Sainsbury's: PLEASE OPEN YOUR CHECKOUTS

QuackQuack_2

I just wanted to zoom in on one of the pictures I posted:



If you look closely you'll see three members of Sainsbury's staff (mostly teenagers) just milling around by the till ignoring the queue(s) - and another, to the right, giving it legs after I asked her to open some more tills. She walked past them without a word and vanished down an isle. Must have been the one where they were selling Marvin's Magic Tricks :rotfl:

michaelvintner

While I understand everyones frustration and cannot argue with any of you on the subject of closed tills and queues (I hate queueing, it does my head in). It is hardly the end of the world is it.

QuackQuack_2

michaelvintner wrote: »

While I understand everyones frustration and cannot argue with any of you on the subject of closed tills and queues (I hate queueing, it does my head in). It is hardly the end of the world is it.

That rather depends on what you are buying! if you've got frozen food in your trolley and a long trip home it's certainly not ideal. It may not be the end of the world, but it's not the starchild of retail either, is it!

The key point here is this problem is pretty much unique to Sainsbury's. Other supermarkets seem to manage this very basic problem much better and in so doing provide much better customer satisfaction.

DCFC79

michaelvintner wrote: »

While I understand everyones frustration and cannot argue with any of you on the subject of closed tills and queues (I hate queueing, it does my head in). It is hardly the end of the world is it.

No its not the end of the world but ive not really experienced what the OP has,

charlie-chan

QuackQuack wrote: »

I just wanted to zoom in on one of the pictures I posted:



If you look closely you'll see three members of Sainsbury's staff (mostly teenagers) just milling around by the till ignoring the queue(s) - and another, to the right, giving it legs after I asked her to open some more tills. She walked past them without a word and vanished down an isle. Must have been the one where they were selling Marvin's Magic Tricks :rotfl:

You know those three members of staff? They might be in charge of running the self-service or the entire checkouts and as a result, they cannot go on a till. I bet you would be just as angry if the checkout team leader went onto a till and you had an item with no barcode at another till that needed exchanging but no staff to go exchange it for you?

burnleymik

QuackQuack wrote: »

Nope, it's not Hanley, so I suspect this is not isolated :-(

What a pity. Nice products, nice stores - just lousy service.

Here are 4 open checkouts 3-5 deep.



All those empty chairs whilst people queue 4 deep +

Out of interest when were these photo's taken?

I think that must be a huge factor when deciding on staffing levels, it would'nt be cost effective to have lots of till staff sat around doing nothing at 6am (just an example, not saying that is what time it is there) when it's not usually that busy.

Also, it doesn't really look that busy to me, surely you wasted more time walking around doing your shopping and then walking out because of a 3 deep queue?

I agree that we expect a certain level of service, but I also think we should also allow a little le-way.

tripled

QuackQuack wrote: »

I just wanted to zoom in on one of the pictures I posted:



If you look closely you'll see three members of Sainsbury's staff (mostly teenagers) just milling around by the till ignoring the queue(s) - and another, to the right, giving it legs after I asked her to open some more tills. She walked past them without a word and vanished down an isle. Must have been the one where they were selling Marvin's Magic Tricks :rotfl:

So these "mostly teenagers" have the authority to randomly open tills? I agree with you that Sainsbury's should open more tills if there is a queue, but that is a management issue, it's not the decision of anyone with a name badge on to decide "oh, today I fancy a go on the tills".

QuackQuack_2

tripled wrote: »

So these "mostly teenagers" have the authority to randomly open tills? I agree with you that Sainsbury's should open more tills if there is a queue, but that is a management issue, it's not the decision of anyone with a name badge on to decide "oh, today I fancy a go on the tills".

I can't comment on what authority they have, but common sense would suggest that taking the view "Hey, let's just mill around here and do jack all" would probably not be the most sensible choice when you have a queue, several people deep, right in front of you.

Regarding the comment 'are these people staff' well, I think the uniform/fleeces give them away a little.

Jo_F

Re the teenagers, if they are under 18 it could be a case of them not being allowed on the tills, as they would need a supervisor hovering over them so that age restricted products could be authorised.

QuackQuack_2

Jo_F wrote: »

Re the teenagers, if they are under 18 it could be a case of them not being allowed on the tills, as they would need a supervisor hovering over them so that age restricted products could be authorised.

Indeed - but I would suspect them to have some common sense, see the queues and perhaps alert someone? I know they may not be of the calibre of 'The Young Apprentice', but it's not rocket science - is it!