Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

50 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Too many UK supermarkets don’t even have a staffed checkout. It’s self-serve or nothing. 
 

If I have to shop in one of those - or if I am caught unaware by being somewhere different - I always do something to ensure a staff member has to come and help. 
 

Like deliberately placing my stuff in the wrong spot and triggering the “unexpected item in the bagging area” warning. 
 

When our (then local) M&S food hall removed their staffed tills I made a point of asking the manager what their policy was on serving disabled customers. The response was uninspiring. “If they’re blind they’ll have someone with them and if they’re deaf they can still see the instructions on the self-service tills”. When asked about autistic customers whose needs - including relying on the familiar - might not be immediately apparent the response was “artistic customers are always welcome so long as it’s not graffiti art”.  
 

A letter was sent to M&S Head Office. Five years later I still await a reply. 
 

I will never use a self-serve checkout when there is a staffed one. I am not paid to do their job, I do not receive a discount or any other benefit for doing their job for them and we need jobs, not bums forced by machines to fatten on sofas whilst getting state handouts, in this country. 

I always use self service because it is generally miles quicker- there’s always someone who wants to painfully count out cash - I mean, who uses that these days?

slightly tongue in cheek of course because my main shop is delivered to the door by Ocado and I use supermarkets for odds and ends.

[Two_sugars]

6 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

 someone who wants to painfully count out cash - I mean, who uses that these days?

 

That'll be me then . . . I was informed by a member of staff- ASDA -that it would be easier to self-check out. I showed her the bottle of whiskey which would need to be 'verified' and i was told a member of staff would be on hand to do just that.  I asked for a 10% discount for saving staff time  and was told No.  

I then informed the Manager that the time I couldn't get through a normal check-out in less than 5 minutes, my basket would be left in the isle and i would continue my shopping in Aldi/Lidl.

 

Aldi have recently introduced self check-out . . . in there today, no one in self check-outs and the had to put another till on . . . CONSUMER POWER?

 

Goodnight all . . .Keep smiling . . . . 

John

 

[Ozexpatriate]

My local supermarket still has a "three's a crowd" policy for cashiers - meaning if there are more than three people queued at a staffed till, they open another till. They (mostly) have the staff for this, though not always.

 

The cashiers will bag groceries - usually. The pandemic introduced some wrinkles. Single-use plastic was banned a few weeks before the pandemic hit and cashiers were instructed not to touch the reusable bags people had just purchased - this is when people were still disinfecting their mail. Some of the cashiers still refuse to touch a reusable bag - claiming a suppressed immune system. Tending a supermarket checkout for hours might be the worst place for someone with a compromised immune system - other than perhaps a hospital laundry.

 

Sometimes there is even a 'bagger' in addition to the cashier. This was common, but is now rare.

 

Even with this, the self-checkout is busy. There is now a mandatory ID check for alcohol - the cashiers are no longer permitted to waive this, even for people who are multiples of 21 years old.

[BR60103]

I booked our car servicing for tomorrow -- 6 months plus take off snow tires. Today it snowed.
Dayle was a little upset at me as she was planning on layout tours for tomorrow. We'll have to squeeze it in after the service.

 

Guelph has unusual pedestrian crossing lights. They look like regular traffic lights, but some are in the middle of the block while others are at one side of a street.  These are request lights.  Problem is that since they look like traffic lights, drivers think the ordinary rules apply -- that someone from the side street can go through them which is not the case. 

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I can honestly say that I would recommend Saga to any of our readers of an age.

I very much enjoyed my "small ship" cruise. It fell into my lap as a corporate reward trip (I got an upgraded cabin because someone higher up couldn't go.) It was a 'shake-down' cruise for the crew before the normal paying customer trips began.

[Ozexpatriate]

Flavio's (and others') generative AI images with the extra digits / limbs / etc strike me as an interesting virtual simulacrum of organic genetic mutation in evolution.

 

It feels almost the same in terms of the way the 'rules' are bent organically - with minor rather than major changes. Of course unlike evolution there are no beneficial mutations to pass down. Each image is it's own end-point.  

 

[pH]

1 hour ago, BR60103 said:

I booked our car servicing for tomorrow -- 6 months plus take off snow tires. Today it snowed.

Some routes in BC require snows until the end of March; others to the end of April. Since one son and family live on an ‘until the end of April’ route, our snows will be on till then.

 

There’s a point on one of the main routes in the interior of BC where a “Snow tires required until the end of March” sign is followed within 200 metres by a “Snow tires required until the end of April”sign. A possible business opportunity in that stretch of road for a tire shop!

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, PupCam said:

The first impossible task is to find any staff at all in most UK supermarkets now!

 

Just back from the local supermarket, where at least 3  checkouts had staff happily packing our shopping for us!

 

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a sunny Charente where there are very few self checkouts though we have to bag our own stuff. The biggest holdup is old ladies paying by cheque.  By the time they've bagged everything then searched their handbag for the chequebook, then the pen, it seems like manage. 

 

The MRC lunch went well though it was 84 miles not 60.  On the way home I stopped briefly for a coffee. By some peculiar coincidence I was by a railway line and in the 10 minutes I was there a train came past with a loco that I needed.  Happy days. 

 

No chatting to a 4 year old today as she is on a sleepover.  We will talk to the girls tomorrow.  Meantime the G word beckons. 

 

Jamie

Edited March 23 by jamie92208

[polybear]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I only went for the basics anyway and I used the auto tills as you can take your time bagging up and loading it back into the trolly. The staffed tills they push the stuff through too fast for you to pack properly.

 

At many of the larger stores the staff have to scan a minimum number of items a minute otherwise they end up on a disciplinary; a friend worked for Sainsbugs and it was 16 per minute average.  Of course when some little 'ol lady says "slow down!" it screws the average.

 

9 hours ago, TheQ said:

It was Iranians in the RAF electronics trades , all their trainees were automatically Sergeants, they had vast amounts of money. They'd arrive, buy a new car, send that home , buy another new car and use that. The local prostitutes would ring the Sergeants mess to see if Xxxxx was coming out that night.. then in 1979 they were gone..

 

 

The UK has a fine history of teaching what I'd consider (even then) to be "iffy nationalities"; as for flogging Military Hardware to them as well......often they get to buy stuff that is far better than our own Forces could afford.  There's most definitely A VERY LARGE RANT there.....

 

6 hours ago, Two_sugars said:

Aldi have recently introduced self check-out . . . in there today, no one in self check-outs and the had to put another till on . . . CONSUMER POWER?

 

 

Perhaps an ER'ers meet-up at a suitable Supermarket might be in order.....

.....if we all fill a bluddygreattrolley to overflowing, then when we all "discover" it's self-service only we dump the trollies in the aisles and walk out.  Could be a giggle

[polybear]

Bear here......

 

A rather good snooze - about 21-30 until 06-30, with one pit stop en-route.  Tick.

 

Today?  MIUABGAD; plenty of "missions" to tackle on the reminders list, none of which were designed to inspire a Bear though 😒

 

Time to go, says Bear.......

[iL Dottore]

Good Morning,

 

Well it was… until I caught up with the recent postings. Whilst not quite in Victor Meldrew Apoplexy territory, a few posts did irritate me. Not the posters (not even “the bear of whom we do not speak”), but the topics: Amazon and self service check-out.

 

Unfortunately, because of Amazon’s sheer heft (and seemingly bargain prices) for many specialised “niche” items (such as tools for working on small scale items that run on parallel bits of metal) they have pretty much taken over the market (at least in CH) - the few dedicated hobby shops that did exist in my neck of the woods have closed down - unable to compete (even the venerable Bercher & Sternlicht - a model railway shop going for 56 years - went under).
 

Then, having dominated a market segment, Amazon refuses to “play fair”. So, when once you had a choice of name brand equipment* from a local Swiss shop - albeit at a higher price than elsewhere, now you have Amazon that (seemingly) only offers cheap Chinese garbage (CCG) with names like XXDRY or XIANTO. And if you are fortunate enough to get the Amazon search engine to throw up a name brand item - say the @monkeysarefun Ute supercharger kit - it’s invariably <Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock>.
 

And as for the Amazon search engine - it’s about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Type in “digital calipers” and you get a “choice” of hundred of “featured” CCG, sort by “average customer review” and the “choice” shrinks to barely double digits. It also ignores your search engine prompts: type in, say, “Tamiya 1/32 scale” and it’ll give you a few Tamiya 1/32 models in the listings but also loads of Revell, Trumpeter, Italeri models in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/16 scales….

 

We too have been subjected to the “benefits” of self-service check outs, although of the main players in the Swiss market (COOP, Migros, Volg,  Lidl and Aldi) only COOP seems to have gone for them in a big way (but still has proper checkouts).

 

I despise self service checkouts, when in the UK shopping for supplies (like sausages) and there is no option but self-service, I always ensure that my shopping basket causes the checkout system to grind to a halt and call for a real human (e.g. with alcohol in the basket, 3 packs of co-codamol, etc). I reckon that if everyone started doing that, the supermarket execs would get the message.

 

Captain Cynical, looking over my shoulder and reading this, suggested that when supermarket execs come for medical treatment, once diagnosed the supermarket execs should be given a box of bandages, sutures and plasters and told “it’s now self-service for your convenience” and jack up the consulting fees.

 

He has a point

 

 

* mind you, nowadays even “name brand equipment” is no guarantee that you’ll get a quality item. Too many manufacturers slap their name onto CCG in order to maximise profit at minimum effort.

[TheQ]

More than once I've loaded sheets of plywood at the big orange shed to find no wood cutter was on that day. So the trolley was left loaded. On one occasion the duty woodcutter failed to turn up even after several requests by staff, that trolley too was abandoned...

 

The thing that annoys me is customers spending some time getting it all through the till then seem surprised they need to have a credit card ready.

 

You lot are depressing me... I'm told "we" are going shopping today...

 

Mooring Awl,

4 hours sleep, plus 2 hours sleep, plus 1 hours sleep.

 

Ben the I want out Collie was satisfied, he enjoyed his patrol, 100% blue Welkin, fairly breezy,  ground still soft but now not squeezing out under boots anywhere.

 

Brain still going round the unmentionables problem mentioned yesterday, not found an easy solution .

 

Ben the footballer is kicking one of his many balls around.

 

Time to go get better dressed.

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Excellent meal last night witha bunch of some very good muddlers.. @polybear all of whom could run rings round some of those you had a weekend with at an Abbey recently.. and their good ladies came along to. ( One of whom is a kit manufacturer in various scales) food is Mediterranean.. very nice, very fresh but.. huge portions...

 

My mum used to be a checkout lady at a supermarket in Peterlee ( @Two_sugars remember Broughs?). Some of the banter was not for my young ears.. iwas despatched to the butter and cheese cooking room... and I still have all of my fingers).

 

Strange, on our last visit to Antipodes a lot of the Woolworths and Coles supermarkets didn't offer bag packing as the were very short of staff @monkeysarefun.

 

I still don't use Amazoo as I totally dislike anyone who thinks they can legally not provide tax to support the infrastructure in the countries they operate in. Sales tax at the point of delivery might put a stop to that..

 

Time to drink my tea and see what Saturday has to offer.. hopefully some of my self-inflicted akenhead will go away)

 

Have a good day.. Nice to hear from @Dave Hunt!

 

Baz

[polybear]

38 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

......a few posts did irritate me. Not the posters (not even “the bear of whom we do not speak”)........

 

Oh Poo.  Must try harder.....

[polybear]

11 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

..........the only drawback is that the weight I lost since new year has reappeared as we basically ate and drank for Britain.  

 

Bear's Top Secret, Very Special Beary Diet Tip of the Day:

 

Have a really good Poo.  Works wonders on the scales.  🤣

 

Yours,

Bear

(who weighed 71Kg this morning, down from 75Kg 7.5 weeks ago)

[jjb1970]

On supermarkets, I  worked with a fine fellow in Eon who insisted the most stressful job he ever had was as a store manager for Sainsbury's. He was pretty senior at Eon and was responsible for programs with telephone number budgets and which were safety critical so his role there wasn't a walk in the park. However he said the pressure in a supermarket was relentless with all sorts of demanding metrics and constant monitoring. He couldn't get a job in engineering after graduating and did it as it seemed the best offer available but he switched careers as soon as he was able to get an engineering role.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Oh Poo.  Must try harder.....

Practice My Dear Bear practice.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

More than once I've loaded sheets of plywood at the big orange shed to find no wood cutter was on that day. So the trolley was left loaded. On one occasion the duty woodcutter failed to turn up even after several requests by staff, that trolley too was abandoned...

 

The thing that annoys me is customers spending some time getting it all through the till then seem surprised they need to have a credit card ready.

 

You lot are depressing me... I'm told "we" are going shopping today...

 

Mooring Awl,

4 hours sleep, plus 2 hours sleep, plus 1 hours sleep.

 

Ben the I want out Collie was satisfied, he enjoyed his patrol, 100% blue Welkin, fairly breezy,  ground still soft but now not squeezing out under boots anywhere.

 

Brain still going round the unmentionables problem mentioned yesterday, not found an easy solution .

 

Ben the footballer is kicking one of his many balls around.

 

Time to go get better dressed.

 

 

 

Have you encountered the 'oh can't cut that as it's been treated' excuse.

[Winslow Boy]

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Just back from the local supermarket, where at least 3  checkouts had staff happily packing our shopping for us!

 

 

Looks like the till girl is thinking why's this loon taking a picture of me, best keep an eye on him.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from a sunny Charentewhere there are very few self checkouts though we have to bag our own stuff. Th biggest holdup is old ladies paying by cheque.  By the time they've bagged everything then searched their handbag for the chequebook, then the pen, it serms like manage. 

 

The MRC lunch went well though it was 84 miles not 60.  On the way home I stopped briefly for a coffee. By some peculiar coincidence I was by a railway line and in the 10 minutes I was there a train came past with a loco that I needed.  Happy days. 

 

No chatting g to a 4 year old today as she is on a sleepover.  We will talk to the girls tomorrow.  Meantime the G word beckons. 

 

Jamie

What is this strange thing you speak of - a cheque. What is that! Nice to know that the French haven't all succumbed to the frantic rush to pay for everything by card. I tell you when the bomb drops and all the headless lemons are rushing round trying to get supplies but can't because Pootin has crashed all the computers there'll wish they'd kept all the shillings, pennies, farthings, doubloons etc. 

[southern42]

23 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Just Google 'polar bear socks' and you will find plenty varying in price from less than £2 a pair to HOW MUCH!

 

I kinda fancy these ;) https://www.heat-treats.co.uk/polar-bear-fluffy-novelty-slipper-socks/

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The weather today can’t make its mind up. I was awoken at about 5:30 by rain lashing against the bedroom window. When I finally got out of bed it was sunny! We’ve just had quite a heavy fall of hail stones and now it’s sunny once again! Anyway, I’m shortly off to collect Ava and Vickie, I’ll be dropping Vickie off for her appointment with her nail technician (their name not mine) for her appointment. The way the weather is behaving at the moment, I think I’ll be needing my sunglasses! 

Once back home, Ava and I will finish making the lemon cheesecake I started yesterday afternoon, which will be tonight’s dessert. Mike and Sarah are coming over for tea and as it’s Mike’s birthday next week (Tuesday), so this will a sort of early birthday celebration. 

 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

What is this strange thing you speak of - a cheque. What is that! Nice to know that the French haven't all succumbed to the frantic rush to pay for everything by card. I tell you when the bomb drops and all the headless lemons are rushing round trying to get supplies but can't because Pootin has crashed all the computers there'll wish they'd kept all the shillings, pennies, farthings, doubloons etc. 

Cheques are still quite popular here in La France profonde.  The older end use them a lot and the tills all have a printer that puts all the info on them.  However the search for Le Stylo doesn't start till after the cheque has been printed usually.  My kids don't carry cash.  I feel naked without some cash on me. I make a point of using cash at our favourite restaurant when Patricia explained how much card payments cost them. My kids say I'm a dinosaur but I don't care. 

 

As for Amazon I agree with both Barry and IDand use it as little as possible.  I detest their business practices. 

 

Jamie

Edited March 23 by jamie92208

[DaveF]

A sunny morning but with an almost gale force wind so I abandoned my idea of a clifftop walk, even though it is partly fenced (sort of).  Instead I decided to go into town, brave all the road and building works and look at the remaining shops.  Slightly to my surprise I found everything I wanted plus a bit more, as usual I just parked on the road there was plenty of space.  

 

Back home I have picked up some broken daffodils and put them in a vase, it shows how strong the wind is because daffodils usually benmd quite well.  Next will ber coffee and old photos.  If the wind drops I'll potter in the garden this afternoon or else it will be reading or something.

 

The local little Tesco Extra has self service checkouts but hardly anyone uses them so there is always a member of staff at the main tills.  Most of the time there are several staff stacking shelves and generally helping customers as well.

 

The Lidl and Aldi I sometimes use only have staffed tills and they are very good at opening extra ones whenever a queue starts to form.  Little Asda is normally unstaffed but staff often scan things for customers.  It is called little Asda as there is a very big one not far away which has a mix of tills, most people use staffed ones.  Morrisons in town encourages use of the self service tills by having few manned checkouts but usually have several staff helping.

 

Personally I dislike self service tills, to be honest I am old enough to remember shops where you either took your order in and the boy on a bike delivered it later on or you gave the order to someone and sat down until they brought it to you and you paid.  Even now I pay for a lot of things with cash - but I do much of my grocery shopping online.

 

David

Edited March 23 by DaveF