My latest article- shopping, scan, pack and pay systems

Carol

My latest online article is up (and I found a typo, of course there is always one!)


http://www.nottinghamshiretimes.co.uk/ShoppingDIY.html

Jenny

Carol - It sounds much less frustrating to wait in a queue than to use the scanning system. I wonder if anyone tries it more than once!

Congratulations on a very informative article.

Carol

I only use the scan system (at the last extreme) if there is a very long queue at the check-out AND my goods are nice square shaped packages!!!! :)

(It was fun remembering shopping in my childhood. I can remember when our local mini-market went to self-service- a revelation.)
Thanks.

Jenny

I remember the first time my Mum used a self-service shop. It looked very strange to see her taking things off the shelves herself! The Green Shield stamps were a very handy bonus.

Carol

Oh yes, I remember sticking them in the book for my mum- then eventually going on a train journey to visit the collection place and get something with the numerous books.

mct1

Congrats on your entaining article, Carol. We have these machines in Tesco's in Wexford and I've never yet managed to put my stuff through without bothering the assistant. One day maybe...

bochok

Well done, Carol.

Carol

:)
Glad I'm not alone in needing the assistant!

dorothyd

good one, Carol!

Daisy

Well done, Carol.

Wordy

Enjoyed your article, Carol. When we used such a machine in our local supermarket things were fine until we came to paying. We have pre-paid coupons for our newspaper. They scan but don't register an amount and checkout staff are used to entering this manually. However, even the assistant set to help customers having problems failed to get the machine to accept our coupon and in the end she voided the transaction and put our items through a nearby unmanned till. Maybe they would have served people better by manning that till instead.

Carol

That is one I haven't come across before Wordy. I'd definitely say these machines are tempremental.

Celtic C

Well done Carol - an informative and interesting article.
I haven't come across these checkouts yet but I was surprised about the provision of plastic bags at a time when so many outlets are pushing re-usables and encouraging the use of non-carriers. Doesn't sound either consumer- or environmentally- friendly.

lexia

Great article, Carol ! Your description of shopping years ago in the "old-fashioned" way, made me think of The 2 Ronnies sketch " 4 candles". Anyone remember it ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbvCRkl_4U for those who don't or are too young. (Worth watching again even if you have seen it)

And as for bar codes and scanning - don't get me started ! You know we will all have bar code chips in our foreheads before long, ready for the cashless society and the solving the identity fraud problem ! ;)

dorothyd

CC, our supermarkets are still pushing the bags across the counters ... even when we take our own or re-use theirs.

Tessadragon

Enjoyed reading the article too, Carol. Well done!
It definitely harked me back to my days of working in a petrol station how we only went out of the shop to serve disabled customers or to sweep the forecourt and scatter sand over spilt petrol (it took reading a newspaper to find out the health and safety i should have known, of if a customer should get petrol in their eyes, their eyes should be washed with milk not water)
There is a solution to the Creme Eggs, Carol. Unwrap the foil, eat the egg, then scan the barcode because then it is flat.

Daisy

This morning the guy on the till in our nearest tesco was getting impatient with the poor elderly lady he was serving. The queue was building up and she was taking some time to pack her shopping. He started grabbing one plastic bag after another and suffing two or three items in each - even though she kept saying "Oh, I'm alright. I've got my own bags thank you." I was quite shocked. I was next in the queue and not bothered about the wait.

Tessadragon

that is awful, Daisy....my dad is quite obsessed with re-using previous carrier bags and we'd be annoyed if a shop assistant tried to bag our stuff with new bags. If I grow up to be like the old lady and come up against that kind of supermarket assistant, I would screech at them!

Carol

Does one wonder whether 'that' supermarket just wants to get as many customers through the tills in the least time? That was terrible behaviour Daisy.
Tessa, I don't think they'd be too pleased if I stood there wallowing in the taste and texture of the Creme Egg, rather than struggling with it. :D

I'm really pleased you all liked it. It really brought back a lot of memories from my childhood that I didn't realise was still there. I could visualise the inside of these places even though some of them were fourty years ago.

Mutley

Well done Carol. When I have tried using self scan I always seem to be buying something that needs authorisation! (like alcohol!!!);)

amboline

I can't believe that supermarkets still give away free plastic bags at all. They should make people pay for jute carriers, or else use the US grocery system where everything gets packed in paper bags. The damage plastic bags do to the environment is ridiculous.

lexia

But, amboline, not as ridiculous as the government would have us believe it seems, in their efforts to divert the care of the environment issue onto the public and away from themselves and their policies.

mct1

Ireland imposed a levy on plastic bags a few years ago - now all the shops supply paper carriers or those sturdy yokes that last for years, or occasionally canvas bags and that's mostly what everyone uses. Fruit and veg can still be put in thin biodegradable plastic bags. Interestingly, in France - which officially doesn't have a plastic bag levy until 2010 - most big supermarkets have already stopped using them altogether. It really was no big deal here. When we visit Britain now it feels quite decadent and shocking to be still handed out a placcy bag for everything you buy.

Celtic C

lexia - surely care of the environment is a personal responsibility for each of us?
Yes, obviously government policies have their own place and impact but it doesn't require legislation to say no to unnecessary carrier bags ;)

Jenny

It must have cost supermarkets quite a lot to buy plastic bags that were given away free to customers. Now this is going to stop, with customers either buying bags or bringing their own, wouldn't it be nice if supermarkets donated all the money they're saving to charities?

The words fat and chance spring immediately to mind.

lexia

Oh CC - agree, agree ! Every one has to do their bit and all that, and we all have to start somewhere. I just meant that it seems hypocritical of the government sometimes the way they bang on about our carbon footprint whilst swanning about in jumbo jets and large cars etc etc. - all that stuff !

Jay Mandal

Is it really better for the environment to have plastic bags which disintegrate after one use, thereby allowing animals to eat bits of them?

dorothyd

I don't understand the term 'single use' when we use them for all sorts of things, one workman used one to create an artex ceiling for us (still have it!) we use them for books, for carrying newspapers to the recycling depot, for putting rubbish in, for wrapping things, for packing in boxes when we need padding ... single use? Never!

Rosalie

Congrats, Carol :)

Carol

Thanks Rosalie.
Single use is a complete misnomer Dorothy- they are usually re-usable time and time again, while the stuff that is meant to be reusable often falls apart after the first use! :)

Jenny

Some members of our residents' association were once invited to look round the recycling plant used by our council and the next newsletter contained an account of the trip. It was surprising to discover that the large clear plastic bags - given to us by the council for recycling - are not themselves recyclable.

Carol

Yes, that is the funny bit.

Jay Mandal

Dorothy, the orange plastic bags given out by a certain supermarket have holes in by the time you get them home.

dorothyd

that's why I don't shop there ... Somerfield bags and Tesco bags last a lot longer! Morrisons do as well.

Jay Mandal

And I think the Co-op warn you not to use their bags for storage, as you might find them, a year or so later, in tatters!

megrose

Ah yes, Jay. We've had personal experience of this. It's not a good idea to store things in them, put them in the garage - with all the other rubbish - and then pick them up a year later! Result - items all over the ground and the bag just disintegrates in your hand. :-)

Celtic C

Had that problem in our attic with biodegradable black bags - they certainly do bio-degrade all over the place! :)

dorothyd

is that a new word for falling apart? In that case, I am bio-degrading at an alarming rate!

Jenny

Re those orange bags - I've noticed that cucumbers always try to escape through a hole they've made themselves. There must be a Cucumber Escape Committee in Sainsbury's chill rooms!

dorothyd

now there's an idea for a kid's book!

Jenny

The problem is that relevant illustrations would look a bit - erm - how can I put this politely ... ? Carrier bag + hole + several inches of visible horizontal cucumber. :D

(Maybe it's just the way my mind works!!)

Mutley

My worst biodegradeable bag incident happened with a large green bag and our wheelie bin in Belgium. As the bag wasn't full I wanted to add some more bit to it. I carefully lifted it out of the bin, to empty another load into the top. Unfortunately it had already biodegraded - not enough to prevent it being taken out of the bin, but just enough to deposit the contents of old banana skins and much worse all over my feet. Sadly I was wearing open toed sandals at the time!

I have always bought the small bags since then!!! ;)