Do you hate self-service checkouts?

Self-service checkouts first infiltrated our supermarkets in the 90s, but now the often unreliable scanners have veritably rammed our local stores with their robotic voices.

They’re meant to offer convenience to customers, but it’s clear that their main purpose is to reduce supermarket staff, leading to valuable savings.

Most of us hate self-service checkouts

Well, three quarters of us supposedly hate these checkouts, as found in a survey by discount website MyVoucherCodes.co.uk. And although this website would like us to do our shopping online, the results aren’t terribly surprising – a previous poll put Brit dissatisfaction with the checkouts at around half.

Not only do many of us hate self-service checkouts, but they’re also our most hated thing about supermarkets. Dawdling customers and unhelpful staff aren’t too far behind. Seven in ten find the machines infuriating, with many wanting the scanners to be removed altogether.

Which might be a little over the top – the checkouts can speed up the supermarket experience. And although building up the confidence to use them is sometimes hard, once you’ve got the hang of them, you’ll feel like you’re in charge of your own shopping destiny.

‘Unexpected item in the bagging area’

But then you hear those hellish words sent to us by a demonic, robotic woman – ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’. I’ll give you an unexpected item in your bagging area!

You repeatedly drop that packet of nuts on the scales – but to the self-service checkout, your nuts don’t exist. This leaves you aimlessly looking for an overworked member of staff to help you as the queue builds up behind.

Three quarters of those polled said they’d had similar experiences – leading four in ten to stop using them altogether. Sarah Dennis from Which? Home had these words for self-service checkouts:

“Self-service may seem like a good idea in theory, but in my experience they can often be more inconvenient than an unsmiling checkout assistant, where at least there’s some human interaction.”

But the simple fact is – if you want to avoid dawdling customers and unhelpful staff, the self-service checkout may be your best option, even if they often seem like they have a vendetta against you. What’s your experience of self-service checkouts? Love ’em or hate ’em?

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Our survey says – self-service checkouts suck.