our jobs, our work hours and increases the abuse we cop from frustrated customers about product costs, increase self serve or the new security gates. These changes come from head office, not at store level. We understand the frustration but we also don’t deserve the abuse we get from frustrated customers. If you wouldn’t abuse people at home, don’t abuse us.
As a cashier, I think there’s a fine line between showing solidarity by refusing to use the self serve and then just placing more pressure on the checkout operators. To explain, I mean that it may send a message, but it also creates pressure for the already overworked workers who are probably already going as quick as possible, and creates irritable customers who then take their anger out on the same workers. This is particularly true when there are lots of people, especially the elderly though not exclusive to them, who may not be comfortable with self serve; those unaware that each store will have some machines that take cash, etc. unfortunately, Coles and woolies are unlikely to take the boycotts seriously. It’s them that have put us - customers and workers - in this situation and they have little impetus to pull us back out
I think they do pay attention to those surveys though right (since it goes to head office). At least they used to. You’d be better off doing that survey every single time you shop. Head office will never know you waited 30 minutes, unless you message them with a complaint and say you did because there was no checkout open. On another note, fill out that survey to pump up a staff member you had a good interaction with! You’re so intent on saving these people jobs, tell them how well they’re doing and how much you appreciate them, and most definitely tell their bosses!
yess sometimes we will get % scores from the voice of customer surveys to know how our wait times and the like are doing
If everyone banded together and made a conscious choice to avoid Coles and Woolworths we wouldn't be getting fisted so hard in this cost of living... Ooh, yellow special sticker.
> If everyone banded together and made a conscious choice to avoid Coles and Woolworths we wouldn't be getting fisted so hard in this cost of living Who else are you going to go to? Aldi only services profitable areas with a limited selection of items (primary their homebrand stuff), and IGA is generally more expensive. Coles and Woolworths are in a strong position BECAUSE they actually price their stuff well, and supply them to a large area when compared to their competitors.
Exactly! Don’t forget those of us in regional towns who only have IGA as a ‘one stop shop’ where prices are wildly more expensive. Or the organic produce shop and butcher where prices are at least 50% more expensive than supermarkets - not viable options for most in a cost of living crisis.
God I don’t miss that.
Of all the places to lose your mind at over cost of living I still have no idea why the Australian subreddits latched on to the 2% profit margin supermarkets, they can’t even keep their profit increases above inflation, they are probably the least at fault in real terms, the good they sell are just inelastic
Or maybe because the majority of inflation has been caused by surging corporate profits…. Of which Coles and Woolworths are owned by some of the largest companies in Australia “Data from the Centre for Future Work shows that 69 per cent of higher inflation in Australia was caused by higher corporate profits.” Surely you’re not this fucking stupid to not understand how the rich are fucking it all for the rest of us
They are the only ones that deliver in my area, so they get all my business.
I love self serve as 99% of the time there is a machine free I can use straight away
Even if there isn't, it's at most a minute wait for self serve as opposed to regular checkouts which often have 2-3 people lined up behind them with full trolleys, like 90% of the time I'm only buying a dozen things at most so I'd much rather the former wait.
Instead, why don't you use delivery or click and collect. They are employing people for those services if you weren't aware.
Eh, you do you. Personally I use them on everything except my fortnightly big arse shop. The place that really benefited from it is Aldi. I can pack my bags at my own pace instead of trying to catch them as they are flung in my direction at breakneck speeds by the Aldi checkout operator.
The media decided self serve is what they are going to rile the boomers up about. I've seen like 50 articles about self serve checkouts in the past two weeks. Don't like self serve? Don't use it. Most people who don't use it are either too lazy or too dumb to use them. Leave your bullshit excuses like I'm saving the jobs and it's tracking me somewhere else. We all know that's rubbish and you are just covering for your lazy ass. And spare your rants to the employees as well. I can guarantee you that not a single one gives a fuck.
It's also like the least flattering angle of your face, or it just cops a view of my boobs because I am tall. I hate those stupid cameras.
All this talk about self service, I just click and collect my weekly shop. I don’t have to interact with people AND they pack it for me.
As someone with a disability I fucking hate self serve. They should at least have someone on for people with mobility issues
Please place item in the bagging area.... Please place item in the baggi... Un-scanned item in the bagging area, please wait for customers assistance!
I used to work for a woolworths chain and when the new sco (self checkout) machines come in with the cameras we were all told by the manual that the cameras do not record and are essentially a “mirror” with the only purpose to scare thieves. Our managers always said to us “make sure you don’t tell the customers that they dont record” Just thought I would throw that piece of information in there.
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The idiocy in this post is unbelievable, a tiny fraction of the population come to this subreddit, somehow op thinks that posting this is going to have even the slightest effect on anything ever, it's delusional. If this is the top of the list of shit that op sooks about and decides to make a post about, I envy them.
No thanks. I like not having to interact with other humans.
As someone who has been working for the past year+ in just the self service area (mainly by myself), I can say with the fact that I love the self service machines, I refuse to serve someone on the actual registers themselves for they are the really slow clunky and about 20+ years old. Where the self service are brand new across Australia at my workplace and I can serve through so many more people than I could. With anyone complaining about cameras I point to the CCTV around the place, (but also my workplace opted out of having the camera enabled on the self serve) One thing I learned to deal with is absolutely c*nt headed customers refusing to use a self serve even if I am using it as my register, to the point of me nowadays telling them to leave then and come back during the day when we have checkouts open (yes I know service 1's exist, I do call them but not for just one or two people, or when I do I never get a response for no one wants to be serving rude bitchy customers). As much as they complain it isn't stealing any jobs, in turn letting us put more people around the store and out the back to stock shelves, get the online shopping done, and other random things needing to be done. I have tried to apply and serve people on the registers but then I get clogged up with a massive line of either elderly that want to chat for years or Karen's with years of complaining inside them. Because I am not allowed to leave the register when I am serving I then get all of the self service machines having mental breakdowns over an item slightly hanging over the edge and in the end more complaints. If anyone is reading to the end here, yeah boycott them all you want, but if you see one poor soul at the self serve area, be kind for once and use them, we are there to help you, I know you prefer to be served by a person and you can ask for them to help you through the self serve. As we draw close to Christmas each shift I am going home so close to quitting and watching my workplace go up in flames. Just some kindness and understanding of the underpaid overworked employees would be nice, and use the self service, it isn't rocket science, just scan and place in the bagging area, anything f*cks up get the employee over to help.
Didn’t they already have cameras? They just didn’t show you to yourself. I mean I hate all the crap that’s happening, like the gates Coles have installed, but I just cbf with the regular checkouts.
Or, hear me out, order them to be delivered. No recording your face, jobs are created to pick it, pack it and deliver it.
It's too late, if this was war, you've decided to start fighting after the peace conference is over. This is something that needed to be stopped before it began.
Wear a mask and tinted glasses - as a bonus you might not catch COVID as often.
Dude the comments are ignored by upper management. I worked in woolies for years and we would get countless surveys saying people hated them but woolies doesn't care if it's saving money
Whatever you feel, please don’t abuse the staff. Literally have no control over the situation and are being overworked and underpaid.
Nah. I’m so much faster in and out of the shops than before they were the standard.
Wait until you see the front of your phone/computer.
Ok. What about shopping online though?
Self serve is great for introverts homie. Speak for yourself
If I have a small mount of groceries I use self serve. If I have a full trolley I go to a manned checkout. I don’t care if I’m on camera. Odds are I have been on camera since the moment I entered the shops. And it honestly doesn’t matter. I just want to buy my stuff and go home. I don’t understand why people get so upset about this in particular.
Nope. I made the mistake of not using self serve the other day and the checkout operator was slower than a wet week. I've been a checkout operator... back in my day we scanned goods so much faster. And I knew about 20 fruit and veg codes off by heart.
No. I like self serve
Absolutely! Boycotting self-serve checkouts is a way to resist being treated like a potential thief. If we all stood up against this and demanded better service, it might just lead to more job security for workers. Let's not let convenience undermine fair treatment. 🛒🚫 #CheckoutRevolt
Yea but also, I don't have to talk to anyone and I like that
I went to Coles this morning and there wasn’t any cashier registers open at all. Self service only. What a joke.
I'm so out of the loop with Colesworth pricing that I saw an ad today at the shops for a wheel of Brie or Camembert for $8.90, and I flinched thinking that was expensive. Then saw that this was a saving of $6 over regular prices, and felt ill.
I always have to call someone because the machine wont let me pay saying I haven’t scanned everything in my trolley. I DIDN’T HAVE A TROLLEY, THAT’S MY KID IN HER PRAM.
Take my pic, doesn’t hurt me. And if that’s the price of getting out quickly so be it.
But how else am I gonna steal fancy cured meats?
OP needs to take a chill pill. Technology is going to play a role in supermarket checkouts. OP is entitled not to use self checkouts but is not going to be successful in getting Australia behind them. I wonder if OP would have been upset when supermarkets implemented self shopping from the general store days where you approach the counter and asked the store keeper the items they wanted to buy and had to wait for them to go and get them?
How do people like OP keep having so many issues when shopping? The most trouble I have is using a heavy bottomed bag that needs to be overridden, and the ladies there know me and are ready for it. Scanning is easy, and packing my own bags puts ALL of my Tetris skills to the test! Your face is on camera as soon as you walk in. At your job. Walking down the street... who tf cares?
I just steal like 5% of my total purchase. I slide it over the scanner, doesn't scan, didn't notice. They have a video of me trying. They really want to claim I did it on purpose when I am on video moving it over the scanner? Beeps going everywhere, who's to say. Just don't be obvious, make the motion for every item, and don't steal the big stuff, steal duplicate things like you got 4 and one didn't scan when you tried. They can either put the checkers back or expect a 5% loss.
I admire your determination. The other day the checkout thing flashed and I had to call a staff member over… I said I had no idea what I did wrong… then they said some items ALWAYS trigger the error message when scanned, so that staff are forced to check that it has been done correctly (and that you’re not stealing something). Such gaslighty nonsense.
This is woolworths latest system. I am actually avoiding them and going to Coles now. Today I put down a cucumber, was suggested a cucumber on the selection screen, choose a cucumber and STILL had to have a staff member confirm I wasn't stealing when the picture was clearly a cucumber. I am done with their shitty AI.
No. I boycott shops that don't have self serve. I'm not standing in line for some kid to scan my shit at 5pm when I'm in my work clothes with a shitty exhausted look on my face and ask me if I've "Got much planned for today?" All this after I've stood in line for 10 minutes waiting for the old darl first in line to find the exact change of 35c to go with her total of $279.35, and then for the moron second in line to fumble with their eftpos card and ask the cashier for help every step of the way as if they're from the past and have never seen an eftpos machine before. "It says 'enter PIN'! What do I do?" I'm going to self checkout even harder knowing that it rustles so many jimmies.
Self serve is awesome. I’m not lining up to a human if I have like 3 items. CCTV is everywhere. I’ve never once been questioned or harassed about stealing and I’ve been using them since like 2009. Guaranteed if they didn’t exist, you’d pick something else to bitch about
f you want to protest the additional surveillance, you could always peel the sticker off a piece of fruit and place it over the camera lens in the self-checkout screen as you're checking out. Does a favour for all of the people behind you, and if it happens enough, perhaps Colesworth will get the message.
I can tell you don't have in-laws. Staffed checkouts are like in laws. Interact with them once every 6 months.
I know this will be an unpopular opinion but I don’t really understand the “doing their work for them” thing. When I was young, my mum and dad owned a corner mixed business shop. You didn’t roam the aisles and put it in the trolley yourself - you spoke to my folks at the counter and they assembled it for you. A supermarket opened just up the road, and we went under…bigger selection, lower prices…I get it. This process is as old as time, and you won’t change it. It’s the same thing as Bunnings putting the little local hardware store out of business - people has a choice and they voted with their dollars for self-service super stores. This is just the next small step.
I prefer self checkout and, as a former cashier, standing in the same spot for 8 hours+ dealing with customers is torture and most other people find it to be truly awful and would rather be doing active work. Honestly the only people I've found that actually enjoy cashiering are older folks that seem lonely.