please empty your brain below
The reason I will not use the self-checkout lanes is precisely because I do not want to take away someone's job. Will it help, maybe not, but I am getting very tired of what appears to be an increasing move towards a faceless society. We don't talk face-to-face, we tweet, we text, we seem to be doing whatever we can to minimize human interaction. Why contribute to that end (and this from an introvert!).

Mary | 08.01.10 - 3:09 a.m. | #

I'm over 40 and if I only have a few items, use self checkouts all of the time. I love human contact and am very social, but the supermarket, DIY store etc are there to get in and out of as quickly as possibly IMHO.

Mark Garth | Homepage | 08.01.10 - 7:58 a.m. | #

I like the expression "faceless society" - is it official or have you coined it??

Here in our village the situation is still fine - no self-checkouts in local grocery... yet.

I do hope that the society will not move towards facelessness even though reading faceless DG´s blog became a part of my morning routine already.

Pavla | 08.01.10 - 8:04 a.m. | #

Automation though frees people up to do stuff they would rather be doing - It's no fun to sit for four hours on a checkout.

And the staffless shop is a long way away yet. Remember the paperless office we were all supposed to have by 2000 or other random year? I'm still waiting...

Richard | Homepage | 08.01.10 - 8:29 a.m. | #

Of course, people who can't use the self-service checkouts, like many elderly people, will still need assistance, so it would be unfair to take away the cashiers completely. Alas, I think the supermarkets have plans to do exactly this anyway.

Andrewh | 08.01.10 - 8:31 a.m. | #

It's all part of the march of the lean concept and rigid aderence to driving efficiency. The theorists overlook the fact the most efficient way of doing things may be utterly unappealing and provoke a negative response, particularly in service industries. Social interaction is vital for the health of society. And I'm a freak who actually enjoys the experience of queuing at the check-out.

Waterhouse | 08.01.10 - 8:38 a.m. | #

I do not instinctively dislike self-service checkouts, as they can serve a purpose - however, they have a long way to go before they become genuinely useful.

A lot of people, myself included are put off simply by the poor usability and lack of sensible packing areas.

Incidentally, one of the reasons I wont use the mini-counters for baskets in supermarkets is because of the lousy amount of space set aside for packing bags. Just because I have a basket doesn't mean I have fewer than five items to put in a bag.

Ian Visits | Homepage | 08.01.10 - 8:43 a.m. | #

I blogged about this before the FOTCR™. Self service tills *can* become a thing of the past, a failed project in retail terms.


BUT only IF customers keep refusing to use them and complain - at the correct level - to the store managers/area managers/CEOs, not to the reamining checkout operators/customer service desk staff.


Sadly, though, most people won't bother, so we'll be sadled with them.


6 self-scan in our local supermarket = 100 cut staff hours imemidately, with another 100 to go by Easter. And despite what Richard above thinks, some people *do* like working on checkouts.

Blue Witch | Homepage | 08.01.10 - 9:35 a.m. | #

I find the self-service checkouts in my local Morrison's to be marginally friendlier than a lot of the checkout staff.

martin | Homepage | 08.01.10 - 10:06 a.m. | #

When I first saw the self-chekouts in a Central London Tesco, I was afraid and confused, and ashamed as a staff member came to help.

Now I use them whenever possible.
In my local Tesco there are two self-checkout lanes, but plastic bags are not hanging properly on the rails, but tucked in stacks behind the bagging area.
That makes the process much longer.

cybergreg | 08.01.10 - 10:27 a.m. | #

I'm a big fan of self checkouts and probably save 5 minutes a day with them. These kind of jobs are the kind that probably will disappear but that doesn't mean people will be made redundant. A lot more attention is placed on giving customers information and assisting them. Besides, you still need one employee per four checkouts.

Another example is ticket machines vs. ticket offices, and the person behind the ticket office becoming a service assistant walking around the station instead of sitting there. In my opinion, that's a good thing.

sweek | 08.01.10 - 10:36 a.m. | #

Now, if only the self-service machines would cope with reusable bags, without squawking "Unexpected item in bagging area", I might use them for my larger shop, rather than my little ones.

Chris | 08.01.10 - 10:53 a.m. | #

Not only do some people like working at checkouts, some people like having jobs, which there would be fewer of available if all the staff were replaced by machines. Already there are not as many secretaries as people now often do their own typing. You can even dictate direct to the computer. Don't get me started on those so-called self service checkouts, I only have to go near one and it crashes.

Debster | Homepage | 08.01.10 - 11:20 a.m. | #

I 'serve myself' in the library and it irritates me to hell. Why? because I know there are no professionally qualified staff left to deal with my real enquiries. The staff there are only capable of shelf stacking and handing out leaflets that have been provided from elsewhere. AAAAAAGGGGHHH AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH
I 'serve myself' at the shops and wonder why I have to put up with someone else's idea of what it is I want to eat. Do I really have to write to head office to get my local store to stock the things I want?
I 'serve myself' in clothing stores and walk out when I've tried so many things purporting to be my size that aren't, that don't suit my colouring etc etc. I hate corporate/accountant run retailers...I've stopped spending my money with some of them but it doesn't help me one iota.

B | 08.01.10 - 11:25 a.m. | #

Same reason passengers wanting Oyster top-ups are being directed to use self-service machines at Tube stations. Spare a little thought for the booking clerks who are effectively being made to put themselves out of a job by directing people away from the staffed ticket office window. Give it six months and the massive wave of ticket office closures will follow, accompianed by lieing PR guff about staff being moved out of the office and onto stations in "reassurance" and "customer safety" roles - thus implying that anyone who's against this plan is also opposed to those two laudible aims. But the reality will be in most cases, there will simply be one less person on the station establishment. Bow Road's ticket office closes at about 19:00 now, does the person who used to be in there until 24:00 redeploy onto the platforms after that time? No, because the shift finishes at 7pm and is no longer covered after that time. But the "experts" say otherwise so it must be correct.

| 08.01.10 - 11:42 a.m. | #

A very simple comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite. I used to think that this was an intelligently written blog. This naive reasoning has just made me remove it from my feed reader. Personally I love automated checkouts in Boots and hate them in supermarkets. But more automation does not necessarily lead to fewer jobs.

Simon | 08.01.10 - 11:43 a.m. | #

"Place item in the bagging area!"

Gah!!!!!!!!

Dan | 08.01.10 - 2:22 p.m. | #

Mobile typographical characters put amanuensis out of their job. I really don't buy into the luddite argument.

But in my district, Willesden Green, the photos of the High Road in the '60 reveal a cute, thriving middle-class oasis of independents shops; now it's kebab and corner shop wasteland. I guess it's supermarket's fault. Future doesn't look any cuter than the present but, what the heck, resistence is futile - it's better to enjoy the positive sides.

Barbara Jacob | 08.01.10 - 2:58 p.m. | #

I guess you still go the cashier in the bank to withdraw cash rather than use those newfangled cash point machines?

SW8Guy | 08.01.10 - 3:00 p.m. | #

self-check lanes are used as often as cashier lanes. it all depends on which has the shorter line. as for jobs melting away, i think it's more a matter of different jobs replacing the old. times of transition are rough, esp. when they are no guides to help, but that just means a person has to investigate & research on thier own which job markets are improving & head thier skills that way. societies change as technology does, people will have to keep up & pay attention to which way the political & economic winds are blowing.

petoskystone | 08.01.10 - 4:00 p.m. | #

If the writer of this blog disapproves of job-stealing technology, perhaps he should employ someone to write out his words, and have someone else hand deliver them to his subscribers, rather than having us log onto a machine....
:P

John | 08.01.10 - 4:46 p.m. | #

In my bank, which I stick with because they still have a local branch with people who have worked there 20 years and more, the staff started trying to direct me to a newfangled machine that could do everything they did. I noticed them doing this for a few weeks and then they seem to have given up and the machine sits there glowering while the staff continue to cheerfully serve people over the counter. I'll use the cashpoint to get cash or check my balance; anything else I go inside for. Sometimes I even have to wait in a queue while they deal patiently with someone with a wheelbarrow full of 2p pieces ... and I've found I don't mind. Waiting in a queue to be served by a real cheerful friendly person now has novelty value.

Sarah | Homepage | 08.01.10 - 5:54 p.m. | #

Supermarkets for me are about the shortest line. If a checkout person is free they will be faster than me scanning. Otherwise if its a basket rather than wheeled quantity then I'll be bleeping away (so to speak).

rashbre | Homepage | 08.01.10 - 7:07 p.m. | #

The most successful businesses will be those that find the right balance between technology and human touch, at least for a few more generations. But by then, those who've grown up confortably with today's technology will be the elderly floundering with tomorrows!!

CornishCockney | 08.01.10 - 7:32 p.m. | #

In the early nineties I used to cash a cheque at least once a week the NatWest in Grange-over-Sands Cumbria. The branch had two people behind the counter. One particular cashier always said that I could use the newly installed hole in the wall to withdraw money. I pointed out that I was keeping her in a job by using the counters.

After several months they went to one cashier and made the woman who always recommended using the cash machine redundant.

Steve Barker | Homepage | 09.01.10 - 8:11 a.m. | #

I imagine by 2020 the barcode will have been replaced by something geared towards self service. As RFID gets cheaper it might be possible to pass a trolley or basket through an arch and have it all totted up. The current "solution" is just a botched mashup of a checkout and an ATM.

Steve | 09.01.10 - 3:57 p.m. | #

I heard one of those machines bellowing "Unexpected item in the baggage area" and immediately concluded that they aren't intended for me. UIITBA isn't even a sentence.

Charlieman | 10.01.10 - 3:20 p.m. | #











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