Woman fumes at 'stupid' clothes store self-checkout rule that's a 'step too far'
There is one thing that has become prolific in the last few years in shops around the country: self service checkouts. However, despite how common a sight they are becoming, they still massively split opinion, with some people seeing them as a more convenient option and other people disliking them and preferring a human touch when they are completing their purchases.
Not to mention the fact that self service checkouts also mean there is a potential for job cuts, as the technology can mean that there is less need to hire human assistants to work in the retail sector, which many people aren't happy about.
One woman took to Mumsnet to complain about there being even more self service checkouts in her local clothes shops, which she discovered when shopping for her daughter. During her trip she "noticed H&M had self service checkouts... tills were open too though. Then I went to M&S and tills were only for returns or exchanges and to pay you had to use self service," adding, "I tolerate self checkouts in supermarkets but when I am buying clothes, I expect some sort of service."
The woman also noted that some of the clothes for sale in M&S are pretty expensive, because they offer high-end brands in the store. "What struck me is that in my local M&S they sell Jaeger...a blouse was £125. I assume their coats would be at least a couple of hundred quid. It really irks me and no way would I spend hundreds of pounds on an item of clothing and have to ring it up a the checkout myself. I think it's really c****y to be honest".
She asked if anyone else agreed and many people were quick to voice their support, although not all of them. One user commented: "Yes it's a p**s take- our M&S is too and someone has to come over to take the tags off. I absolutely hate it."
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Another wrote, "Our Matalan has been doing this for a while and it is a pain in the neck every time. They literally pay a member of staff to stand there and point you in the direction of the self-checkouts, and they invariably have to go over and assist anyway. Stupid bloody idea." However, one user commented that they preferred it as a shopping experience: "Love a self check out, in any store, maybe they're made for people like me!"
Other commenters took a more balanced position, noting there were benefits and some downsides. One wrote: "Our M&S has this now too. On the one hand it's good that if you have something simple to check out then it saves time queuing behind someone with a complex return, and frees up staff to deal with returns, but I wish they would have just employed extra staff instead!"
This debate shows how divisive the technology can be, and comes as it has been announced that one supermarket chain - Booths - is ditching self-service checkouts altogerher. Booths said "We believe colleagues serving customers delivers a better customer experience and therefore we have taken the decision to remove self-checkouts in the majority of our stores".
The managing director of the chain - Nigel Murray - explained to BBC Radio Lancashire that they had made the decision in response to feedback from their customers: "our customers have told us this over time, that the self-scan machines that we've got in our stores they can be slow, they can be unreliable, they're obviously impersonal," he said.
Murray also added that Booths is "a business that prides ourselves on the high standards and high levels of warm, personal care. We like to talk to people and we're really proud that we're moving largely to a place where our customers are served by people, by human beings, so rather than artificial intelligence, we're going for actual intelligence."
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