What do you think of these robot tills? - Blackpool Discussion Forums

SouthportFriends · #1 07-11-09, 20:54

Just been into the big ASDA not far from the Victoria hospital in Blackpool

While I'm posting can I give a quick shout of 'much kudos' out for the ladies in the baby section there.. As a clueless, lost bloke in there looking for something scrawled on a scrap of paper by my partner who might as well have written it in swahili, I was absolutely made up with help given - haven't had service like that in YEARS, if everyone in the country tried acting like that for a while the country would be back on it's feet in no time

But onto what I wanted to put up for discussion, those new electro-self-service tills.. how long have you guys had those? I'm still down near Liverpool at the mo & my local Morrissons in Ormskirk has only just got them I think.

I got up the courage to give one a go after standing for donkeys' in line behind a woman who was stocking the larder for a battleship lol.. and hey they're really neat, I was impressed.. beep beep & I'm through with my 3 packets of size 1 baby gros.. and free to go instead of waiting another half hour! cool

BUT.. I think I saw 8 of these terminals there. To me that's 8 human beans without jobs somewhere? That kinda makes me a bit uneasy about them.. what do you think..?

grannyclaret · #2 08-11-09, 15:27

i dont like them,,,give me a person doing the till anyday,,,,,

SouthportFriends · #3 08-11-09, 21:35

It's yet another little bit of human interaction lost from society.. I mean it's great if say, you've got 20 human checkouts and 5 robots, but what's the betting once 85% of shoppers have gotten used to the robo-tills, they'll just take the line "sod the other 15%, we'll force them to use the robots too".. yet again, thin end of the wedge tactics

Christian1985 · #4 08-11-09, 23:02

I like the self-scan machines, very handy for people like me who often stops in on the way back from work to grab a few things. But what does annoy me is when the machines start playing up and the assistant is stood there gabbing away to another member of staff or a friend and you are stood there like a right plank holding up the queue all because the scales didn't register a light item. But on the whole I like them.

SouthportFriends · #5 09-11-09, 11:27

Crikey had no idea you could use them for weighable stuff - I thought it was strictly, individually barcoded discrete items.. cleverer robots than I thought then?

Karen · #6 10-11-09, 09:21

If I've only got a couple of items, then I use the self-scan machines, as that what they're designed for (remember the 10 items or less tills). Sometimes, as was pointed out by Christian1985, when they break-down or can't weigh something properly, then they can become a nuisance. Over-all, I like them, as it saves me queing up in a great big long queue, just for the couple of items that I want.

grannyclaret · #7 15-11-09, 15:58

what if you did it wrong,,,you could be accused of fiddling the till.....

stealth womble · #8 27-11-09, 16:49

I hate them. after buying a tv late at night and finding no tills open i was forced to use these monstrous contraptions ok one item, easy peasy, till it came to feeding over a grand into the damn machine, clever though..

by all accounts you cant fiddle them, { so ive been told, no doubt if your really clever there may be a way round all the weight protocols }