On Thu, 24 Feb 2022 15:29:12 -0000 (UTC)
Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
>ColinR <rail@greystane.shetland.co.uk> wrote:
>>> The M&S I use most often has exclusively self-checkouts. (But it's more
>>> of a convenience store than a supermarket).
>>
>> I consider self-checkouts as being the opposite of convenient!
>
>I occasionally use them for small items, but when you have things that
>don’t fit in a single bag (french bread, anyone?) you can end up waiting
>ages for the overworked assistant to come and reset things and try to work
>out how to get all your shopping into the bagging area at one time.

Asda have gone one step further in pissing customers off at the self checkout.
The checkouts have a camera and an "AI" that looks at the loose fruit and veg
when you weigh it to check the type. If it doesn't think your selection
matches what it reckons it is it'll tell you to call the assistant who then
has to look at the picture to make sure you didn't try and buy avocados for
the price of carrots. Unfortunately the tech is junk and is often confused
so if you buy a lot of loose F&V you spend half your time calling a tired
assistent over who never checks the picture anyway, just resets the till.

In message <sv8ddd$lpe$1@gioia.aioe.org>, at 16:57:17 on Thu, 24 Feb
2022, Muttley@dastardlyhq.com remarked:
>On Thu, 24 Feb 2022 15:29:12 -0000 (UTC)
>Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
>>ColinR <rail@greystane.shetland.co.uk> wrote:
>>>> The M&S I use most often has exclusively self-checkouts. (But it's more
>>>> of a convenience store than a supermarket).
>>>
>>> I consider self-checkouts as being the opposite of convenient!
>>
>>I occasionally use them for small items, but when you have things that
>>don’t fit in a single bag (french bread, anyone?) you can end up waiting
>>ages for the overworked assistant to come and reset things and try to work
>>out how to get all your shopping into the bagging area at one time.
>
>Asda have gone one step further in pissing customers off at the self checkout.
>The checkouts have a camera and an "AI" that looks at the loose fruit and veg
>when you weigh it to check the type. If it doesn't think your selection
>matches what it reckons it is it'll tell you to call the assistant who then
>has to look at the picture to make sure you didn't try and buy avocados for
>the price of carrots. Unfortunately the tech is junk and is often confused
>so if you buy a lot of loose F&V you spend half your time calling a tired
>assistent over who never checks the picture anyway, just resets the till.

I remember shopping in a Tesco in North London on a Saturday morning,
and the "weekend job" till operator holding up some loose fruit I had
selected and asking me "what are these called". "Apples" I said.

Some (but not all) supermarkets actually put little stickers on each bit
of fruit to say what it is.

Identifying which of twenty varieties of loose bread roll one has, can
also be a bit of a pain (see what I did there).
--
Roland Perry

<Muttley@dastardlyhq.com> wrote:

> Asda have gone one step further in pissing customers off at the self checkout.
> The checkouts have a camera and an "AI" that looks at the loose fruit and veg
> when you weigh it to check the type. If it doesn't think your selection
> matches what it reckons it is it'll tell you to call the assistant who then
> has to look at the picture to make sure you didn't try and buy avocados for
> the price of carrots. Unfortunately the tech is junk and is often confused
> so if you buy a lot of loose F&V you spend half your time calling a tired
> assistent over who never checks the picture anyway, just resets the till.
>
>

At least one Supermarket is installing cameras on the self service tills
that focus on the customer, if you give permission for it to scan your boat
race “AI” decides if you are old enough to purchase age controlled
purchases like alcohol rather than a member of staff having to ask.
Ahh, here we are.
<https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/co-op-tesco-asda-aldi-morrisons-supermarkets-trial-facial-age-estimation-tech-buying-alcohol-1406501>

GH

Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
> In message <sv8ddd$lpe$1@gioia.aioe.org>, at 16:57:17 on Thu, 24 Feb
> 2022, Muttley@dastardlyhq.com remarked:
>> On Thu, 24 Feb 2022 15:29:12 -0000 (UTC)
>> Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
>>> ColinR <rail@greystane.shetland.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>> The M&S I use most often has exclusively self-checkouts. (But it's more
>>>>> of a convenience store than a supermarket).
>>>>
>>>> I consider self-checkouts as being the opposite of convenient!
>>>
>>> I occasionally use them for small items, but when you have things that
>>> don’t fit in a single bag (french bread, anyone?) you can end up waiting
>>> ages for the overworked assistant to come and reset things and try to work
>>> out how to get all your shopping into the bagging area at one time.
>>
>> Asda have gone one step further in pissing customers off at the self checkout.
>> The checkouts have a camera and an "AI" that looks at the loose fruit and veg
>> when you weigh it to check the type. If it doesn't think your selection
>> matches what it reckons it is it'll tell you to call the assistant who then
>> has to look at the picture to make sure you didn't try and buy avocados for
>> the price of carrots. Unfortunately the tech is junk and is often confused
>> so if you buy a lot of loose F&V you spend half your time calling a tired
>> assistent over who never checks the picture anyway, just resets the till.
>
> I remember shopping in a Tesco in North London on a Saturday morning,
> and the "weekend job" till operator holding up some loose fruit I had
> selected and asking me "what are these called". "Apples" I said.
>
> Some (but not all) supermarkets actually put little stickers on each bit
> of fruit to say what it is.

Some of the fruit in the supermarket I most frequently frequent is like
that, some is prepacked and some is loose and weigh-it-your-blooming-self
(which I often do for oranges and onions).

> Identifying which of twenty varieties of loose bread roll one has, can
> also be a bit of a pain (see what I did there).

Ha!

Sam

--
The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
Spit the dummy to reply

On Thu, 24 Feb 2022 17:16:46 +0000
Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>In message <sv8ddd$lpe$1@gioia.aioe.org>, at 16:57:17 on Thu, 24 Feb
>2022, Muttley@dastardlyhq.com remarked:
>>On Thu, 24 Feb 2022 15:29:12 -0000 (UTC)
>>Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
>>>ColinR <rail@greystane.shetland.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>> The M&S I use most often has exclusively self-checkouts. (But it's more
>>>>> of a convenience store than a supermarket).
>>>>
>>>> I consider self-checkouts as being the opposite of convenient!
>>>
>>>I occasionally use them for small items, but when you have things that
>>>don’t fit in a single bag (french bread, anyone?) you can end up
>waiting
>>>ages for the overworked assistant to come and reset things and try to work
>>>out how to get all your shopping into the bagging area at one time.
>>
>>Asda have gone one step further in pissing customers off at the self checkout.
>
>>The checkouts have a camera and an "AI" that looks at the loose fruit and veg
>>when you weigh it to check the type. If it doesn't think your selection
>>matches what it reckons it is it'll tell you to call the assistant who then
>>has to look at the picture to make sure you didn't try and buy avocados for
>>the price of carrots. Unfortunately the tech is junk and is often confused
>>so if you buy a lot of loose F&V you spend half your time calling a tired
>>assistent over who never checks the picture anyway, just resets the till.
>
>I remember shopping in a Tesco in North London on a Saturday morning,
>and the "weekend job" till operator holding up some loose fruit I had
>selected and asking me "what are these called". "Apples" I said.
>
>Some (but not all) supermarkets actually put little stickers on each bit
>of fruit to say what it is.
>
>Identifying which of twenty varieties of loose bread roll one has, can
>also be a bit of a pain (see what I did there).

Mais oui!

On 24 Feb 2022 20:16:18 GMT
Marland <gemehabal@btinternet.co.uk> wrote:
><Muttley@dastardlyhq.com> wrote:
>
>> Asda have gone one step further in pissing customers off at the self
>checkout.
>> The checkouts have a camera and an "AI" that looks at the loose fruit and veg
>
>> when you weigh it to check the type. If it doesn't think your selection
>> matches what it reckons it is it'll tell you to call the assistant who then
>> has to look at the picture to make sure you didn't try and buy avocados for
>> the price of carrots. Unfortunately the tech is junk and is often confused
>> so if you buy a lot of loose F&V you spend half your time calling a tired
>> assistent over who never checks the picture anyway, just resets the till.
>>
>>
>
>At least one Supermarket is installing cameras on the self service tills
>that focus on the customer, if you give permission for it to scan your boat

Asda have had customer cameras since they self checkouts turned up though I
don't think it does facial recognition yet, I suspect its just recording in
case of trouble. Seems they treat every store and its customers as if its in
the middle of Tottenham or Toxteth.

>race “AI” decides if you are old enough to purchase age controlled
>purchases like alcohol rather than a member of staff having to ask.
>Ahh, here we are.
><https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/co-op-tesco-asda-aldi-morrisons-supermarke
>ts-trial-facial-age-estimation-tech-buying-alcohol-1406501>

Bit of grey dye in the hair, false beard, sorted.

On 24/02/2022 07:45, Graeme Wall wrote:
> On 24/02/2022 00:04, Recliner wrote:
>> Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>> In message <sv5vqf$4um$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:53:03 on Wed, 23 Feb
>>> 2022, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
>>>> Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>> In message <sv5ton$p47$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:17:59 on Wed, 23 Feb
>>>>> 2022, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Wilko has excellent self checkouts. They converted some existing
>>>>>>>> checkouts  by dint of rotating the computer display and making the
>>>>>>>> handheld scanner  available to the customer. It’s quicker to unload
>>>>>>>> your basket via the  scanner into your bag than it is to load up
>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>> belt and then pick up the  assistant’s output. The big difference
>>>>>>>> to the conventional self checkout is  the absence of scales
>>>>>>>> weighing
>>>>>>>> the contents in the bagging area. The  handheld scanner is also
>>>>>>>> much
>>>>>>>> better at detecting the barcode than the  fixed scanner in the
>>>>>>>> conventional self checkout. I can manage almost Aldi  speeds with
>>>>>>>> this system.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I wonder if anyone has swabbed those handheld scanners for traces of
>>>>>>> poo?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Trolley handles, basket handles, where does it end?
>>>>>
>>>>> Since Covid, both of the latter will be wiped by any customer who
>>>>> thinks
>>>>> it matters.
>>>>
>>>> Then you can do the same with the scanner, touch screens etc.
>>>
>>> Not so easily, because the various sprays are only near the entrance.
>>>
>>
>> Do many supermarkets still provide those? I've not used, or seen seen
>> them
>> being used, for quite a few months.
>>
>
> All my local ones still have them[1] though not that many people use
> them.
>
> [1] Tesco, Sainsbury's, 3 Co-ops, Sainsburys Local, Tesco Express, Aldi,
> Lidl, Waitrose and M&S food.
>

Blimey, spoilt for choice. Up here we have Tesco, Co-op and ... oh yes,
nowt else! Both have self-service tills, but I never use them!

--
Colin

<martin.coffee@round-midnight.org.uk> wrote:
> On 23/02/2022 10:43, Charles Ellson wrote:
>> On Wed, 23 Feb 2022 08:57:28 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver
>> <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:
>>
>>> <Muttley@dastardlyhq.com> wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 22 Feb 2022 17:06:24 +0000
>>>> martin.coffee@round-midnight.org.uk wrote:
>>>>> On 22/02/2022 16:07, Muttley@dastardlyhq.com wrote:
>>>>>> On Tue, 22 Feb 2022 09:39:25 +0000
>>>>>> Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>>>> The Xmas just gone I really fancied a Beef Wellington (which used to be
>>>>>>> a staple in Aldi that time of year) but they seem to have deleted it
>>>>>>> from their inventory.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Oh dear, having to shop in Aldi? How the mighty etc. If things get worse
>>>>>> you'll be shopping in the famine relief centre called Lidl amongst the chavs.
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Aldi an Lidl both have the same endearing feature that you can purchase
>>>>> the same items in at least a third of the time as in other supermarkets.
>>>>
>>>> Not in the nearest Lidl to me (which thankfully is 3 miles away). The few
>>>> times I've been in the queues were about 6 deep on all the tills of beer bellies
>>>> and cheap tracksuits and no self checkout option. Presumably they assume
>>>> their customers might have trouble figuring them out.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> The Lidls near me have self checkouts.
>>>
>>> Aldi's checkout assistants can deal with a queue of six customers quicker
>>> than M&S staff can serve one customer.
>>>
>> Both M&Ss near me (1 food, 1 food section) have self checkouts. Local
>> Lidl seem to have around 50% with self-checkouts.
>
> We have a new Lidl near here which does NOT have self-checkouts.

BIngley has an Aldi that is only a few years old, and a Lidl that opened
less than a year before the pandemic, and both only have staffed checkouts.

In contrast, the Coop does have self checkouts, but if I’m buying more than
one or two things I find that the glitches mean that it’s usually quicker
to use the staffed checkout.

--
Jeremy Double

>>>> Aldi's checkout assistants can deal with a queue of six customers quicker
>>>> than M&S staff can serve one customer.

If you've been to an Aldi in Germany, they're even faster. Other
customers will scowl at you if you don't have your goods on the belt
ready for the checker to fling into the cart.

My local supermarket has a phone app that I can use to scan items as I
take them off the shelf and put them in my shopping bag. For items
like produce that need to be weighed, the scale shows a bar code to
scan in lieu of printing a label. Then you proceed to the self-check,
scan the code on its display, it shows your list of items, you pay in
the usual way, and you leave. Once I got the knack of scanning the
barcodes, it's much faster than anything else.

Waitrose had something like this when I was in the UK a decade ago
using dedicated devices they lent you, but this is even faster.

--
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> wrote:
>>>>> Aldi's checkout assistants can deal with a queue of six customers quicker
>>>>> than M&S staff can serve one customer.
>
> If you've been to an Aldi in Germany, they're even faster. Other
> customers will scowl at you if you don't have your goods on the belt
> ready for the checker to fling into the cart.
>
It used to be like that here until the Mumsnet Mafia discovered them and
reassured each other they wouldn’t catch fleas from the other customers
while pronouncing what good value they were as if they had discovered the
source of the Nile, they never really accepted the fast way of working
preferring to hold others up as they bagged up at the end of the till with
inevitable search for means of payment at the end that takes many by
surprise.
Aldi and Lidl pandered to them and while in many stores it is still
possible to fill the trolley and then move to the packing shelf its role
now seems to be more for sitting toddlers on while their shoelaces are
done up.

GH