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A while back my local supermarket installed a bank of self-service checkout terminals. Because the number of manned checkout desks were reduced, customers are forced to use these wretched things when the other desks have long queues behind them.
Supposed to reduce queuing, the self-service terminals, in fact, make things much worse. Got a CD or DVD in your shopping? - then call an assistant for help. Got a high-price item with a security tag on it? - call an assistant. Got a bottle of wine? - then call an assistant to verify that you are over 18 years of age. Press a wrong number when you finally get to pop your credit card in the machine and an assistant has to be called to sort things out. And so it goes on.
Try to take your trolley of shopping to an empty check-out desk that is for baskets only and the chances are that you will be sent away by the bored and unhelpful assistant.
It comes as no surprise then that research by the Grocer Magazine has shown that average queuing times for staffed tills at Tesco and Sainsbury's, the retailers with the most self-service checkouts, have increased over the past two years. And a separate survey by the Sunday Telegraph, found that in stores offering a choice between staffed and automated tills, it is often quicker to choose the traditional method.
Technology when it works is fine but, as we know, chaos results when it does not. As for our local supermarket, I’ve given up with the automated checkouts and just stand in line with all the others!
.
A while back my local supermarket installed a bank of self-service checkout terminals. Because the number of manned checkout desks were reduced, customers are forced to use these wretched things when the other desks have long queues behind them.
Supposed to reduce queuing, the self-service terminals, in fact, make things much worse. Got a CD or DVD in your shopping? - then call an assistant for help. Got a high-price item with a security tag on it? - call an assistant. Got a bottle of wine? - then call an assistant to verify that you are over 18 years of age. Press a wrong number when you finally get to pop your credit card in the machine and an assistant has to be called to sort things out. And so it goes on.
Try to take your trolley of shopping to an empty check-out desk that is for baskets only and the chances are that you will be sent away by the bored and unhelpful assistant.
It comes as no surprise then that research by the Grocer Magazine has shown that average queuing times for staffed tills at Tesco and Sainsbury's, the retailers with the most self-service checkouts, have increased over the past two years. And a separate survey by the Sunday Telegraph, found that in stores offering a choice between staffed and automated tills, it is often quicker to choose the traditional method.
Technology when it works is fine but, as we know, chaos results when it does not. As for our local supermarket, I’ve given up with the automated checkouts and just stand in line with all the others!
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