General Chat

you need to get out more Robert :-D

If they open a new till in our large supermarket the 'one in charge' whatever her fancy name is, waits while the till is opened and calls people forward who have been waiting. She actually came down to us way down the line and escorted us to the new till and then opened it.

If there aren't enough 'free' copies of papers in the supermarket cafe, we'll use the self service to pay for that, but not for the main shop

One assistant suggested we used them but we said that it always told us off. She agreed it did that with her own shopping!
I mean, if you know you are going to fill several of your own bags, how can you keep them all balanced in the packing area? :-S

Dermot - we haven't cashed a cheque/withdrawn money at the bank's counter for quite some time, although we have paid a few cheques in. Why queue when you can use an ATM? The only instance when that might happen would be if we wanted to transfer a alrge sum of money without leaving an obvious paper trail.

They want me to use a self service till, they pay me a wage. :-D lots of jobs are being lost because of them,just to make even more profit. :-| :

Over all, couldn't agree more Merlin.

A few years ago our local Waitrose offered the option for customers to use a personal hand-scanner. They must have had such a small take-up that the scanners and docking station have been removed.

that was an honesty thing in Safeways years ago, they trusted the customers to scan EVERY thing and pay what was on the scanner........but I suspect a few were not so honest............


I found it awkward if shopping to obtain a fuel voucher.......how to shop for......exactly £50 or whatever the offer was......without a adding machine or calculator, only to find said calculator had gone to sleep and lost all the tally.....Bob

I remember the Safeway ones. I still have the green boxes too.

We also we have a fairly new Waitrose near us and they still have the option to scan as you shop.

they had some super stuff on the points scheme didn't they?
like the Royal Albert chinaware.........

There's a "service" counter at the supermarket, for returns, queries & tobacco products.

Many times I have stood at the counter, waiting to be served, watching lots of staff helping people at the self-service tills!!! :-P

DH used the self-service the other day, got into a bother because he'd forgotten his specs........ a staff member had to help with just about everything in the basket.

What happens at the self-serve if you have a loaded trolley? There isn't enough space to keep a load of bags, so do you need to get another trolley?

I won't use the self-serve, even for a few items. I hate the machines, I hate the fact that the shops are reducing staff......... and I like to have a chat with A PERSON!

I refuse to use the self-service area in our Safeway. OH does use it occasionally, especially when the store is busy and he only has 1 or 2 items ................. but he almost always has to get help from the staff member who hovers around the self service machines

Last year we used the self serve machines in our local IKEA ................ what a fiasco that was!!!

Even the staff person hanging around made a mistake with our stuff!



I also never use ATMs ............. I haven't even validated my card to use in one, and have no idea what the PIN number is.

I insist on going to a real live teller

If I do end up needing money ................... our bank has branches all over Canada, and if all else fails, it is always possible to buy something in a store, pay by credit card and ask for a larger amount to be charged to the card, and get some cash in hand.



Again, OH will use an ATM if we need money out of hours, or if the bank is very busy .................. but he prefers to talk to a person.


It seems that new people at the bank we use are being trained to get customers to insert their bank card into a little machine at their desk .................. this brings up the information on their monitors and saves them the effort of punching in numbers.

OH refuses point-blank to do that ................... he's told several of them "If I wanted to put my card in a machine I would be at the ATM. I'm here so you can do some work"


I think he might be getting a reputation as a grumpy old man :-D :-D :-D


We also pay most of our bills by cheque ................... I will not have standing orders to pay utility bills, credit cards or the like.


We also carry cash ............... paying our weekly grocery shopping for example by cash. I pay cash at my physio, and we often pay cash when we eat out at smaller places.


My daughter and her husband have their accounts at another Canadian bank .............. and the branch of their bank in my neighbourhood seems to specialize in hiring idiots.

There are times when I want to send her / them money (birthdays, anniversary, Christmas, etc), and it is getting more dangerous to send cheques by mail as Canada Post is moving to Community Mail Boxes instead of door-to-door delivery.

Putting money from my account into her account involves either depositing a cheque into her account, with a 10 day hold period while her bank proves the money is there, or getting my bank to issue a bank draft .............. and then convincing the idiots in the local branch here that that means that the money is already accounted for and that the bank draft is as good as money!

They also occasionally charge a fee for the transaction.


I'm about to open an account in a branch of my bank close to where she lives, and make her co-account holder ...................... then I can just transfer money from one of our accounts to that one, very simply and easily, and no charge.

I don't use self service anything for one simple reason - they are not installed for the "help and convenience of the customer" they're their to cut down on staff costs pure and simple. self service is cheaper than employing people - and I for one am not about to start deliberately contributing to the unemployment figures.

Yes I do use them if but not if I have a trolley. Tend to shop little and often so use them more often than not. Rarely have a problem and generally quicker.

one year I was selling poppies for Remembrance Day - it was in Safeways [now Morrisons] and was standing in front of the self checkout till - I saw a shedload of people walk through with loaded trolleys who never paid a penny