Asda's new "hybrid checkouts" - good or bad?

[Deleted User]

My nearest ASDA have had these for a year or so now. If it's busy they sometimes have staff on them e.g. at christmas.

I'm two minds with self service checkouts. If the shop is busy and I buy age restricted products then it is easier to go to normal checkout rather than wait ages for someone to authorise the sale.

Other times it is better to go to self service as I can check the price as I am scanning. Many a time I have bought 10 for £3 yogurts and ended up with 11 on the receipt or 5 for £2 fruit snacks and ended up paying for 7. All because the dopey checkout operator was trying to be clever with their counting and scanning technique.

WelshDragoness

These 'hybrid self service tills' are absolutely rubbish!, In the Llandudno store there are usaully just two of these new style tills open most mornings, the rest are the self serve ones that are always crammed with all the kids from the local school, if you want to beat the later crowds before going to work it takes ages to get through, hence, i go to Aldi most days now, the staff there are great , really polite and quick, to be honest if Aldi sold newspapers too, I'd avoid Asda completely

shammyjack

Self service checkouts are the work of the Devil, never work fully unless you have a simple few items shop and put people out of work.

I refuse to use them and if requested to ask for a £5 reduction off my shop for the request, they soon go quiet !

It is quicker in most surcumstances to join a quew of 3 or 4 rather than use these abminations !

System

Is it just my local store or do they have about 3 which are always broken down and another 2 where its either card or cash only?

It's typical if I want to pay by card, there are just the cash only ones available! If it's the otherway round, it's less of an issue for me.

jon81uk

My local Asda has the self scan checkouts with conveyors and they are often quick, unless the person in front is being slow. But they are only worth using if there is a member of staff just looking after the 4 conveyor self scans and a seperate staff member (or two) on the basket ones.

On very very busy days when all manned tills are open they convert the conveyor self scans to being staffed tills instead, they switch barriers around so that you walk down the side of the till without the scanner and the staff member does all the work instead. This works well to speed things up when they are busy and have enough staff.

meg72

I never use self scan, I live alone and sometimes the assistant is the only human being that I have spoken too for several days.

BillyL81

At my local ASDA they have a habit of not manning any of the 20 or so manned checkouts and leave you with no altrnative but to use a self checkout.
What next? Perhaps a brush to sweep up, a list of stock to collect and stack on shelves.
I went in their this morning at 0835 and no people serving, plenty milling staff around the store and even one on the Greeting Stand; what's all that about?
I put my goods on an unmanned checkout and walked out informing the Greeter that it was disrespectful to customers to have nobody serving.
I have written to Asda CEO about this and he supports the tactic of leaving customers to their own devices. Well my own devices cause me to shop at Morrisons even though that is 5 miles the other side of town and Asda is 0.7 miles away.
I do understand that there needs to be business efficiencies to make profits but having idle staff on a greeting station, that quite frankly just embarrasses people, in preference to putting the same person on a checkout to serve customers is going to annoy customers.
Perhaps I'm developing into a grumpy old man but having said that, the only place I get grumpy is when I can't get a human to serve me at Asda.
Cheerio Asda and good luck; your unmanned policy is simply inhuman and it's humans that provide your custom.
This policy has turned me away and I will do all I can to spread the word.
Oh yes! ...and I am yet to get though an unmanned till without a problem that required assistance and I am a very advanced computer user and engineeer.

[Deleted User]

I hate those new conveyor belt self serve checkouts in Asda as the belt never seems to work. The last time I used one I just plonked my basket on next to the scanner, scanned my shopping, paid and left leaving the empty basket on the belt.

In the past when the belt wasn't working and I had to keep dragging my stuff up to the end to scan. Staff were just standing and watching instead of coming to help or sort the conveyor out.

F*** em.