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Supermarket shopping (again)


AnneMarriott

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Once again the weekly purgatory at Tesco has made me want to spit.  The coin mechanisms have been removed from the trolleys, presumably in readiness for the new £1 coins.  So now the car park is littered with hundreds of abandoned trolleys, all blocking parking spaces or requiring hazardous manoeuvres to drive along the roads.  One has to get out of the car to clear a space to park!  I was just ruminating on the poor standards of trolley-users when I spotted the trolley marshal, looking thoroughly defeated as well he might, ambling about collecting errant trolleys in a rather unenthusiastic manner.  Some litter lout had seen fit to scatter a large quantity of wrapping materials along the roads between the parking spaces.  Far from picking it up, as I had expected, the marshal kicked it into touch, thus blocking even more parking spaces.

 

Having managed to do get everything on my list, despite having to hunt for items that had mysteriously moved since last week and perform slaIoms to avoid the staff with large multi-crate wagons doing shopping for online customers and little gangs of managerial staff holding meetinbgs in the middle of the aisles, I started unloading at the checkout only to fall victim to one of those premature unloaders in the queue behind me.  I have moaned about this before.  I cannot understand why it is necessary to start putting shopping on the conveyor belt when the person ahead of you has lots more shopping to unload.  Repeated requests to stop or allow more space went unheeded.  Physically pushing the offending shopping back also went unheeded.  Pleas from the cashier to go to the basket only checkout - yes, readers, the culprit only had a basket!  - also ignored.  I would go at a time when no-one else wants to do their shopping but then there are no checkouts open (and I won't bore everyone with my opinions of self-serve checkouts), the shelves are empty and the whole place is a fire hazard with packaging lying about.  

 

I try to relieve the agony by ordering non-perishables for delivery once a month.  It seems to work most of the time.  But I don't want someone else choosing my tomatoes or cheese so the weekly shop is unavoidable.  I hate it!

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Anne I think it would be an insult to like your post but (apart from the trolley issue) I know exactly where you are coming from.

 

I absolutely REFUSE to use self service since I was persuaded to when the Liverpool M&S first introduced the infernal machines.  Even with help from several staff members the whole shop ended up hysterical with laughter at my attempts to buy 2 items!!!

 

I won't use pay at pump in garages for similar reasons!

 

It drives me potty when people start loading the conveyor belt before I have finished.

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I don't understand the bag thing on the self service tills!! I can't remember now as also,never use but I was always being told that I either hadn't put the items in the bag or remove them from the bag ....one or the other....because I always had to call someone over it ended up taking longer so didn't bother any more.

I know it can't be that difficult and I should practice when I'm not in a hurry etc but I always DO seem to be in a hurry in the end so the practice never happens!!

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Some scales at self-service checkouts seem to be calibrated in such a way that they don't always recognise very light items e.g., a mini chocolate bar. So the item is in the bag and the software keeps asking the customer to put it in the bag. Removing the item from the bag however is likely to trigger a message that an item has been removed...

 

Conversely, pre-packaged fruits can trigger messages if the weight of the pack happens to be over and above an upper threshold for the item which seems to be set within the software. I once bought a particularly heavy pack of bananas which caused such message as the thinking will have been that it could not just be bananas on the scale. Amused look on employee's faces as they seemed to be aware of the issue already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

I won't use pay at pump in garages for similar reasons!

 

 

My Dad used to not like paying at the pump in the Tesco garage, but one day he went in the kiosk to pay and when he signed they told him his signature didn't match the one on his card! He signed again but they would no accept that the card belonged to him.

Eventually a supervisor was called and my Dad explained that he could have simply paid at the pump without having to produce a signature at all, which is what he does every time now!

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Poor dad!! It's amazing how different signatures can be sometimes depending on whether you wrote it in a hurry or not!!

I can sometimes have quite small neat school handwriting when I'm really taking care about something but on other occasions it's a bit of a scrall .....well as I'm usually in a hurry it seems mostly in a scrall but if you were ultra fussy you could look and conclude its not the same person!! 

Its that split personality again!!

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On 13/07/2017 at 21:17, Duck said:

Some scales at self-service checkouts seem to be calibrated in such a way that they don't always recognise very light items e.g., a mini chocolate bar. So the item is in the bag and the software keeps asking the customer to put it in the bag. Removing the item from the bag however is likely to trigger a message that an item has been removed...

 

Conversely, pre-packaged fruits can trigger messages if the weight of the pack happens to be over and above an upper threshold for the item which seems to be set within the software. I once bought a particularly heavy pack of bananas which caused such message as the thinking will have been that it could not just be bananas on the scale. Amused look on employee's faces as they seemed to be aware of the issue already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or when you click on the 'I am using my own bag' which may already have something in it purchased from another store, triggering a message to remove the offending item.

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Yep, that drives me mad in Sainsbury's.  So you'll see me carefully looking at my shopping items and seeing which ones aren't a specific weight.  Then I scan one of those first, put it in a carrier bag and hope the extra weight doesn't trigger anything.  It can be fruit/veg, newspapers, bakery products ...  What's really annoying, though, is the Saturday papers where sometimes you get a particularly heavy insert and the machine can't cope with the concept of a newspaper weighing that much, so insists on you calling the assistant!

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Anne, we've nicknamed our local, upgraded Tesco's superstore The Hellhole.  I hate it.  It's way too big, and doesn't have any mobile reception within the building, so you can't ring home and ask whether you've run out of something ...

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6 hours ago, alison said:

Anne, we've nicknamed our local, upgraded Tesco's superstore The Hellhole.  I hate it.  It's way too big, and doesn't have any mobile reception within the building, so you can't ring home and ask whether you've run out of something ...

The nickname would suit ours, too.  It's huge - not only Tesco itself but there are Dorothy Perkins, Burtons and Wallis sections in addition to Tesco's own clothes, then there's a hairdressers, halal butcher, a Royal sweets shop, a dry cleaners, a wigs, hairpieces and beauty section, health food concession, dentist, opticians and pharmacy plus petrol station.  You can also send money abroad.  There's a cafe/restaurant AND a coffee shop.  And click and collect department where you can pick up things you have ordered online or order on the spot from a catalogue, like Argos.  Not to mention the tobacco counter and lottery tickets.  Various other services come and go: accommodation letting agency, watch repair counter, travel agency. Really there's very little you can't do there if you can stand the agony.  No wonder the high street is dying.   Unfortunately there seems to be mobile reception because another of the hazards for mobile non-users is having to avoid people with phones glued to their ears having long conversations about anything other than what to buy.

 

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I usually do scan and shop at Tesco so have to scan my clubcard to access a scanner. As Tesco probably know more about me than the government, I find it ironic that when purchasing alcohol I always have to have an assistant confirm I'm over 18. When I queried this a few years back, the reason stated was that anyone under 18 in my household could have 'borrowed' my clubcard to buy alcohol. As my shopping is always £70 minimum, I couldn't imagine my daughters, had they been under 18, spending that amount to get a bottle of low alcohol wine.

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1 hour ago, Mumofballetmaddaughter said:

I usually do scan and shop at Tesco so have to scan my clubcard to access a scanner.

 

What is scan and shop?  Is it some wonderful system of avoiding the checkout?  If so, sign me up immediately!  I've seen it at our local Sainsbury's but never bothered to find out about it.

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From what my friend, who uses the 'scan and shop' in the Sainsbury's in Harrogate, says you scan your items as you put them in the basket and then proceed to the check out to pay.  Sometimes your whole basket is re-checked otherwise I think what the scanner says is accepted.  

 

A couple of years ago my niece and her partner had a phase of drinking grenadine and soda.  When trying to buy a bottle in our local Tesco the check out person did a "challenge 25" at which point they pointed out that the drink, although displayed alongside spirits, was non-alcoholic.  The staff member would not give in and neither would they so security was called.  The security man (fortunately) told the check out person not to be so ridiculous!

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One of my pet beefs is people who state smugly that they do their shopping on the internet. Good for them. They don't have to consider how much room the person shopping for them takes up with those huge carts and there are usually several going round the store at the same time. Given that our local store is normally busy anyway, it gets really rammed.

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14 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

From what my friend, who uses the 'scan and shop' in the Sainsbury's in Harrogate, says you scan your items as you put them in the basket and then proceed to the check out to pay.  Sometimes your whole basket is re-checked otherwise I think what the scanner says is accepted.  

 

A couple of years ago my niece and her partner had a phase of drinking grenadine and soda.  When trying to buy a bottle in our local Tesco the check out person did a "challenge 25" at which point they pointed out that the drink, although displayed alongside spirits, was non-alcoholic.  The staff member would not give in and neither would they so security was called.  The security man (fortunately) told the check out person not to be so ridiculous!

I have now googled scan and shop.  We don't have it at our local huge Tesco hyperstore.  However I forget to mention that they they do have a Krispy Kreme concession which fills the entire area with an unmistakable aroma, and it also offers a third chance to sit and drink coffee while eating the doughnuts, and the dry cleaners also hires out carpet cleaning machines and does shoe repairs and key cutting.  I do feel cheated about the scan and shop, though...

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2 hours ago, AnneMarriott said:

What is scan and shop?  Is it some wonderful system of avoiding the checkout?  If so, sign me up immediately!  I've seen it at our local Sainsbury's but never bothered to find out about it.

You do still need to go to a checkout but only to transfer the scanned items onto a till system prior to payment. Tesco has a separate area for these tills although I'm not sure about other supermarkets as it's only Tesco in our area that has them. I found it took a little getting used to as I seemed to take ages getting around the store however the positives for me are not having to load and unload the conveyor and as there's a running total, no nasty surprises when it comes to paying!

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Funnily enough I was chatting to the security guard at our small, local Tesco yesterday about the beep the scan and shop handsets make. They have been introduced very recently and I found myself in the store twice in a few days, all you can hear is the constant beep of the handsets as you try to shop. I found it irritating, whether it is to do with the acoustics in the store it being only small or what I don't know but the security guard said he went home now hearing the beep and it was driving him mad. 

I'll stick to chatting to the check out staff and avoid the self service and scan machines. I do however like pay at pump petrol stations, especially before or after work. 

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This thread has given me a headache ! I count myself very lucky to live in an area where we still have access to  greengrocers / butchers / bakers and small supermarkets on the local high street. Long may it last....although I have my doubts. 

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I live a minimum 45 minute drive from a big supermarket so I do have home delivery - BUT instead of coming from the supermarket 45 mins away from me ... it comes from one about an hour away! and seems to stock a totally different selection of goods to the closer store!

 

IF we go to a big store - DD likes to use the 'self scan' tills, as she enjoys scanning, but, with a full load, you have to stop periodically so you can then put bags back in the trolley to make room for more shopping to be scanned! and I frequently find it doesn't like my re-useable shopping bags either! I prefer to find a check out and operator and take my time! ( and I'm sure it is quicker in the long run ;) )

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9 minutes ago, Pixiewoo said:

I live a minimum 45 minute drive from a big supermarket so I do have home delivery - BUT instead of coming from the supermarket 45 mins away from me ... it comes from one about an hour away! and seems to stock a totally different selection of goods to the closer store!

 

 

 

Same here - I live about a mile away from the huge Tesco store but my online deliveries come from Ashford, Middx which must be between 30 and 60 minutes drive away depending on traffic.  Many times I've been told an item I want to order is not available, only to find shelves full of it in my local store.  I'm sure there's a logistical reason for all this but from the customer's point of view it's plain silly.

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On 7/15/2017 at 16:06, AnneMarriott said:

What is scan and shop?  Is it some wonderful system of avoiding the checkout?  If so, sign me up immediately!  I've seen it at our local Sainsbury's but never bothered to find out about it.

in the tesco version   , you  register  using your clubcard  , then  each time you shop , you  scan your clubcard  at the  issuing 'wall' and  it  allocates you a  hand scanner, as you  walk around the shop you  scan stuff as you  pick it up and  can therefore pack it yourself  how you want  in your own time ,  at the end of the shop you go to a dedicated area  with  dedicated staff and   modified self service tills,  the  'gun' downloads your shopping to the  till  and you pay ,  human intervention by staff is needed in some cases ;  i.e. stuff  with anti theft tags,  the aforementioned restricted items ( booze, knives,  lighter gas,  sniffable glue etc )  or if you get selected for an audit  ( which is usually  5 or 10 items, although i beleive the Ts+Cs allow for a  full  trolley audit)

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18 hours ago, AnneMarriott said:

Same here - I live about a mile away from the huge Tesco store but my online deliveries come from Ashford, Middx which must be between 30 and 60 minutes drive away depending on traffic.  Many times I've been told an item I want to order is not available, only to find shelves full of it in my local store.  I'm sure there's a logistical reason for all this but from the customer's point of view it's plain silly.


inter-branch stock problems  are  not confined to the  supermarkets ...  as for where supermarket home deliveries come from  it also depends o nthe  store having the space  for the parking of  the vehicles and  the necessary  back of shop space for the loading bays  etc  it needs  ... 

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  • 1 month later...

My pet hate with the self serve checkouts is that they give you the most inconvenient change imaginable - instead of giving you a 50p piece, you end up with something like 8 5p pieces and 10 pennies. I asked once in M&S why the machines had obviously been set up to the store's convenience rather then the customer's and told it was due to the time of day - a blatant load of rubbish as it's the same morning, noon and night (and for all the major supermarkets). Couple that with the challenge of using a daily newspaper voucher and shopping turns out to be not great for health and temper! I'm ashamed to admit that I take a perverse - and admittedly very childish - pleasure in feeding all the coins back into the self serve machine on my next shop!

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On ‎15‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 17:52, Jan McNulty said:

A couple of years ago my niece and her partner had a phase of drinking grenadine and soda.  When trying to buy a bottle in our local Tesco the check out person did a "challenge 25" at which point they pointed out that the drink, although displayed alongside spirits, was non-alcoholic.  The staff member would not give in and neither would they so security was called.  The security man (fortunately) told the check out person not to be so ridiculous!

 

I've only just seen this.  I've recently switched to drinking mostly alcohol-free drinks routinely at home, and found that anything classed as "beer" or "wine" results in an age-check at the checkout (fortunately at my age this hasn't ever resulted in a sale being refused).  The same applies whether the item is "alcohol free" (legally, anything less than 0.5% ABV) or "non-alcoholic" (0.0% ).  I even found the system triggered an age check when I bought a bottle of Bee's Knees, which, if memory serves, describes itself as an "alcohol-free sparkling rosé drink" - that is, it's not even claiming to be "wine", but it shares a shelf in the shop with alcohol-free/low-alcohol wine.

 

I don't believe there's any legal restriction on selling drinks at 0.5% alcohol or less to under-18s, so I presume it's either to do with generic classifications, or retailers wishing to be particularly responsible.

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21 hours ago, BMC said:

My pet hate with the self serve checkouts is that they give you the most inconvenient change imaginable - instead of giving you a 50p piece, you end up with something like 8 5p pieces and 10 pennies. I asked once in M&S why the machines had obviously been set up to the store's convenience rather then the customer's and told it was due to the time of day - a blatant load of rubbish as it's the same morning, noon and night (and for all the major supermarkets). Couple that with the challenge of using a daily newspaper voucher and shopping turns out to be not great for health and temper! I'm ashamed to admit that I take a perverse - and admittedly very childish - pleasure in feeding all the coins back into the self serve machine on my next shop!

 

Me too!  It seems to me that none of the designs of self-service machine are designed to hold the 50p coins - I wonder if the heptagonal shape is a problem? - because they never give any out.  If I put cash in, I always try and arrange it to minimise the amount of coins I get back, those blasted 5ps in particular.  What really annoys me is getting 20p back in 5ps.

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On 8/29/2017 at 14:29, RuthE said:

 

I've only just seen this.  I've recently switched to drinking mostly alcohol-free drinks routinely at home, and found that anything classed as "beer" or "wine" results in an age-check at the checkout (fortunately at my age this hasn't ever resulted in a sale being refused).  The same applies whether the item is "alcohol free" (legally, anything less than 0.5% ABV) or "non-alcoholic" (0.0% ).  I even found the system triggered an age check when I bought a bottle of Bee's Knees, which, if memory serves, describes itself as an "alcohol-free sparkling rosé drink" - that is, it's not even claiming to be "wine", but it shares a shelf in the shop with alcohol-free/low-alcohol wine.

 

I don't believe there's any legal restriction on selling drinks at 0.5% alcohol or less to under-18s, so I presume it's either to do with generic classifications, or retailers wishing to be particularly responsible.


likely  to be the 'department'  theproduct belongs to in the  stock control  system   if  booze is  department 23 for arguments sake, putting  the none booze you  want to sell from the booze shelves in dept 23  makes sense  , ratherthan say dept 27  with the fizzy pop (  even if  that is a closer legal match ) , law of unintended consequences   means that any  'dept 23' sale  triggers an age check ... 

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On 8/29/2017 at 15:21, alison said:

 

Me too!  It seems to me that none of the designs of self-service machine are designed to hold the 50p coins - I wonder if the heptagonal shape is a problem? - because they never give any out.  If I put cash in, I always try and arrange it to minimise the amount of coins I get back, those blasted 5ps in particular.  What really annoys me is getting 20p back in 5ps.

the UK has one of the larger ranges on  coinage  which doesn;t  help matters , if the  coin handling  is designed around the US  common circulating  coins  cent/ nickel /dime / quarter   rather  than 1p /2p / 5 p / 10 / 20 p. 50 p and commonly circulationg  1 pound  (  where the USA still loves it's dollar bill  despite  the pound, the euro and  both the Canadiain and Aussie dollars  have a coin for the 1 ( and 2)  whole unit denomination )

 

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