1606 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

“Chit-chat” checkouts are being rolled out in French supermarkets for customers who enjoy talking to the cashier when buying groceries.

 

As retailers across the world move increasingly towards automated shopping, the Carrefour chain has taken a step in the opposite direction by encouraging shoppers to take time for a conversation, without feeling rushed.

 

About 150 of the chain’s French stores have opened blablabla caisses, or chit-chat checkouts, after being given the green light by the group’s head office this month.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully our new Safeway has these.

 

https://www.thetimes...kouts-ggk78rfbs

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 01 March 2022 - 09:42 AM.

[Nparker]

Given the option, I will always choose the cashier ahead of the "automated" checkout.

[phx]

I was mildly peeved when a clerk at Home Depot “helped" me by taking me to the self-checkout machine.

[Barrrister]

I refused to use self check out when the same thing happened to me. But I did not want to get back in line so I just left a pile of things on their self check out and left.

[Mike K.]

For the re-stocking robot to put back on the shelves?

[Victoria Watcher]

The long-running Air Miles rewards system could be facing turbulence after the withdrawal of one of its only remaining national grocery chains from the program, say experts in the Canadian loyalty points industry.

 

In early June, Canadian grocer Empire Company Ltd. announced it would be switching loyalty programs to Scene+, best known for its acceptance at Canadian movie chain Cineplex. Empire owns Sobeys, in addition to Safeway, Foodland, some IGA stores in Canada, FreshCo, Needs, Thrifty Foods, Les Marches Tradition, Rachelle Bery and Lawtons Drugs.

 

The shift will occur between August 2022 and the first few months of 2023, with the Sobeys company taking one-third co-ownership of Scene+ alongside Cineplex and the Bank of Nova Scotia.

 

It's a change to Canadian habits that could be difficult for Air Miles to recover from, according to industry watchers, after years of shoppers pulling out the familiar blue Air Miles cards at stores such as Safeway and Sobeys.

 

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/r...witch-1.6494932

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 June 2022 - 03:19 AM.

[Barrrister]

Scene does not seem as good to me as a consumer. Can you use it for gas or anything useful. Can you use it as cash at the grocery store? Does anyone know the details.

[Victoria Watcher]

Scene does not seem as good to me as a consumer. Can you use it for gas or anything useful. Can you use it as cash at the grocery store? Does anyone know the details.

 

It has expanded beyond just movies.

 

 

https://www.sceneplus.ca/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 June 2022 - 06:20 AM.

[grantpalin]

Only reason I started using Air Miles was because Thriftys was in the program. Looks like Staples is dropping out of it too. I have precious little reason to continue with Air Miles. Need to evaluate what I can get out of Scene Plus before I get into that one.

[Midnightly]

you will be able to use scene points to pay for groceries.. (earn and spend at thrifty foods) at the 1,000pts per $10 which seems to be the same value it sets with any other places (restaurants) that currently use the program, you will be able to go through the scene website to spend on best buy and expedia for travel (which i think is great.. for anyone who has tried to book multiple tickets with airmiles it can be a real pain in the butt).. currently if you have a scene card you can log onto their website and buy a thrifty foods grocery card

 

though i can't speak for bonuses and such from shopping that you do get with airmiles (spend X and get Y airmiles, buy this product get bonus miles) but i imagine those sort of things will happen

[AllseeingEye]

Quite the PO'ed crowd of shoppers at SOF Tillicum earlier this evening, me among them and I'm generally hard to rile up; the store was very busy, no surprise given the weather. I'm sure there a few BBQ's happening tonight, and out of all the checkout counters ONE was helmed by a human (I was going to say 'manned' but that term annoyed someone on another thread recently so in case they see this I don't want them to get triggered and have to call their therapist), not even the '15 items' Express till was open which was a real point of contention because its arguably the busiest terminal in that store. It was also my intended target in addition to about a dozen middle to older age customers lined up behind me.

 

Needless to say the self checkout kiosks were jammed with a massive lineup of their own, most of them with their automated voice prompts chirping about some error or another; however the plain fact is many people don't like using them in particular older customers which is perfectly fine and their choice.

 

Given the massive profits SOF and other major grocery chains are making these days this did not go unnoticed by many of the shoppers who were stuck in increasingly long lineups, and there were plenty of annoyed folks commenting on the situation. I finally went to the Customer Service desk and not so politely suggested that someone get on the PA and request another cashier get on the stick and open another checkout station. Which they did, eventually - but it shouldn't require a mob of clearly irritated and very vocal customers, all paying a very substantial dollar for the products, to get someone to shift it into gear. Increasingly it seems to me the 'service' in Customer Service is rapidly dissipating in all too many establishments these days.

[Nparker]

...Needless to say the self checkout kiosks were jammed with a massive lineup of their own...

Unless I am offered some sort of discount/rebate on my purchases for using self-checkouts, then I see no point in adding to future unemployment. It's often also just as fast or faster to go to a human cashier.

[LJ]

I only go to self serve if I just have a couple of items, and no fruit or veggies.

 

Costco I use the self serve all the time cause everything there has a scan code.

[Redd42]

and out of all the checkout counters ONE was helmed by a human (I was going to say 'manned' but that term annoyed someone on another thread recently so in case they see this I don't want them to get triggered and have to call their therapist), 

 

 

Just curious - what decade was the last time you called a police officer a "policeman'? How about your letter carrier - do you still call that person a "postman"? Maybe Matt could tell us what decade it was he stopped calling the staff at his restaurant waiters and waitresses and started calling them servers?

[vortoozo]

Quite the PO'ed crowd of shoppers at SOF Tillicum earlier this evening, me among them and I'm generally hard to rile up; the store was very busy, no surprise given the weather. I'm sure there a few BBQ's happening tonight, and out of all the checkout counters ONE was helmed by a human (I was going to say 'manned' but that term annoyed someone on another thread recently so in case they see this I don't want them to get triggered and have to call their therapist), not even the '15 items' Express till was open which was a real point of contention because its arguably the busiest terminal in that store. It was also my intended target in addition to about a dozen middle to older age customers lined up behind me.

 

Needless to say the self checkout kiosks were jammed with a massive lineup of their own, most of them with their automated voice prompts chirping about some error or another; however the plain fact is many people don't like using them in particular older customers which is perfectly fine and their choice.

 

Given the massive profits SOF and other major grocery chains are making these days this did not go unnoticed by many of the shoppers who were stuck in increasingly long lineups, and there were plenty of annoyed folks commenting on the situation. I finally went to the Customer Service desk and not so politely suggested that someone get on the PA and request another cashier get on the stick and open another checkout station. Which they did, eventually - but it shouldn't require a mob of clearly irritated and very vocal customers, all paying a very substantial dollar for the products, to get someone to shift it into gear. Increasingly it seems to me the 'service' in Customer Service is rapidly dissipating in all too many establishments these days.

 

If you haven't noticed, the world is short staffed and more patience than normal is necessary these days.

You already seem to be annoyed with the prices. Would you be willing to pay even more so that staff could be paid higher wages & therefore supermarkets would be more attractive to employees? Some grocers may well be making record profits (SOF is private, so their results are not publicly available), but grocery margins are ridiculously small - something like 4%. They can't just add more staff/pay higher wages without it impacting prices.

[dasmo]

True, robots are better. Cheap groceries will be necessary when they replace all of us and we are living off of UBI…

[AllseeingEye]

If you haven't noticed, the world is short staffed and more patience than normal is necessary these days.

You already seem to be annoyed with the prices. Would you be willing to pay even more so that staff could be paid higher wages & therefore supermarkets would be more attractive to employees? Some grocers may well be making record profits (SOF is private, so their results are not publicly available), but grocery margins are ridiculously small - something like 4%. They can't just add more staff/pay higher wages without it impacting prices.

 

Yes I have thank you very much for that incredible insight. Unfortunately in your haste to take a jab and apparently appear very clever in the process you made assumptions that were erroneous, unfounded and utterly incorrect. But for starters to answer your question YES I would have no issue paying more money for higher wages making grocers more attractive to add more potential staff - if that were, you know, my point. Which it wasn't.....

 

So I will break it down so you do understand the point which - very simply put - was not that there was a lack of staff, but that those who were there, above all at Customer Service, four of them at one point while the majority of tills remained closed - a function BTW at that store that one person typically and easily covers - essentially stood there watching the proceedings, annoyed obviously unhappy customers with lineups growing into the next postal code - and continued standing there doing essentially nothing. I never said, inferred or implied for SOF to '....just add more staff': the POINT was those staff/supervisors that were there clearly weren't paying attention to their customers and didn't appear terribly incented to do much about the situation, i.e. service their frustrated customers which, as I understand it, is the function of any employee in a customer-facing role in a service business.....

 

As to your other statement in fact with some persistence and ingenuity you can find SOF/Overwaitea general revenue numbers which while they do not speak directly to SOF do paint a picture of an extremely fiscally healthy organization. To wit: Save-On-Foods is a division of the Overwaitea Food Group, whose estimated annual revenue as of 2021 was $1.4B CDN. In turn the Overwaitea Food Group's estimated revenue per employee is currently $317,800 CDN. And by all means feel free, but I refuse to shed too many tears about 'margins' in a company owned by SIX billionaire Jimmy Pattison - not a business-person known to hang on to unprofitable companies BTW. Tight margins or not I'm reasonably certain that Pattison, and SOF, manage to $queeze by just fine.....

Edited by AllseeingEye, 11 July 2022 - 11:25 PM.

[sdwright.vic]

I would say Tillicum was short staffed because Colwood was overstuffed. They most likely had to take staff from other stores for the Grand Opening.

[Redd42]

Popped in to the new Colwood SOF. Definitely a little more upscale than your usual SOF but not that much different. There may have been enough staff (though only one staffed till open) but they were pretty green at their jobs. I would suggest if you go there you take your sense of humour and patience. The deli service was uh different due to the young age of the staff (though they had a good attitude to get it right). At the self check outs, one of my items wouldn't scan. A staff person appeared right away to help but after numerous solutions didn't work, in the end because of the wait and they still couldn't figure out how to ring in the item, they decided to give it to us.

 

Had a totally different experience at Home Depot yesterday with an item that wouldn't scan. Apparently they don't have a misc code they can use and couldn't get someone senior enough to step in, even after a 10 minute or so wait. So left without the item.

[dasmo]

I don’t like the trend at all. They will just have to replace the till staff with security in the end. And when the security is replaced with robots it gets real dystopian.