Supermarket self-service checkouts – love ‘em or hate ‘em it’s clear many of you have strong views. More than 100 of you have so far commented on our Convo on the subject and more than 1,100 have voted in our poll.
At the moment the votes are on the side of my colleague Paul Ryan who professed a deep dislike for them. But I feel they let me get my shopping done more quickly than having to queue for ages waiting for the staff-operated tills.
Happily, some of you are on my side, including Glennwalker who said:
‘I really love self checkouts – they speed up my shopping!’
Others of you also liked that you didn’t have to interact with others when you didn’t want to.
Do you prefer a personalised service?
It seems that quite a few of you do prefer dealing with a member of staff when at the supermarket. Cactustom said:
‘I find robo tills impersonal, I prefer a living, breathing human to scan my shopping, help me with the bagging up if necessary and wish me good morning with a smile. If there is a problem it’s sorted quickly and  there is plenty of room to bag my shopping. What’s not to like.’
Unexpected item in bagging area
Another gripe many of you mentioned is problems scanning items, or checkouts not recognising if a small item has been placed in the carrier bag. Dudley experiences this a lot:
‘Always problems at self-service tills, If you buy a small item, say a sauce sachet, the bagging area cannot register a small weght so once again call operator.’
Linda had the same issue:
‘They continually demand items be weighed unnecessarily, fail to identify many common items and require constant intervention from staff who are obviously as unhappy with the checkouts as their customers.’
Thanks to all who have already shared their views, and please do keep voting in our poll!
Which of these problems do you find using self-service checkouts?
You have to ask for help (24%, 1,048 Votes)
There's always an unexpected item in the bagging area (24%, 1,048 Votes)
Customer does all the work (19%, 836 Votes)
They don't scan items properly (14%, 612 Votes)
You can't use your own bags (9%, 395 Votes)
I don't have any problems. I find them quick and convenient to use (6%, 264 Votes)
Other - tell us in the comments (5%, 222 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,775
