I love shopping in Waitrose and I love scan-as-you-shop! Yes, I was converted to this system early on, and feel quite lost if I cannot scan as I shop. On holiday abroad, I feel quite bereft not being able to pack my bags as I go, rather than having to load everything onto a conveyor belt and wonder how much I have spent.
I know that this is a subject which divides people, so I asked for some opinions from my facebook group friends. I am now using my (fairly new) group ‘Archers Chit-Chat’ for crowd-sourcing my blog articles and getting some interesting views. I shall be quoting some of their opinions in the second part of this article. First of all, thanks in particular to Carolyn Steele, who has written a book based on her experiences, called ‘Queenie’s Teapot: A Politcal Satire.’ I shall be reviewing the book in a later blog piece.
One of my friends referred me to an article in the Guardian from January: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/23/waitrose-quick-check-rescan-security
This seemed to be rather an extreme reaction to what is standard procedure in supermarkets which offer the Quick Check system. After all, there is a certain amount of trust involved in implementing the system, and it seems inevitable that re-scans will be necessary. To be honest it is a long time since I have had a re-scan, and when it does happen, the staff are so quick and efficient that it does not take much time at all, even for a big shop (most of my shops are fairly big!)
So, why do I love Quick Check so much? I outline my main reasons below:
- When we started using the system, Waitrose provided us free of charge with a useful collection of sturdy bags which fit into a small or large shopping trolley. I don’t know if these are still available to customers new to Quick Check, but I would be prepared to pay for them.
- I can pack my bags as I go, thus sorting my shopping straight away into useful categories, such as: heavy fruit and vegetables, light fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, store cupboard ingredients and so on. Admittedly I also have a helpful husband who does half of the shopping, so this does make the sorting process even easier!
- I can check what I am spending as I shop; as we spend a lot of money on supermarket food, this is enormously helpuful for budgeting.
- Often the special offers are more obvious when you scan as you shop – your scanner ‘pings’ with a message even if you have missed information on the shelf.
- I save time, not having to load the items into a trolley, then onto the conveyor belt, then into bags and back in the trolley!
- I can use fewer bags for packing fruit and vegetables. For instance, if the onions and potatoes are loose, I can just pile them onto the scales without taking a bag, scan the price label once weighed and then drop the veg into my bag. I somehow think that check-out staff might start to get a bit annoyed with onions rolling loose down the conveyor belt, not to mention having to collect them up to weigh them.
- I can amuse myself having my age checked when I buy alcohol or dangerous candles. I once bought dangerous, sparkler candles for my 50th birthday cake, and had a good giggle with the staff about the irony of the situation!
- I don’t miss any interaction with staff using the self-scan; I am a chatty person by nature, and usually chat to the really helpful, knowledgeable staff on the meat and fish counter. There are sometimes occasions when we use the customer service desk, for instance for dry-cleaning, ordering glasses or alerting staff to faulty scales in the fruit and veg section. I have also often been known to help other customers find items on the shelves, or give hints and tips on recipes!
Like many people, I am on the other hand not keen on the system for scanning all the shopping at the till afterwards. As I use my own bags, I invariably confuse the system by not puting my bag in the correct place!
These are some of the comments from my Archers Chit-Chat friends, and this subject definitely does seem to provoke the marmite reaction, with devotees such as myself, and others who refuse to use self-scan or have had bad experiences using it.
Andrew Heelis: ‘I stopped using Waitrose after suffering the humiliation of their self-scan checking. I knew that it was likely to happen occasionally but it was happening to me with increasing frequency and I felt I was being singled out. I got no satisfaction when I raised the issue with customer services so I took my custom elsewhere.’
Carolyn Steele: ‘I hate them, and always queue up for a real person, partly because the shop layouts and arrangement of staff numbers are gradually manoeuvring me away from doing this and I refuse to be controlled! My OH on the other hand, swears by the hand held scanners, so it tends to depend who is paying who wins. I got so incensed about all this that I wrote a book about it, lol.’
Melinda Batchelor: ‘Before Christmas a local Sainsburys had no open tills and forced everyone to put their shopping through self checkout. I complained but they merely refunded for some cheese lost between checkout and the car. Will not be going back.’
Reply to Melinda from Anne Morcette: That has happened to me before: so I left the entire shopping at the till and drove off to the local Aldi! Guessing they had to find someone to put that stuff away!…. was not happy, hope they got the message.’
(Note from me here: I am not aware that Waitrose ever closes off all of the tills, but then it is not an all-night or very late night opening shop.)
Les Derbyshire: ‘I’ve used ‘scan as you shop’ in the past but nowadays I don’t shop in Waitrose often and they’re the only ones locally who have it. It was OK and quite handy to keep a tab on where you’re up to. In other stores I’ll use the self-scan sometimes when it’s a straightforward shop that I’ve done but more often I go to a till. In the southwest we’re a friendly bunch and it’s good to pass the time of day with the cashier.’
Colin M. Taylor: ‘It would be interesting to find out how much is lost in items not being scanned but bagged (it can be done) or loose fruit and veg are deliberately misidentified.’
Annette Canning: ‘I’ve done that with veg on a self-scan til. I was trying to weigh beetroot, but I couldn’t find them, even when I searched alphabetically. I called for help twice, got ignored (it was Asda), so I put them through as spuds! 😵😵😵’
Albert Hartland: ‘I refuse to use self scan or self checkout these dam stores make enough profit to employ people and not have customers do their work for free, its not as if they knock some off the bill it’s just a bit more profit for them.’
Cheryl Mcculloch: ‘In the perfect world, a supermarket would have all self scan with a system that worked and the store would have lots of well trained, interested staff around to keep the place tidy and well stocked and help with any queries. They could weigh and pack things in paper bags or the customer’s own containers. It would be lovely! Hardly likely though.’
Debbie Bashford: ‘We always use the self scan handheld things at Waitrose because it’s quicker than queuing for the tills and I think we’ve been rescanned twice in the two years it has been open. The staff are always very nice and quite apologetic about it and scan everything through very efficiently. We usually have to “interact” with someone anyway to verify that we are over 18 to buy booze.’
Alison Mary Hebborn: ‘My mother does the “no cashier, you can put it all back then” strop on a regular basis. There are generally now a couple of cashiers open at her Tesco.’
Emma Grainger: ‘Did you know you can turn off those annoying voices at the self-scan checkouts in Sainsburys? I love doing this but the staff have got wise to me and turn it back on the second I walk away.’ (I am sure we’d all like to know the secret Emma!)
Pam Pummell: ‘We always use the Waitrose self scan as you shop, you still need staff to monitor booze and meds! No problem being rescanned, doesn’t happen very often!
But I always shout at the other type!’
Helen Peters: ‘I’ve never used one. I think maybe it means less people have jobs.’
Jenny Hope: ‘I absolutely point blank refuse to use them – I want people to have jobs.’
Mary-Jane van Rooijen: ‘I use it to avoid speaking to staff, and so I can pack the bags as I shop, I hate the conveyor belt shite… what the actual fuck are you doing sending the marrow, melon and potatoes down after the fucking eggs and bread??? That’s not how I loaded the belt the other side!!! 😂’
John Rouse: ‘I like self-checkouts as I can make sure the correct amount is added to the bill, whilst also doing my packing. Tesco in particular are notorious for not having the correct items behind the shelf-edge labels, or not having the correct barcodes on reduced items.’
Ann Payton: ‘I love the scan as you shop system – it is perfect for me – I struggle doing a “full” shop in an ordinary supermarket as I have spinal problems, the scan as you shop is ideal as I don’t have to unload everything at the till and then reload it – under time pressure usually – by which time I’m usually in agony. Scan and shop – packed at my own pace exactly where I want it, just need to transfer bags into my car.
Plus – as others have mentioned, it helps me watch what I’m spending as I go round – which for me is an added extra.’
I am including this long comment from Orlando Murrin on my self-scan survey. I hope that he will not mind, but it really does sum up so well many of my own thoughts.
‘I go to my local Waitrose precisely because they offer self-scanning – the system where you take your bleeper round the supermarket with you. For me, it is an infinite improvement on queuing at the till, or even worse, struggling to scan everything at the end and all that nonsense about bagging areas. (Who invented that stupid phrase? Does that make my kitchen an unbagging area?)
My reasons:
1 You can keep your eye on how much you’re spending as you go along (as Sarah says)
2 You can pack your groceries as you shop, instead of that unseemly scrambling at the till, while the next person in the queue gives you the evil eye
3 You save 10-15 minutes every trip to the supermarket – time that could be spent learning a new skill, or helping the needy, whatever takes your fancy
4 You can look after delicate items such as eggs and apples and prevent them getting smashed or bruised – some of those till assistants throw items round like it’s a rugby match
5 In our Waitrose (Exeter), we have a special area for self-scan customers to cash up in, with a chilled, upmarket ambience, attended by the creme de la creme of Waitrose customer service personnel. It’s like flying club class.
6 At busy times, when the tills are heaving with overladen trolleys and screaming toddlers, one enjoys a distinct feeling of superiority, gliding past the envious looks of other shoppers.
Now that’s sorted, a few words about re-scans. I first encountered self-scanning in France, where I lived for several years. In French supermarkets it is assumed everyone is a shoplifter (for instance, any bags you bring in with you are plastic-wrapped (emballés), to prevent you slipping in illicit items), and re-scans are frequent. But the great thing is – they tell you how you did, then and there. Every time I was rescanned they found I was overpaying – had scanned something and changed my mind, or bleeped something by mistake. So in a short while, they realised it in their interest to leave me to my own devices, and the rescans stopped!
At Waitrose – where I have had perhaps half a dozen rescans in four years – you are left in agony, wondering how you did. They say they can’t tell you because they don’t have the information, but I’m sure someone somewhere is compiling a dossier. It’s a bit sinister.
Finally, do I miss the social interaction with the till assistants? Not at all. There’s a feeling of camaraderie among the self-scan fraternity, and also, because I am inevitably buying alcohol, customer services always has to come along and verify my age. (This in itself gives me a boost as I am well into my 50s)’
Thanks Orlando! Just a final word from me: when it comes to the question of shops employing fewer staff, it may be controversial to say so, but times do move on. The set-up and staffing of supermarkets and other shops is not structured in the same way that it was 30 or 40 years ago. Technology does inevitably change the way we shop, and we have to embrace these changes. In my local Waitrose, there are certainly staff on the shop floor available to help customers, and the customer service desk is not something that I remember from years ago.