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Best mate works for Woolies. Minus the eftpos outage at Coles this morning, they have just as many issues with their self serve checkouts. And yes the staff hate them as much as the customers š¤·š»āāļø
Shareholders loving it though. Got no qualms scanning shit wrong in purpose, think about how Woolies is one of the biggest thieves in the country in terms of wage theft, abusing employee rights, owning pubs and pokies machines, price gouging.
Easy easy choice
Fully depends on your suburb. When i take the train home from my girlfriends in the morning i stop over at woolies in strathfield and 50% of the time it accuses me of taking or not bagging something and i have to wait...
When i go to the coles in an affluent suburb to help my girlfriend do her food shopping for the week she scans it all on her phone as she goes around the stor putting it in your trolley. Then at the self serve counter theres a small ipad with a scan gun and she holds her phone up and it charges her, in and out no one even checks you havent stolen.
Likewise when i duck back in to grab some chips or a drink if i use the self service there and put something down and pick it back up too quick, the self serve doesnt even lock or wait for the staff to put a code in, it just changes to "item not bagged" and you can keep going. A few times ive grabbed donuts and an iced coffee and the bottle has rolled off, screen goes grey for a few seconds them changes to "not bagged" and i keep going. Any other store from ashfield to parra the self serve would lock up and id be stuck waiting for someone to unfreeze it.
My local woolies has seemingly only just changed to the bullshit new camera system. For years it was the āskip baggingā style if the weight sensor was fucking up. Tap it and continue scanning. Now as you say, it locks up and needs operator input, it even brings up footage of you placing the scanned item into the bagā¦ uh yes that the item I scanned, and yes thatās me putting it into the bag, whereās the fucking issue. Not sure if it fucks up more if you go too quick, and if you are holding the next item to scan in the opposite hand. Need to scan each item like a sloth one at a time. So inconvenient.
Self checkouts at coles and woolies in rich areas actually aren't as stringent, most of the checkouts with cameras and AI trying to check every transaction are in the poorer areas
Sāfunny. I worked at Woolworths for a while (store design) and had access to all sorts of fascinating stats. Like the store with one of the highest rates of theft was ā¦ Double Bay.
I had to call the guy from the register over at Aldi FIVE times the other day trying to use the self checkout for 10 items. They didn't even have a dedicated person helping, it was literally the person supposed to be serving at the main register. Worse than Coles or Woolworths.
Went to an Aldi that had it. Didn't mind at all.
I honestly have never minded self serve, but sometimes when I have large quantities I definitely appreciate the server too.
Was at Woollies earlier today. Long line at the self-serv check outs because a number of people either wanted to pay by cash or withdraw cash and out of the 10 kiosks, only two met their requirements.
Same at kmart today. Something was wrong with eftpos machines and signatures required for purchases at the self serves which weren't technically self serve as the staff member had to run back and forth to every machine as there were issues with everything.
I was just grocery shopping in Iceland. The falling Australian dollar was not conducive to what was already an expensive experience! I am going to dread looking at my Westpac statement when the time comes!
I got flagged for an unscanned item because I was idly holding my phone too far over the scanner, so now I stand there with my arms at my side like a fucking robot so my 30 second transaction doesn't turn into a 5 minute wait.
And then giant signs at the entrance warning not to get upset or abusive towards staff. Which of COURSE noone should do, but how about staffing your business properly, giving employees proper training, and enough time/equipment etc to actually do their jobs properly!!!
They donāt do shit when customers are abusive anyway. Empty threats.
Some old Karen was racially abusing the young girl working at the cigarette counter (all over the fact that she was too stupid to read a ticket properly and refused to accept she was wrong) so I asked her to leave. She physically assaulted me, and I was reprimanded by the store manager for *causing* the altercation. In any other occupation, assault would warrant a call to the police and a banning notice. Nope, couldnāt do that, itās bad for business- not a good look. They want us all to stand there smiling politely while we cop unnecessary abuse on the daily.
Nope, I was fresh out of high school and didn't think much of it. Left shortly after as that store was an absolute shitshow.
Went outside to cool off and let the manager deal with it as I was pretty pissed, came back and he was gone and no details were taken.
I really regret not doing more at the time because who knows how many retail workers that guy abused with no consequence. Avid union member now.
A few months ago they brought in a rule where staff are no longer allowed to interact with shoplifters at all. No bag checks, no questioning people, no following thieves around at all - just let them go (because too many people try to be a hero and end up in hospital).
Now, staff have been told to overservice like their job depends on it because management wants to crack down on stock loss. smh
Been happening for years at Liquorland. They tell you not to approach or apprehend shoplifters. You get written up if you do. It's a joke. Coles won't hire security at most of their Liquorland stores, so it's a free for all. They lock up the high value stuff and let them have the cheap low margin shit. The cops won't do shit either. I lasted about a month.
My local Coles has installed self-service trolley checkouts - self serving on a few items is one thing but they can seriously get fucked.
https://clxprofessionals.com/self-service-trolley-checkouts/
The machines are getting āsmarterā and causing way more problems, it seems. Today I couldnāt finish my transaction (where miraculously nothing had gone wrong so far) because I hadnāt scanned the final item in my shopping cart. That item was my toddler.
So glad that a woolies near me had a scan and go. Itās so much easier just doing it as you go instead of fucking around at the checkout. Itās a smaller woolies so itās missing some things but if I need to duck in and out itās my go to over the slightly
Closer one
Using their app, you open up to scan and go and then scan the barcode of the item. Rinse and repeat until you are done. Pay in the app, and at the end you get a QR code to scan at the dedicated gate.
Best part is thereās no one around to check anything (at least at the store Iām at) so itās an in and out experience
The store clerks can check your trolley as you exit, but generally they cbf.
Also they only put them in affluent suburbs with low theft rates to start with.
What I hate about self serve check out is you think you're being quick by choosing 1 of the CARD ONLY NO CASH terminal, but then you have to clear the advisement of NO CASH, then when you go to pay skipping the loyalty card. And gotta STILL select Card. Like I said I'm trying to be quick, why the fuck would I want to than use a gift card.
This^ I used to be a self serve worker at coles and this happened at least twice an hour despite the machines being covered in card only signs, really makes you wonder how people get through life without natural selection sometimes
I think this too but I wonder if a lot of it is caused by the shopping experience there (not talking about staff)
I think Iām at my stupidest at the supermarket self checkout. I think I do quite a bit better in most other situations.
We've been trained out of reading signs by the overwhelming and obtrusive abundance of advertising plastered to every available surface when we are in public. You look up for the aisle sign and it's an ad. You see a words everywhere you look and every time you pay attention it says 'BUY PRODUCT! YOUR LIFE WOULD BE BETTER WITH PRODUCT.' You stare at your feet and there's a large sign on the floor telling you YOU NEED PRODUCT. (I've actually found it refreshing since covid that the floor signs are just helpful guides for lining up.)
Anyway, I don't know about anyone else, but the bombardment of unnecessary information has made me slide my eyes past every surface without paying attention since I was a teen. So now I miss the signs a lot.
The prompt is frustrating most of the time though
I would rather they just got rid of the prompt and left people who stuffed up by going to the wrong machine to cancel and rescan at a cash accepting machine or just make all self serve card only and use manned checkouts for cash.
I work reception. I would put a sign between me and the patients saying "NO XRAYS TODAY" so they physically could not even look at me without seeing it, and they'd just move it aside and shove a referral in my face. Fucking idiots.
I did this the other day and I've never felt more stupid. I'd just finished at 10 hour shift and was exhausted and didn't realise my card wasn't on me until I'd finished scanning everything and had to apologise to the poor worker and slowly move all my stuff to a cash checkout, sometimes people are preoccupied and our brains arent always fully on. I also wonder how I've gotten through life this far though so fair point.
I moved to Ireland last year and the Tesco here is the same shit as Coles/Woolies.
1 open register out of 10 that's got a queue of 5 deep while the self serve checkouts are constantly dinging about unexpected items, cards not working, etc. Even the self scan as you walk around shits a brick half the time you go to pay.
Meanwhile there's another chain called SuperValu which is like an IGA and these guys rock. Everyone I've been to they have > 50% of the registers open, most of the time there is nobody at the register so the staff are waiting for you, minimal number of self serves and on top of that they'll help the oldies by carrying groceries to the car, heavy items, etc.
So ditch Coles/Woolies and support your local IGA if you can!
Thank you for seeing the dilemma of the staff. After many years of retail in my younger years I did a stint last year and was put on self checkout. I called it āthe circle of doomā as I felt like I was spinning in place constantly. No support, machines constantly going down, getting chewed out for failing to stop shoplifters. Absolute nightmare.
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Hard to boycott the big grocery shops though. People gotta eat, and often there isnāt an alternative.
They know this and have everybody over a barrel
There's no end to the "optimisation".
After self-checkout the next goalpost will be to get you to do some extra free work for them too like mopping the floor.
30 years ago the concept of self-checkout would seem like a dream. Once it's achieved it gets normalised and the goalposts get re-adjusted to a new target.
Generally I find Coles self service smoother than Woolies. Pro tip to grid your checkout to a halt is scan your flybys at the Woolies register.
Attendant āI donāt know why it always does thisā
Myself slowly realising what Iād done āyeah weirdā¦ā
Since the latest Coles checkout update it has been incredibly slow. My local store updated the software about 3 weeks ago and now every click/touch takes ~5 seconds to register and the bag scales are way too sensitive again requiring constant verification. Woolies works fine - actually I'm pretty impressed by how accurate they are able to predict what fruit/veggie I am buying, whereas Coles still just uses the alphabetical list.
That happens when the EFT machines are down. They can still take payments but there are a few restrictions as the transactions aren't able to go through instantly. Not entirely Coles fault there's an issue with the bank, but they probably could close some of the self serve checkouts or at least get another worker down there to help out.
>It's an ENTIRELY trust-based system...
People judge others by their own standards. Seeing as Coles, Woolies et al are basically thieves, they think everyone else is a thief as well, and treat them as such.
I see these threads all the time.
If all of us whinging cunts just put our money where our mouth is and took our business to a local butcher and fruit and veg shop maybe this would effect their bottom dollar and they would put more consumer focused policies in place.
They honestly couldnāt give a flying fuck about your whinging when they are having record breaking billion dollar profits each year. They do not care. They know they are the majority market, they know most people wonāt change their shopping habits due to convenience and they know you will keep coming back to stand in line like a pleb while two staff deal with the entire front end.
And itās not management within the store, yes they do have a part to play, but I guarantee you that every store manager is scrambling for more funding towards their budget and the $800 daily front end staff budget that has been forced from out of touch corporate money goblins wonāt be changed. Every employee within the store is feeling the big dick of colesworth. Obviously some more than others.
Vote with your wallet and help a local family owned butcher or fruit shop. You save money and you pay directly into your local economy.
Edit: Used to be management within Woolworths.
They need at least 2 people at the self checkouts, stop being a tightarse when you have already saved on like 5 manned checkout. The penny pinching that goes on seriously.
I work in an independent supermarket and you will experience non of that BS ever! Support Mum and pa supermarkets. Igas, Spar whatever the others are called. We price check and sometimes are cheaper than the Big ones.
It's a pain in the arse, if you go to the staff checkout, I often get told to go to self serve because the lines so long with only one register open.
Not a big fan of the camera setup.
Shit me off when I'm using my banking app putting in passwords, and you have 2 cameras up your date. Not much privacy...
But Id hate to be a woman with a camera looking down your shirt.
I will have to say, ALDI self serve is fn awesome, with none of this crap.
New machines, they scan faster and precisely. No extra rewards crap or demanding a donation.
Aldi always has a main register open, and the policy is to open more each time the line goes past the belt. Also, you can request the checkout operator open another register, and they can push a button and open one. All staff at Aldi are register-trained and can come to the front to serve as needed.
Self-serve checkouts are coming to every Aus Aldi eventually, but there will still be registers open as per usual.
This is also "suppose" to be the policy at Coles. If you don't want to go through the self-checkout, you shouldn't have to.
However, having worked in Coles, I know that isn't always the case, however I tried to ensure customers got put through a checkout whenever they wanted one.
Actually yea and they no longer āspeed scan throw your shit ah your faceā anymore. Theyāve been downright delightful and smiling for months now. Iāve fully swapped and easily saving $40 a week for my family of 4
Everything is becoming automated in the guise of convenience but actually makes us less social and now we're just digital cash cows to them.
Not to mention your privacy is eroded as every fricking time you go self serve as they record your face as if they assume you're a goddam criminal!
>And the fucking dumbest thing about all of this, is that every time the person comes over they DON'T EVEN LOOK AT THE VIDEO OR YOUR BAG because the alarm goes off so much. They just enter their code and override it. It literally serves no purpose other than pissing off the customers.
This is the part that gets me... like why inconvenience both shoppers and the workers to the point of frustration with a system even the staff ignore. You think timmy (15) watching the checkouts helping the 1000th person for the day put something in a bag they scanned perfectly normally gives 2 shits if you are putting snowpeas through as carrots?
Where are these Coles that you guys go to thatās causing this much problems. The biggest problem Iāve had is not knowing which freaking banana I chose compared to the options they gaveā¦
When I left, Coles had the regular self-checkouts that it had had for, I dunno, 10 years or more.
This is a new system, now - one with cameras all around you and some kind of sensor that is trying to detect each item that you put in to the bag. Instead of "unexpected item in the bagging area" it now plays back a video of you from multiple angles saying that what you scanned doesn't match what you put in the bag.
Based on this thread, I reckon they're rolling it out slowly and you migth be lucky enough not to have experienced it yet.
My coles store has the full conveyor belt self checkouts with no scales. Itās amazing. No errors, more roomy, start unloading if someone in front of you.
I go to IGA. Always get served quickly. No self checkouts, staff always happy. There is also a coles in the small town I live and the shopping experience is so different
The system they use in the Netherlands is quite clever; you scan your groceries with a handheld scanner as you go about your shop. When you go check out, it weighs the total of the bag against what you scanned and you pay. Before you exit though you have to scan your receipt to open the gate, where there is a 10% or so chance your bags will get flagged for inspection.
The 10% chance is enough to keep people honest, but too low to be a real nuisance.
Also, little tip: if you only have a few items and the machines starts giving you shit, just abandon your checkout and hop over to the machine next to you. Doesnāt work when its peak hour, but can save time.
Theyāre good when they actually work. And itād be nice if Coles actually passed on the savings in labour to cut their prices. Not how our society works right now unfortunatelyā¦
There's no savings in labour because they just redeployed checkout staff to pick the click and collect orders.
If anything, there should be a discount for anyone not using click & collect.
For years they kinda were, groceries hadn't appreciated very much for 15ish years, and the did that by shafting farmers and cutting back on overhead like staffing. There was a constant battle between supermarkets for who could have the cheapest milk and bread etc.
Now cost of living has caught up and they are doubling down on investing into self serve while also finally increasing the price of groceries, whether a that's due to the suppliers price increase, or Coles' profit margin
Same. I remember being a teen and needing a job. Self checkouts have always annoyed the hell out of me. Businesses should support the community by supplying jobs. Not taking them away
This is why I shop at Aldi's instead of the other two. Cheaper, faster and far more sensible in their approach to checkouts. They also seem to treat their employees better (seem, mind, I am not exactly sure), so I am more than happy to keep spending money there instead.
I was getting my stuff delivered to avoid the headache but I decided to boycott colesworth from now on and use Aldi/markets/butcher. Much healthier, the money I save on household items I can spend on better quality meat and veg. Also shoutout drakes if your lucky enough to live near one, Iām not sure if theyāre an ethical company but my local one is great
Itās a load of BS. I worked at coles while I was studying and I really enjoyed working at the check outs. I wouldāve hated doing whatever they do now.
you're lucky there was "one poor bloke" overseeing the self serves. My local Coles had nobody on the two occasions I was in there last week.
It was left to the young girl to come over from the service area / ciggie counter.
When i had a problem, there happened to be a bloke walking through the self serve area who had a Coles shirt on. He told me (with a smile on his face) that he wasn't able to help. I'd have to wait till the girl had finished serving the ciggie buyers.
And they wonder why there's so much theft.
I refuse to use self check out. I donāt go to the shops when in a hurry so Iāll wait in line somewhere. Iāve got a phone. I can check Reddit. Iāll clog up the shops to make it look worse until they change their minds
They tell me to bring my own damn bags but then the machine wants to call the assistant over to verify each new bag I put down after clicking "own bag". They're regular reusable canvas bags, not something unreasonably heavy. It was very frustrating.
I refuse to use self serve checkouts and a few weeks back myself and another customer waited 10 minutes to be served at a check out and in the end I just walked out.
Itās refreshing to see people hate them. I work with them in a retail store most days and I either feel useless or extremely stretched thin.
We got them so that staff members working the floor didnāt have to keep getting called up to serve of the registers. But another solution is to hire and give shifts to enough staff to cover all bases.
Now thereās one, maybe two of us looking after 12 self checkouts that keep breaking and needing overriding. It feels a little like the company is cutting corners.
I had the same WTF moment when I recently arrived back in Australia, except it was directed at Tullamarine airport (Melb). After navigating airports in Singapore and Malaysia, Tulla was a joke!!
That's a shitty experience at Coles.
To be honest they assume you are going to shoplift in France from my experience though. They keep a very close eye on you and you often need to scan your receipt to get out of the checkout area, and there is always a guard. You have to enter and exit in a very designated way and if you don't buy anything you have to go through this justification to actually get outside.
Based on my experience back in retail thatās an issue with their eftpos needing to be rebooted or logged on again and not because the self service checkouts are super ultra special
Chick in front of me at the 12 items or less express lane had a whole trolley full of stuff, staff wombling around everywhere, self serve full and zero checkouts open, fu*k you colesworth your shit idea sucks, c*nts
Then you go to Uniqlo and the self-checkout knows what is in your basket before you even put it in the bin. Took 5 seconds to check out that thing was magic.
Coles machines are training us for something, not sure what yet apart from how annoying can we be before this person snaps.
I hardly use them
only sometimes at Coles or Woolworths...
only if I have 2 or 3 items ...milk, bananas, newspaper
I normally shop at a Coles near my place that has staff at the
'normal'registers ...as I have big shop on weekends
I go to a Woolworths on weekends that has all 3 - self serve, Express lanes and normal' registers
if you don't like self serve find another supermarket that has
people doing 'old school' register work
I'm in the small minority who will wait an extra ten minutes to use the self checkout. I am not here for small talk and just want to pack my shopping my own way
Had the eftpos contactless outage happen at my work yesterday too, got yelled at by some lady. Spent 45 minutes crying out the back. Be nice to your retail staff. Fuck the companies, not the young kids
I hate Woolies and Coles as much as anyone (I worked at Woolies).
But the amount of complaints about people struggling with the self-service really makes me question the competency of a lot of the people on this sub.
I bought apples. They had a bar code. I scanned it and weighed them. Then as I was picking them up to move them to the basket area, they scanned themselves again. Thatās not incompetence. If I was on a check out ( which I used to do at woollies) I think the supervisor used to have to scan the reversal.
Everyone fucking moans about the shit Coles and Woolies customer service, but when the fully staffed IGA is selling a product for 15 cents more than them, people throw a tantrum and refuse to show there.
You can't have it both ways.
> 15 cents more than them
I think you mean 15%, I've honestly never been to an IGA that hasn't cost basically double for things you could get elsewhere. My old favourite was a local shops where the cheapest loaf of bread was 5.3$ but two shops down was a bakery where you could literally get a fresh loaf for 3$.
I'm looking forward to the rollout of the scan and go my Woolies had when I was in Canberra.
Open the app. Pick up item, scan it and put it in your bag. Check out and pay before leaving, it gives you a QR code to scan as you left.
Every so often you'd need to rescan 5 items from your bag and have them verified by the staff. Happened about once every 10 shops.
It needs to be rolled out nationally.
The checkout people at my local IGA and Spudshed are nice and friendly to chat with while they scan my items and I pack the bags, very quick and convenient.
FUCK COLES
Find a staff member somewhere and ask them to open one, if possible. There needs to be more of push on our end because it feels like we've all just accepted it.
They keep getting incredible profits each year and growing their businesses and shares. I think I've finally had enough to make the switch, especially after woolies latest advertisement telling us how they are helping us save money. Like what! They treat us like idiots.
But I'm another one stuck in the convenience and comfort with familiarity trap, the rising life costs and pressures and anything extra is impossible past surviving trap, so I get it. But I guess we are the only ones who can make a difference at the end of the day, so hopefully we can channel this anger the right way together :)
as someone who worked at coles for 6 years please donāt do this. everyoneās register/front end positions are filled in on a roster at the start of the shift and deviations from that affect peoples breaks and other requirements such as not facing the same way for too long on registers and not being in self checkout for too long. not every worker in the store is trained on registers so itās not as if we can just take people from other departments and get them to jump on. if you really want to push back, as for a manager and speak to them. theyāre the ones who only register minimum hours to make sure they get their bonus. donāt make a minimum wage worker feel uncomfortable because youāre asking something of them thatās beyond their power. i promise weāre not making you wait because we like it.
I absolutely HATE woolies self checkout. I hate them so much I just wont use them anymore. I will queue up and wait to be served by a person, just so I am not accused of stealing buy a stupid computer. I hate, hate, hate them.
My local coles computer hasn't accused me of stealing yet. When they do I'll queue up there too.
Since they bought in the new checkouts, I haven't used them once. (And also avoided Coles except when they have stuff I can't get elsewhere).
What do you know, I found the proper checkouts were faster and easier! Mainly because my cloth bag is deemed 'too heavy" 9 times out of 10 so I have to get it checked, and that was before the updated checkouts. Yeah, Coles is really shooting itself in the foot with these new checkouts, it's just made me realise the whole entire concept of self-checkouts sucks most of the time.
> Yeah I must be in the minority with this as well based on what I see written on this sub every 2 days. Maybe 1/20 times I'll have an issue with the self serve and when I do I'll make a note of what I did to trigger the warning and avoid it next time. Most people around me seem to manage just fine too, it's only the elderly I see standing around completely befuddled and needing assistance most of the time. Guess I'm in a lucky area.
Is this with the new ones, with the video camera overhead, that replays a video of you putting items into the bag every time it htinks you did something wrong?
I didn't mind the old ones - the ones that just occasionally said "unexpected item in the bagging area", but these new ones are shit.
I don't know why you're being down-voted. I'll buy a trolley full of groceries and go through self-serve, and the only time I have an issue is when an item is too light to be picked up by the sensor (little pack of herbs, for instance).
I've worked many hours in self serve, and I had consistent customers who I'd chat to who could put a whole trolley through with zero "user error" issues. It takes being quite deliberate with your packing but it's possible.
I put user error in air quotes because although as a user the error is avoidable, the system makes it hard to avoid in simple terms. There are a million small alteration they could make to those machines to make them better for both customers and staff
Iām the same. I always favour self serve over check out and have been using them as soon as they came in to my local store.
Basket or trolley it doesnāt matter, Iāve rarely had issues except one time at Big W where my rewards card froze their system for some reason lol.
Most recent change was that you can scan fruit with the little sticker on it. But you have to weigh them too. Then when you go to move them off the weighing spot it scans the item again and weighs your next item if you aren't looking at the screen, does this without seeing it sometimes.
I got so sick of this I just order online in bulk when on sale and have it get delivered for free.
I only go into an actual store to buy fruit and vegetables that I can choose myself.
They've pissed off enough people now that they've had to take half off their staff off the checkouts to run around the store filling online orders because customers can't be bothered dealing with that shit anymore, futher annoying those that still shop instore as they will only have 1 team member overriding security issues on the machines.
Sounds like an internet/Visa/Mastercard payment service outage. eftpos (the card network) works offline with a signature only.
IIRC, back in my Coles days it was maximum 6 (or so) self service checkouts to one staff member. Some staff may feel more comfortable than others on self serve though - and outages can creep up on people.
In an outage like this where offline payment was still accepted (including eftpos debit with signature), personally I would close self serve and direct all customers to staffed checkouts, and ensure all staff are on registers too. Maybe chuck in a sign or two for communication of the issue.
I hate these things with a passion. Itās just false progress and indeed takes longer for the customer while they employ the same amount of staff.
Same like Kmart having the registers in the middle of the store. Expect you to line up and scan everything yourself. Need to call for assistance 29 times since any bigger items wonāt fit on the self scan checkout scale. To then have someone at the actual exit of the store demand to check your receipt (and not check your bags!)
what do you mean? autonomous checkout makes it foolproof to shoplift because if it goes wrong you can just say oops this system is fucked and the store assistant definitely agrees.
The crazy thing is that theyāve found a way for the customer to do their work for free, and not get reimbursed for it. The cost of products used too pay the workers in the store, but those costs didnāt go down when they needed less checkout workers. The next thing theyāll do is find a way to make the customers stock the shelves for free also. If you could go back in time and show people in the 80ās us doing a job weāre not paid for, theyād think we were crazy.
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Best mate works for Woolies. Minus the eftpos outage at Coles this morning, they have just as many issues with their self serve checkouts. And yes the staff hate them as much as the customers š¤·š»āāļø
Shareholders loving it though. Got no qualms scanning shit wrong in purpose, think about how Woolies is one of the biggest thieves in the country in terms of wage theft, abusing employee rights, owning pubs and pokies machines, price gouging. Easy easy choice
Shareholders are also Cole shoppers no? I donāt think they would be happy being accused as a thief in every check out.
Fully depends on your suburb. When i take the train home from my girlfriends in the morning i stop over at woolies in strathfield and 50% of the time it accuses me of taking or not bagging something and i have to wait... When i go to the coles in an affluent suburb to help my girlfriend do her food shopping for the week she scans it all on her phone as she goes around the stor putting it in your trolley. Then at the self serve counter theres a small ipad with a scan gun and she holds her phone up and it charges her, in and out no one even checks you havent stolen. Likewise when i duck back in to grab some chips or a drink if i use the self service there and put something down and pick it back up too quick, the self serve doesnt even lock or wait for the staff to put a code in, it just changes to "item not bagged" and you can keep going. A few times ive grabbed donuts and an iced coffee and the bottle has rolled off, screen goes grey for a few seconds them changes to "not bagged" and i keep going. Any other store from ashfield to parra the self serve would lock up and id be stuck waiting for someone to unfreeze it.
What suburbs we talking? I've never seen anything like that... but I live in one of those suburbs you mentioned lmao. Makes sense.
My local woolies has seemingly only just changed to the bullshit new camera system. For years it was the āskip baggingā style if the weight sensor was fucking up. Tap it and continue scanning. Now as you say, it locks up and needs operator input, it even brings up footage of you placing the scanned item into the bagā¦ uh yes that the item I scanned, and yes thatās me putting it into the bag, whereās the fucking issue. Not sure if it fucks up more if you go too quick, and if you are holding the next item to scan in the opposite hand. Need to scan each item like a sloth one at a time. So inconvenient.
Self checkouts at coles and woolies in rich areas actually aren't as stringent, most of the checkouts with cameras and AI trying to check every transaction are in the poorer areas
Sāfunny. I worked at Woolworths for a while (store design) and had access to all sorts of fascinating stats. Like the store with one of the highest rates of theft was ā¦ Double Bay.
They seem pretty happy if they're still a shareholder
Don't think people would sell their performing shares just because the company is shit.. they'll just shop at woollies instead
At Aldi- theyāre not heathens!
No they arenāt. The people they pay to shop for them are.
I work at one of them.... is EFTPOS down? I hope I get hit by a truck on the way to work
I had to call the guy from the register over at Aldi FIVE times the other day trying to use the self checkout for 10 items. They didn't even have a dedicated person helping, it was literally the person supposed to be serving at the main register. Worse than Coles or Woolworths.
Really hoping my Aldi never does this
Went to an Aldi that had it. Didn't mind at all. I honestly have never minded self serve, but sometimes when I have large quantities I definitely appreciate the server too.
Was at Woollies earlier today. Long line at the self-serv check outs because a number of people either wanted to pay by cash or withdraw cash and out of the 10 kiosks, only two met their requirements.
Same at kmart today. Something was wrong with eftpos machines and signatures required for purchases at the self serves which weren't technically self serve as the staff member had to run back and forth to every machine as there were issues with everything.
Coles had a national eftpos outage this morning. It was pandemonium at my local store but still managed to get through fairly quick.
Wasnāt just coles. Target too. Felt sorry for the staff.
Kmart as well.
The other 2 run off of coles point of sale system so if coles goes down theirs does as well.
Lol coles uses commbank I take it lol
Ah the advantages of a cashless economy
What's amazing about this story is you managed to get six items for only $30!
I was just grocery shopping in Iceland. The falling Australian dollar was not conducive to what was already an expensive experience! I am going to dread looking at my Westpac statement when the time comes!
Donāt look. Itās spent, youāre on holidays. Thatās my strategy in france at the moment.
Good idea. Now I'm being back to being pounded in the UK and ai just realised what I've done there which I didn't when I started this sentence.
6 grapes
I got flagged for an unscanned item because I was idly holding my phone too far over the scanner, so now I stand there with my arms at my side like a fucking robot so my 30 second transaction doesn't turn into a 5 minute wait.
In those cases where I only have a few items, I just bail on my checkout and restart at the next machine.
And then giant signs at the entrance warning not to get upset or abusive towards staff. Which of COURSE noone should do, but how about staffing your business properly, giving employees proper training, and enough time/equipment etc to actually do their jobs properly!!!
No those things cost mooooooneeeeey
"won't anybody think of the shareholders?!"
Small mom and pop conglomerates just need a break
They donāt do shit when customers are abusive anyway. Empty threats. Some old Karen was racially abusing the young girl working at the cigarette counter (all over the fact that she was too stupid to read a ticket properly and refused to accept she was wrong) so I asked her to leave. She physically assaulted me, and I was reprimanded by the store manager for *causing* the altercation. In any other occupation, assault would warrant a call to the police and a banning notice. Nope, couldnāt do that, itās bad for business- not a good look. They want us all to stand there smiling politely while we cop unnecessary abuse on the daily.
Contact fairwork/worksafe? Workplaces have a duty of care to provide a safe workplace for employees. Violence should not be tolerated.
I got hit in the face at Bunnings when I used to work there. No incident report filed and he was allowed to continue his day.
But you called the cops, right? And made your own incident report? Managers do NOT control your human rights!
Nope, I was fresh out of high school and didn't think much of it. Left shortly after as that store was an absolute shitshow. Went outside to cool off and let the manager deal with it as I was pretty pissed, came back and he was gone and no details were taken. I really regret not doing more at the time because who knows how many retail workers that guy abused with no consequence. Avid union member now.
A few months ago they brought in a rule where staff are no longer allowed to interact with shoplifters at all. No bag checks, no questioning people, no following thieves around at all - just let them go (because too many people try to be a hero and end up in hospital). Now, staff have been told to overservice like their job depends on it because management wants to crack down on stock loss. smh
Been happening for years at Liquorland. They tell you not to approach or apprehend shoplifters. You get written up if you do. It's a joke. Coles won't hire security at most of their Liquorland stores, so it's a free for all. They lock up the high value stuff and let them have the cheap low margin shit. The cops won't do shit either. I lasted about a month.
Thatās...I cannot make sense of it. :(
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I can't think of any other type of store where you drop $300-400 a week and still get treated with such a lack of service or appreciation.
What about renting? Paying tens of thousands a year and getting treated like dirt.
Not a store but fair.
My local Coles has installed self-service trolley checkouts - self serving on a few items is one thing but they can seriously get fucked. https://clxprofessionals.com/self-service-trolley-checkouts/
Yeah same near me. They are the worst yet.
I think these ones are the best? No scales to fuck around with, never had any error on them.
How many people live in your house?
Just us three, me, myself and I. Mr Tom doesnāt count since heās a cat.
I think it counts... Cat food can be expensive š
My cat only likes the Aldi 9 dollar box of cat food, he's a champ
And are any of them gluten free
The machines are getting āsmarterā and causing way more problems, it seems. Today I couldnāt finish my transaction (where miraculously nothing had gone wrong so far) because I hadnāt scanned the final item in my shopping cart. That item was my toddler.
So glad that a woolies near me had a scan and go. Itās so much easier just doing it as you go instead of fucking around at the checkout. Itās a smaller woolies so itās missing some things but if I need to duck in and out itās my go to over the slightly Closer one
How does the Scan & Go work?
Using their app, you open up to scan and go and then scan the barcode of the item. Rinse and repeat until you are done. Pay in the app, and at the end you get a QR code to scan at the dedicated gate. Best part is thereās no one around to check anything (at least at the store Iām at) so itās an in and out experience
Can you remove something easily if you change your mind?
Yes, you just select the item in your list and hit remove.
Whatās to stop you from just not scanning an item?
Thats the beauty of it, fuck all mate
The store clerks can check your trolley as you exit, but generally they cbf. Also they only put them in affluent suburbs with low theft rates to start with.
What I hate about self serve check out is you think you're being quick by choosing 1 of the CARD ONLY NO CASH terminal, but then you have to clear the advisement of NO CASH, then when you go to pay skipping the loyalty card. And gotta STILL select Card. Like I said I'm trying to be quick, why the fuck would I want to than use a gift card.
You'll be surprised how many people rush to use card only and the realize at the end they want to pay with cash.
This^ I used to be a self serve worker at coles and this happened at least twice an hour despite the machines being covered in card only signs, really makes you wonder how people get through life without natural selection sometimes
I think this too but I wonder if a lot of it is caused by the shopping experience there (not talking about staff) I think Iām at my stupidest at the supermarket self checkout. I think I do quite a bit better in most other situations.
We've been trained out of reading signs by the overwhelming and obtrusive abundance of advertising plastered to every available surface when we are in public. You look up for the aisle sign and it's an ad. You see a words everywhere you look and every time you pay attention it says 'BUY PRODUCT! YOUR LIFE WOULD BE BETTER WITH PRODUCT.' You stare at your feet and there's a large sign on the floor telling you YOU NEED PRODUCT. (I've actually found it refreshing since covid that the floor signs are just helpful guides for lining up.) Anyway, I don't know about anyone else, but the bombardment of unnecessary information has made me slide my eyes past every surface without paying attention since I was a teen. So now I miss the signs a lot.
The prompt is frustrating most of the time though I would rather they just got rid of the prompt and left people who stuffed up by going to the wrong machine to cancel and rescan at a cash accepting machine or just make all self serve card only and use manned checkouts for cash.
I work reception. I would put a sign between me and the patients saying "NO XRAYS TODAY" so they physically could not even look at me without seeing it, and they'd just move it aside and shove a referral in my face. Fucking idiots.
I did this the other day and I've never felt more stupid. I'd just finished at 10 hour shift and was exhausted and didn't realise my card wasn't on me until I'd finished scanning everything and had to apologise to the poor worker and slowly move all my stuff to a cash checkout, sometimes people are preoccupied and our brains arent always fully on. I also wonder how I've gotten through life this far though so fair point.
I moved to Ireland last year and the Tesco here is the same shit as Coles/Woolies. 1 open register out of 10 that's got a queue of 5 deep while the self serve checkouts are constantly dinging about unexpected items, cards not working, etc. Even the self scan as you walk around shits a brick half the time you go to pay. Meanwhile there's another chain called SuperValu which is like an IGA and these guys rock. Everyone I've been to they have > 50% of the registers open, most of the time there is nobody at the register so the staff are waiting for you, minimal number of self serves and on top of that they'll help the oldies by carrying groceries to the car, heavy items, etc. So ditch Coles/Woolies and support your local IGA if you can!
We used to have 'SupaValu' here in Aus ages ago too, they were one of the chains replaced with IGA
The only time I go to a Woollies is to steal a trolley to use at Aldi. Fuck em.
Thank you for seeing the dilemma of the staff. After many years of retail in my younger years I did a stint last year and was put on self checkout. I called it āthe circle of doomā as I felt like I was spinning in place constantly. No support, machines constantly going down, getting chewed out for failing to stop shoplifters. Absolute nightmare.
āBut automation is inevitable and will make things more efficient.ā š
There is no morality in businesses anymore. Like a spoilt kid we need to pull back and withdraw our patronage.
Iām not convinced that there was morality to begin with. Business cares about business and money, thatās all theyāve ever cared about.
stupendous intelligent insurance busy rhythm sophisticated cooperative vegetable heavy encouraging *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That's lack of competition for you. Coles and Woolies control something like 80% of the market. For many people there is no other choice.
There was a little. A relic of honour and mutual respect from the past. Def not now.
Hard to boycott the big grocery shops though. People gotta eat, and often there isnāt an alternative. They know this and have everybody over a barrel
They have far too much market power.
There's no end to the "optimisation". After self-checkout the next goalpost will be to get you to do some extra free work for them too like mopping the floor. 30 years ago the concept of self-checkout would seem like a dream. Once it's achieved it gets normalised and the goalposts get re-adjusted to a new target.
Generally I find Coles self service smoother than Woolies. Pro tip to grid your checkout to a halt is scan your flybys at the Woolies register. Attendant āI donāt know why it always does thisā Myself slowly realising what Iād done āyeah weirdā¦ā
Since the latest Coles checkout update it has been incredibly slow. My local store updated the software about 3 weeks ago and now every click/touch takes ~5 seconds to register and the bag scales are way too sensitive again requiring constant verification. Woolies works fine - actually I'm pretty impressed by how accurate they are able to predict what fruit/veggie I am buying, whereas Coles still just uses the alphabetical list.
That happens when the EFT machines are down. They can still take payments but there are a few restrictions as the transactions aren't able to go through instantly. Not entirely Coles fault there's an issue with the bank, but they probably could close some of the self serve checkouts or at least get another worker down there to help out.
I've just gone to a butcher today. I'm over coles and woolworths
If you can afford it. It's the best thing to do.
Cheaper in my experience
Yeah but after I spend my budget in meat, I canāt buy toilet paper.
>It's an ENTIRELY trust-based system... People judge others by their own standards. Seeing as Coles, Woolies et al are basically thieves, they think everyone else is a thief as well, and treat them as such.
I see these threads all the time. If all of us whinging cunts just put our money where our mouth is and took our business to a local butcher and fruit and veg shop maybe this would effect their bottom dollar and they would put more consumer focused policies in place. They honestly couldnāt give a flying fuck about your whinging when they are having record breaking billion dollar profits each year. They do not care. They know they are the majority market, they know most people wonāt change their shopping habits due to convenience and they know you will keep coming back to stand in line like a pleb while two staff deal with the entire front end. And itās not management within the store, yes they do have a part to play, but I guarantee you that every store manager is scrambling for more funding towards their budget and the $800 daily front end staff budget that has been forced from out of touch corporate money goblins wonāt be changed. Every employee within the store is feeling the big dick of colesworth. Obviously some more than others. Vote with your wallet and help a local family owned butcher or fruit shop. You save money and you pay directly into your local economy. Edit: Used to be management within Woolworths.
Your first mistake is assuming that people have a local butcher or greengrocer. The duopoly have put them out of business in a whole lot of places.
They need at least 2 people at the self checkouts, stop being a tightarse when you have already saved on like 5 manned checkout. The penny pinching that goes on seriously.
Best thing I've ever done was step back from Coles and Woolworths and buy local. Cut all that rot out.
I work in an independent supermarket and you will experience non of that BS ever! Support Mum and pa supermarkets. Igas, Spar whatever the others are called. We price check and sometimes are cheaper than the Big ones.
It's a pain in the arse, if you go to the staff checkout, I often get told to go to self serve because the lines so long with only one register open. Not a big fan of the camera setup. Shit me off when I'm using my banking app putting in passwords, and you have 2 cameras up your date. Not much privacy... But Id hate to be a woman with a camera looking down your shirt. I will have to say, ALDI self serve is fn awesome, with none of this crap. New machines, they scan faster and precisely. No extra rewards crap or demanding a donation.
Shop at Aldi
Aldi installed self checkouts at several locations. I'm upset about it still.
Aldi always has a main register open, and the policy is to open more each time the line goes past the belt. Also, you can request the checkout operator open another register, and they can push a button and open one. All staff at Aldi are register-trained and can come to the front to serve as needed. Self-serve checkouts are coming to every Aus Aldi eventually, but there will still be registers open as per usual.
This is also "suppose" to be the policy at Coles. If you don't want to go through the self-checkout, you shouldn't have to. However, having worked in Coles, I know that isn't always the case, however I tried to ensure customers got put through a checkout whenever they wanted one.
I've been down for this. It helps me when I duck in for only a few things, and so far, hasn't slowed the normal service lines.
In my experience Woolies or Coles brand is the same price or cheaper now, and generally keeps things well stocked unlike my local Aldi.
Came here to said the same. No matter what Aldi queues move fairly decent pace. There are exceptions of course
Actually yea and they no longer āspeed scan throw your shit ah your faceā anymore. Theyāve been downright delightful and smiling for months now. Iāve fully swapped and easily saving $40 a week for my family of 4
Everything is becoming automated in the guise of convenience but actually makes us less social and now we're just digital cash cows to them. Not to mention your privacy is eroded as every fricking time you go self serve as they record your face as if they assume you're a goddam criminal!
Woah, WHAT?!? You picked up your apples in the one hand. Fucken take him out back and shoot the cunt!!!
>And the fucking dumbest thing about all of this, is that every time the person comes over they DON'T EVEN LOOK AT THE VIDEO OR YOUR BAG because the alarm goes off so much. They just enter their code and override it. It literally serves no purpose other than pissing off the customers. This is the part that gets me... like why inconvenience both shoppers and the workers to the point of frustration with a system even the staff ignore. You think timmy (15) watching the checkouts helping the 1000th person for the day put something in a bag they scanned perfectly normally gives 2 shits if you are putting snowpeas through as carrots?
I don't care how long the lines are I always way for a checkout with a person rather than self check out. I hate them.
Where are these Coles that you guys go to thatās causing this much problems. The biggest problem Iāve had is not knowing which freaking banana I chose compared to the options they gaveā¦
Hardest part about self checkout is trying to remember the cheapest variant of each fruit and vegetable
>which freaking banana The answer is always the cheapest one.
Except they don't put prices on the display for just that reason.
This is the way. But I do like those short fat hobbit looking ones.
This morning had an eftpos outage and it was chaotic.
Unluggy to those who had to shop this morning then.
When I left, Coles had the regular self-checkouts that it had had for, I dunno, 10 years or more. This is a new system, now - one with cameras all around you and some kind of sensor that is trying to detect each item that you put in to the bag. Instead of "unexpected item in the bagging area" it now plays back a video of you from multiple angles saying that what you scanned doesn't match what you put in the bag. Based on this thread, I reckon they're rolling it out slowly and you migth be lucky enough not to have experienced it yet.
My coles store has the full conveyor belt self checkouts with no scales. Itās amazing. No errors, more roomy, start unloading if someone in front of you.
I go to IGA. Always get served quickly. No self checkouts, staff always happy. There is also a coles in the small town I live and the shopping experience is so different
The system they use in the Netherlands is quite clever; you scan your groceries with a handheld scanner as you go about your shop. When you go check out, it weighs the total of the bag against what you scanned and you pay. Before you exit though you have to scan your receipt to open the gate, where there is a 10% or so chance your bags will get flagged for inspection. The 10% chance is enough to keep people honest, but too low to be a real nuisance. Also, little tip: if you only have a few items and the machines starts giving you shit, just abandon your checkout and hop over to the machine next to you. Doesnāt work when its peak hour, but can save time.
Theyāre good when they actually work. And itād be nice if Coles actually passed on the savings in labour to cut their prices. Not how our society works right now unfortunatelyā¦
Savings wonāt get passed on to either us customers nor their workforce.
The savings do get passed on. **To their Shareholders and Executives.**
There's no savings in labour because they just redeployed checkout staff to pick the click and collect orders. If anything, there should be a discount for anyone not using click & collect.
For years they kinda were, groceries hadn't appreciated very much for 15ish years, and the did that by shafting farmers and cutting back on overhead like staffing. There was a constant battle between supermarkets for who could have the cheapest milk and bread etc. Now cost of living has caught up and they are doubling down on investing into self serve while also finally increasing the price of groceries, whether a that's due to the suppliers price increase, or Coles' profit margin
Donāt shop there next time. Iām rural so my coles isnāt that bad yet but i still only go there for the things i canāt grab elsewhere.
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I go to the local IGA for most things no self serve
Same. I remember being a teen and needing a job. Self checkouts have always annoyed the hell out of me. Businesses should support the community by supplying jobs. Not taking them away
The way certain stores treat their customers indicates a lack of competition.
This is why I shop at Aldi's instead of the other two. Cheaper, faster and far more sensible in their approach to checkouts. They also seem to treat their employees better (seem, mind, I am not exactly sure), so I am more than happy to keep spending money there instead.
I was getting my stuff delivered to avoid the headache but I decided to boycott colesworth from now on and use Aldi/markets/butcher. Much healthier, the money I save on household items I can spend on better quality meat and veg. Also shoutout drakes if your lucky enough to live near one, Iām not sure if theyāre an ethical company but my local one is great
A country run by thieves I tell you...
Convicts darling!!
Itās a load of BS. I worked at coles while I was studying and I really enjoyed working at the check outs. I wouldāve hated doing whatever they do now.
you're lucky there was "one poor bloke" overseeing the self serves. My local Coles had nobody on the two occasions I was in there last week. It was left to the young girl to come over from the service area / ciggie counter. When i had a problem, there happened to be a bloke walking through the self serve area who had a Coles shirt on. He told me (with a smile on his face) that he wasn't able to help. I'd have to wait till the girl had finished serving the ciggie buyers. And they wonder why there's so much theft.
Corporate greed. Total cunts.
Wait until you see the gates at some Coles stores which won't let you out until it verifies you
I refuse to use self check out. I donāt go to the shops when in a hurry so Iāll wait in line somewhere. Iāve got a phone. I can check Reddit. Iāll clog up the shops to make it look worse until they change their minds
Depending on how many items I have, if I get flagged I sometimes just abandon my checkout and go to a new machine. Fuck it.
They tell me to bring my own damn bags but then the machine wants to call the assistant over to verify each new bag I put down after clicking "own bag". They're regular reusable canvas bags, not something unreasonably heavy. It was very frustrating.
I refuse to use self serve checkouts and a few weeks back myself and another customer waited 10 minutes to be served at a check out and in the end I just walked out.
They've lost the $10,000 a year that I spend on my weekly shopping for many reasons! FARK Aoles.
I used to spend 13000 at Coles, now my family has grown so I spend nearly 16000 at IGA instead.
Itās refreshing to see people hate them. I work with them in a retail store most days and I either feel useless or extremely stretched thin. We got them so that staff members working the floor didnāt have to keep getting called up to serve of the registers. But another solution is to hire and give shifts to enough staff to cover all bases. Now thereās one, maybe two of us looking after 12 self checkouts that keep breaking and needing overriding. It feels a little like the company is cutting corners.
I had the same WTF moment when I recently arrived back in Australia, except it was directed at Tullamarine airport (Melb). After navigating airports in Singapore and Malaysia, Tulla was a joke!!
That's a shitty experience at Coles. To be honest they assume you are going to shoplift in France from my experience though. They keep a very close eye on you and you often need to scan your receipt to get out of the checkout area, and there is always a guard. You have to enter and exit in a very designated way and if you don't buy anything you have to go through this justification to actually get outside.
Based on my experience back in retail thatās an issue with their eftpos needing to be rebooted or logged on again and not because the self service checkouts are super ultra special
STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM.
Chick in front of me at the 12 items or less express lane had a whole trolley full of stuff, staff wombling around everywhere, self serve full and zero checkouts open, fu*k you colesworth your shit idea sucks, c*nts
Then you go to Uniqlo and the self-checkout knows what is in your basket before you even put it in the bin. Took 5 seconds to check out that thing was magic. Coles machines are training us for something, not sure what yet apart from how annoying can we be before this person snaps.
Europe is civilised. Australia isn't. Different systems
I hardly use them only sometimes at Coles or Woolworths... only if I have 2 or 3 items ...milk, bananas, newspaper I normally shop at a Coles near my place that has staff at the 'normal'registers ...as I have big shop on weekends I go to a Woolworths on weekends that has all 3 - self serve, Express lanes and normal' registers if you don't like self serve find another supermarket that has people doing 'old school' register work
I'm in the small minority who will wait an extra ten minutes to use the self checkout. I am not here for small talk and just want to pack my shopping my own way
Had the eftpos contactless outage happen at my work yesterday too, got yelled at by some lady. Spent 45 minutes crying out the back. Be nice to your retail staff. Fuck the companies, not the young kids
I hate Woolies and Coles as much as anyone (I worked at Woolies). But the amount of complaints about people struggling with the self-service really makes me question the competency of a lot of the people on this sub.
I bought apples. They had a bar code. I scanned it and weighed them. Then as I was picking them up to move them to the basket area, they scanned themselves again. Thatās not incompetence. If I was on a check out ( which I used to do at woollies) I think the supervisor used to have to scan the reversal.
Everyone fucking moans about the shit Coles and Woolies customer service, but when the fully staffed IGA is selling a product for 15 cents more than them, people throw a tantrum and refuse to show there. You can't have it both ways.
> 15 cents more than them I think you mean 15%, I've honestly never been to an IGA that hasn't cost basically double for things you could get elsewhere. My old favourite was a local shops where the cheapest loaf of bread was 5.3$ but two shops down was a bakery where you could literally get a fresh loaf for 3$.
I'm looking forward to the rollout of the scan and go my Woolies had when I was in Canberra. Open the app. Pick up item, scan it and put it in your bag. Check out and pay before leaving, it gives you a QR code to scan as you left. Every so often you'd need to rescan 5 items from your bag and have them verified by the staff. Happened about once every 10 shops. It needs to be rolled out nationally.
The checkout people at my local IGA and Spudshed are nice and friendly to chat with while they scan my items and I pack the bags, very quick and convenient. FUCK COLES
Find a staff member somewhere and ask them to open one, if possible. There needs to be more of push on our end because it feels like we've all just accepted it. They keep getting incredible profits each year and growing their businesses and shares. I think I've finally had enough to make the switch, especially after woolies latest advertisement telling us how they are helping us save money. Like what! They treat us like idiots. But I'm another one stuck in the convenience and comfort with familiarity trap, the rising life costs and pressures and anything extra is impossible past surviving trap, so I get it. But I guess we are the only ones who can make a difference at the end of the day, so hopefully we can channel this anger the right way together :)
Thank you for this posts best comment š
as someone who worked at coles for 6 years please donāt do this. everyoneās register/front end positions are filled in on a roster at the start of the shift and deviations from that affect peoples breaks and other requirements such as not facing the same way for too long on registers and not being in self checkout for too long. not every worker in the store is trained on registers so itās not as if we can just take people from other departments and get them to jump on. if you really want to push back, as for a manager and speak to them. theyāre the ones who only register minimum hours to make sure they get their bonus. donāt make a minimum wage worker feel uncomfortable because youāre asking something of them thatās beyond their power. i promise weāre not making you wait because we like it.
Give me convenience or give me death.
You can blame coles, but I blame the customers who use these fucking self serve registers. If people refuse to use them, coles will remove them.
The only self checkouts I've ever used without issues is Aldi's
Happened to me at Coles this morning. Absolute havoc. I just left my groceries there on the counter and walked out. Fuck Coles
I absolutely HATE woolies self checkout. I hate them so much I just wont use them anymore. I will queue up and wait to be served by a person, just so I am not accused of stealing buy a stupid computer. I hate, hate, hate them. My local coles computer hasn't accused me of stealing yet. When they do I'll queue up there too.
Since they bought in the new checkouts, I haven't used them once. (And also avoided Coles except when they have stuff I can't get elsewhere). What do you know, I found the proper checkouts were faster and easier! Mainly because my cloth bag is deemed 'too heavy" 9 times out of 10 so I have to get it checked, and that was before the updated checkouts. Yeah, Coles is really shooting itself in the foot with these new checkouts, it's just made me realise the whole entire concept of self-checkouts sucks most of the time.
Iāve never had any trouble with self serve checkouts š¤·š»āāļø But then again, usually only buying a few things at a time
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> Yeah I must be in the minority with this as well based on what I see written on this sub every 2 days. Maybe 1/20 times I'll have an issue with the self serve and when I do I'll make a note of what I did to trigger the warning and avoid it next time. Most people around me seem to manage just fine too, it's only the elderly I see standing around completely befuddled and needing assistance most of the time. Guess I'm in a lucky area. Is this with the new ones, with the video camera overhead, that replays a video of you putting items into the bag every time it htinks you did something wrong? I didn't mind the old ones - the ones that just occasionally said "unexpected item in the bagging area", but these new ones are shit.
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Possibly also not blinded by rage at having to use them either, so it makes you more patient and less irritable
I don't know why you're being down-voted. I'll buy a trolley full of groceries and go through self-serve, and the only time I have an issue is when an item is too light to be picked up by the sensor (little pack of herbs, for instance).
I've worked many hours in self serve, and I had consistent customers who I'd chat to who could put a whole trolley through with zero "user error" issues. It takes being quite deliberate with your packing but it's possible. I put user error in air quotes because although as a user the error is avoidable, the system makes it hard to avoid in simple terms. There are a million small alteration they could make to those machines to make them better for both customers and staff
Iām the same. I always favour self serve over check out and have been using them as soon as they came in to my local store. Basket or trolley it doesnāt matter, Iāve rarely had issues except one time at Big W where my rewards card froze their system for some reason lol.
Commbank went out today for a bit. So I take it coles uses commbank
Most recent change was that you can scan fruit with the little sticker on it. But you have to weigh them too. Then when you go to move them off the weighing spot it scans the item again and weighs your next item if you aren't looking at the screen, does this without seeing it sometimes.
I got so sick of this I just order online in bulk when on sale and have it get delivered for free. I only go into an actual store to buy fruit and vegetables that I can choose myself.
I believe in IGA supremacy
Iāve been going to Aldi and the manner checkouts are SO much smoother
If they make the checkouts too hard to use, they must not want us to use them. So Iāll just stop using the checkouts if thats the case
Op switch to Aldi . They are rolling out self serve but same as old ones not the new dystopian bullshit we see at coles now.
They've pissed off enough people now that they've had to take half off their staff off the checkouts to run around the store filling online orders because customers can't be bothered dealing with that shit anymore, futher annoying those that still shop instore as they will only have 1 team member overriding security issues on the machines.
Sounds like an internet/Visa/Mastercard payment service outage. eftpos (the card network) works offline with a signature only. IIRC, back in my Coles days it was maximum 6 (or so) self service checkouts to one staff member. Some staff may feel more comfortable than others on self serve though - and outages can creep up on people. In an outage like this where offline payment was still accepted (including eftpos debit with signature), personally I would close self serve and direct all customers to staffed checkouts, and ensure all staff are on registers too. Maybe chuck in a sign or two for communication of the issue.
I hate these things with a passion. Itās just false progress and indeed takes longer for the customer while they employ the same amount of staff. Same like Kmart having the registers in the middle of the store. Expect you to line up and scan everything yourself. Need to call for assistance 29 times since any bigger items wonāt fit on the self scan checkout scale. To then have someone at the actual exit of the store demand to check your receipt (and not check your bags!)
what do you mean? autonomous checkout makes it foolproof to shoplift because if it goes wrong you can just say oops this system is fucked and the store assistant definitely agrees.
My dad went to a fruit and veg store before coles and those stupid cameras accused him of shop lifting like 4 times
If you are lucky, there's a Foodland near you.
It is fucked
The crazy thing is that theyāve found a way for the customer to do their work for free, and not get reimbursed for it. The cost of products used too pay the workers in the store, but those costs didnāt go down when they needed less checkout workers. The next thing theyāll do is find a way to make the customers stock the shelves for free also. If you could go back in time and show people in the 80ās us doing a job weāre not paid for, theyād think we were crazy.
12 self checkouts, but only 2 are cash!!!