'Mind the gap' in <i>Death Line</i> was one of fairly few automated announcements back when that film came out - there's definitely scope for an updated version with a few of the newer ones added in. 'Stand clear, vehicle reversing' would be another, especially given how bastard loud those alerts normally are.
The volume of customers and hence users of the SS tills at Sainsburys is considerably less than Tescos.
I wonder what the mean time between failures is for both shops
I often have this feeling of impending doom when I go to SGR Tesco, but Sainsburys Local doesn't have the same range and is a bit more costly. Sainsburys Local is handy for odds and ends, espcially if I don't feel like the hassle of Tescos and I live slightly nearer to Sainsburys. I used to go down to Tesco about 9pm when it was quiet and it wasn't so busy, but now they only seem to have the self-service tills open late in the evening and there's a queue.
In my experience the only time you can get through Tesco's without a queue is in the early afternoon when all the tills are open and there is nobody in the store. I can only assume when the customers start coming out of the tube after work all the staff run away shrieking. Seems to be no coincidence of occurrence of the store being busy and all the tills being staffed.
Sometimes I wonder if I go to the same store, or maybe the bizarro Tesco where the staff are nice, self service tills work, normal tills are open, and queues move quickly. I don't really mind, obviously! Also it's quite a comforting SG board trope, the old "Sains vs Tesco".
@Emma. You must be lucky as I've found Tesco SGR to be worst mainstream supermarket I've ever encountered. Unless you've got the opportunity to go in the quiet period which I don't as I work until evening, it's frustrating. I think the optimum time is in the afternoon before it gets really busy . Some of the staff are really friendly but a few are verging on the nasty.
The self-service tills don't accept many items and the staff are not able to use a code to have them accepted, so I have to put them back or go to a serviced till with them e.g. loose garlic, tomatos on the vine. Many of the self service tills are not working and they could do with more people monitoring the tills that do work as they malfunction so much. Another problem is that many vegetables are out of stock in the evening. However, if I go shopping in the morning many of the vegetables have not been put on the shelves.
I can work around all this and it's not the end of the world but this is London and Tesco is a huge organisation making lots of profit. Surely it can sort out its till and stock problems. But I think it's best to use the online complaint form as others on here are doing. Every complaint may make a difference!
Misscara, I'm with you. Hate, hate, hate the self service tills in Tesco. With a passion. I try to remember my I-pod so I don't have to listen to the god awful voice telling me there is something in the bagging area and to please take my change. Argh. More frustrating is when some of them only takes cash, and others only card, I mean, why???? I think I might have once just left my stuff and walked out, although that could have just been wishful thinking.
Good time to go, early morning, like 7.30. Perhaps not very convenient for most people though....
Mid-morning is normally pretty empty as well, but I appreciate that for people working out of the area during the day, these quiet times aren't much use. I've never found any items which the self-service tills couldn't accept at all, but I agree that the staff could be better about monitoring them - too often either it's busy and the self-service staff are overwhelmed, or it's quiet and they wander off.
We had that problem with tomatoes and put them through as onions, it's no big deal (as long as you make sure and choose an item that's cheaper than the one you're trying to buy).
Presumably whatever you choose needs to be the same weight as what you are actually putting into your bag?
That said, I absent mindedly started filling my bag a few days ago, an only realised half-way through that I'd not remembered to scan anything that was going in the bag. Oops. No-one noticed. Ahem.
Tesco could just programme tomatoes and garlic in to their tills and halt this low cost vegetable based crime wave. Those responsible could claim that Tesco was 'nudging' them into bad behaviour.
I must miss all the nastiness in Tesco. The only person I find even remotely annoying is the young would be manager type who is so rude to some of the other staff.
On a point briefly made earlier in this thread (searching on the new version of the site made it a lot easier to find), the little convenience store opposite Nisa has moved into what used to be the computer shop, and I think a fish & chips is going into that unit now.
Comments
The self-service tills don't accept many items and the staff are not able to use a code to have them accepted, so I have to put them back or go to a serviced till with them e.g. loose garlic, tomatos on the vine. Many of the self service tills are not working and they could do with more people monitoring the tills that do work as they malfunction so much. Another problem is that many vegetables are out of stock in the evening. However, if I go shopping in the morning many of the vegetables have not been put on the shelves.
I can work around all this and it's not the end of the world but this is London and Tesco is a huge organisation making lots of profit. Surely it can sort out its till and stock problems. But I think it's best to use the online complaint form as others on here are doing. Every complaint may make a difference!
Good time to go, early morning, like 7.30. Perhaps not very convenient for most people though....
Meh.
That said, I absent mindedly started filling my bag a few days ago, an only realised half-way through that I'd not remembered to scan anything that was going in the bag. Oops. No-one noticed. Ahem.