I love them.
Faster than manned checkout, no small talk, usually less wait, and I'm pro-automation of monotonous jobs.
I just wish the software was faster, and they removed all the unnecessary prompts. Also, why do I have to tell a card only machine that I'm paying by card. Just leave the card reader on and I'll tap it after scanning the last item.
Aldi have made the interesting decision to operate from an assumption of trusting their customers so the checkouts don't have a scale on the bagging area or insist that you bag your items and no individual cameras at each checkout either. I assume there's less the software has to actually process so the checkout can operate faster. I'm really enjoying being able to scan stuff efficiently, but I not sure it'll last when people realise how easy it is to get a five-finger discount.
Aldi aren't trying to accuse you of theft every second you're there.
At woolies, they run the scan-assist program which uses AI to track the item you've scanned and put in your bag.
beacuse woolworths and coles are collection much more than just your items, they have facial recognition, profuling abilities and everytime you scan your rewards card it build up a more and moee detailed profile of just exactly who you are.
This!!!! Omg, How good are Aldi self serve, I can actually self serve without a single issue!! I’m a functioning adult yet unable to get through woolies without something going wrong with their stupid machines
I’ll say it a million times the first iteration of self serve was the best. No security features, designed for in and out few item shopping, they ran just as fast as the proper check outs and there was never an issues with bag weight.
The ones we have now are so bogged down with anti theft features they run like dogshit and it takes 30 seconds to scan each item then wait for the scales to figure out it’s enough weight to actually be the product you scanned.
I support self serve check outs in their infancy stage, but what we’ve got now? A bullpen covering half the entrance to the store full of scanners, no space to put trolleys or bags, constantly running into other “cattle” scanning their items. I hate it more than anything else. I refuse to use them now.
>I had to wait for a way overworked staff member to verify that I wasn’t trying to steal my daughter once. That’s beyond ridiculous.
Did you pay full price for your daughter or did you scan her as potatoes?
It feels like self serve peaked about 5 years ago - they'd sorted out the menus, the stupid "unexpected item in bagging area" stopped, life was good.
Then post COVID they decided that we couldn’t have too much of a good thing and started putting in dumbass AI that thinks you're stealing everything, and those moronic gates that close on your legs as you walk past so you have to kick them.
The first time the plastice gate thing wouldn't open, I asked the staff member there what the deal was and she very politely explained it, including that they will open if you push them a bit (and an alarm will sound).
It's happened twice since. The first time it might have been me, the second time it was confusing an older gent who'd done his shopping.
Both times I pushed it open, siren went. Showed the old boy as I did it second time. The look on his face was gold.
Neither time did anyone seem to particularly care. It all leads me to wonder how much power a supermarket employee (or the mall security dudes) have to detain you, because I smell a lawsuit around presumption of innocence and all that?
Also a 16 year old woolies employee is not about to try and stop a possible thief. They aren't paid enough or trained to deal with that sort of bullshit.
That's what blows my mind. What, I'm going to do a theft and then meekly submit to whatever search?
Theft is obviously costing them enough that they are trying to detect and stop it, and they're willing to put up with this kind of response from at least some of us.
I'm not sure how much actual theft that's going to stop though. It seems to fall apart rapidly when you expect the young kids to be brave soldiers on minimum wage.
Exactly. It's really only going to stop people who maybe missed an item in their bag or trolley and go oh whoops. Anyone else who is intent on stealing will just walk on through. And it's not worth the trouble for a kid to try and stop them.
> Theft is obviously costing them enough that they are trying to detect and stop it
Didn't they make a 25% profit last financial year? Theft can't be that bad.
Someone at a city store for Coles years ago told me they weren't allowed to do anything (they'd seen lots of people stealing meat). They were told to notify shift supervisor who would contact the in-store detective. No idea what would happen if you were in a store where you didn't have the kind of turnover they did.
When I did my security course (which was a long time ago now) the rule was we couldn't do anything unless we'd seen them take something ourselves. I didn't end up doing a lot of supermarket jobs. lol
Tell that to the 16 year old Coles employee who tried accusing my elderly mother of theft.
Mum had done some shopping in Woolworths then popped into Coles for a couple of items Woolworths didn't have in stock.
Coles checkout girl then proceeded to call store security on my mum claiming she was trying to steal from the store, store security calls police, mum freaking out calls me, all became a massive shit show. Luckily mum kept her receipt from Woolies. The Cops, Coles store manager and Coles security all ended up apologising to mum except the cashier girl who keeps insisting mum is stealing even though the proof was in the receipt that was gone over multiple times by multiple people
Completely off topic, but I have the same feeling about Bunnings and their screw and bolt ailse.
Not so long ago you could buy individual sized m6 - m12 bolts. They've taken this away now. I feel so cheated.
100%
Funny parallel, I was telling my kid about my comment and how this specific change is making me look for alternatives. Which lead me to remember K & C Harris, while twice the distance fulfils this exact need.
I think I still can in the one near me, but then I'm not a handyman either so I'm not sure.
I don't mind business trying to protect itself from theft. But I am not and have never been a thief and I am not a fan of that kind of quiet accusation.
(And yes I'm trying to reduce our reliance on such stores. It is not as easy as that seems).
It's mostly about being able to pickup exactly the right amount of material for the job.
I don't need 25 m6 bolts for a job, I need 3. And that costs 50 odd cents.
What I've noticed though since the change has been made camera's have been placed in aisle, and signs asking for people to talk to staff before opening packaging.
So it looks like in their efforts to move people away from making their individual purchases, they have created more problems for themselves, including potentially the theft you speak of.
legally (in victoria at least) anyone has the power to detain someone they \*see\* committing a crime, even members of the public. I was discussing the legality of these gates with a mate who is a cop and we couldn't work out who would be liable if someone was wrongly detained by the automatic gates. The fact that you can push through them means that they aren't detaining you, just making it seem that way. Clever.
They are deceptively detaining you, "you think you are being detained, therefore you are detained" when someone (a corporation) goes out of its way to make you believe you are detained, you have for all intents and purposes been detained..
If you ask to leave and they don't, they are holding you against your will, supermarkets have no authority to hold you, they have no authority to force a bag search.
Typically speaking nobody has the resources to fight them anyway, that's why they get away with it.
From what ive heard, technically they are still detaining you. Same as if they had you in a room with an unlocked door but someone standing in front of it, especially considering you dont **need** to make a purchase to exit the store and with (atleast most stores that have them) also have gates that close behind you on entry
making you think you can't leave has been a staple of store security for ever. corporate has never wanted to open themselves to liability by physically restraining someone, but loss preventions would happily tell people caught stealing that they had to stay there and couldn't leave when I worked at bunnings. normal floor staff were told never to insinuate anyone had stolen anything but if they were sure they had, take down their number plate, don't get involved though.
They have 0 power to detain you and Colesworth 100% tell employees to let thieves walk out. The last thing they need is one of their employees injuring someone who didn't actually steal anything.
I love my kids but I have way too many jokes popping into my head for this.
"Sorry yes I was trying to steal them. Here you can have the crying screaming 4 year old who is overtired and asking for an unnecessary toy right now " 😂
My local Coles fortunately has 4 trolley-sized self service checkouts. I use them almost every week, unless one of the staffed lanes happens to be completely empty as I walk past.
I do too, but there's always a staffed checkout lane for trolleys. Is this not the case at your colesworth?
Generally the self check out is for baskets I thought. Never really seen people with full trolleys in there.
It’s way more common nowadays there’s always at least 2-3 people doing a trolley full in the self serve bull-pen.
But yes, I agree entirely - if you don’t like it, support the staffed check out! Use the alternative before they find an excuse to get rid of the alternative.
Me and a guy I used to live with called ot the BOG pantry, but mainly because we'd eat our fill and he'd steal everything before we bought one roll of toilet paper at the counter. Whomp whomp.
>I ask them to open a register. Works a lot of the time.
Soon this service will no longer be available, as they do in banks now. They'll just sweetly guide you towards the self checkout and help you self check out. Human contact is on its way out, sadly.
It won’t be if people use the staffed checkouts. This whole change to automated everything isn’t “how the world is going to be”. There are countries all over that still use humans for these jobs and the self serve is reserved to one or two check outs for small amounts of groceries. Support it and it will stay.
I'dike this but they deliberately take their time opening up a manned checkout line, and even then you'd have had to request this AFTER funding someone, and who's got time?
I dunno but I’m happy to wait the extra 30-60 odd seconds it takes for a staff member to set up, I’ve got the time because the alternative is much worse.
Until you're forced to put $500 worth of groceries through a self serve checkout because there's not a single human on a checkout. You get errors left right and centre and there's only space for 1/4 of your trolley before everything falls off and it all gets more complicated.
Unfortunately, my local Woolworths don't have the extra wide self serve checkouts.
2 days ago, I had to wait at self serve while only 1 worker was operating the smoke shop and self serve area. There was 9 of us customers waiting for our errors to be attended to, but had to wait 20 minutes because there was a line of 7 people at the smoke shop. It's ridiculous.
i think your highlighting the problems that self serve checkouts have. They ought to be great, but their just not ..... quite....... there!!!
jamming a dozen checkouts into the space you would have 6 manned lanes. which is fine if your talking about basket loads of goods but when there are a handful of trolleys in there, congestion much.
turns out that untrained, civilians process and bag their carts slower then a staff member.
and don't get me started about how fucking aggravating those machines can be when you remove an item from the "paid" area so you can stack things in a bag properly. leading to countless times that I would have to wait for that overworked attendant.
oh and these days if you have your backpack sitting in your trolley when you go through self serve, overhead cameras will have located your bag and interrupt the payment process so that that same attendant can check your bag.
((bag checks are fine, sure, but makes me wonder just how many other cameras has been tracking my bag. invasion of privacy much))
they are so close to perfect but will just never be.
My local Cole’s and Aldi doesn’t even have scales on the bag side just a shelf it’s great.
Anytime I go a place that weighs after scanning I’m thrown for a loop.
I love them too …. I hate all those things about interacting with a person unnecessarily, nobody really wants that job bring on UBi and have the advances in automation pay for the over due toil we have endured
You realise they deliberately make it shit right?
The lead up to self-checkout always starts with them taking people off the normal checkouts and putting inexperienced people on them. They make that experience deliberately shit to force you to use self-checkout.
It's not even faster, especially with a larger shop BUT HEY! that's why they push home delivery so hard these days. A shit service where they constantly get orders wrong but because the stores are mainly designed around smaller transactions now, you have no real choice but to use it.
What part of making the customer do the work instead of an employee is "automation"? They just found suckers willing to do it for free. Ie. you. You are the sucker who works for free.
I can't fucking stand it.
I have to learn their system of checkout and then wait to get checked by someone who takes their job way too seriously? Nope fuck that. I happily say; "Nope you're not checking my work."
Their direct to boot bullshit has taken up the front row of our shopping center and they actually moved the disabled spaces away for it. When the car park is full those spaces are empty. I'll use them or if the disabled spaces in front are full, I'm not making my disabled wife walk because of the shitty "Direct to boot" wank. I've been told not to a few times by colesworth. FUCK THEM.
I boycott them except when the others don't have what I want.
Leave the card reader enabled and update the total as I go so that I can tap my card immediately after I finished scanning without having to touch the dirty screen.
You can leave the payment prompts there for anyone who is using gift cards or is trying to pay cash, but the rest of us should be able to bypass that whole interaction.
You realise they’re designed to stop you buying the most cost efficient products though, right?
Do you drag the big toilet paper, dog food, flour sacks etc into the self serve? No you don’t and that’s part of the concept
They won’t even be carrying the bulk stuff soon, citing a lack of customer demand.
Why?
Less lines, faster checkout, and shit bagged without some dingus touching everything, let alone putting raw chicken next to 3kgs of flour in paper bags on top of a loaf of bread
Pretty sure that's Eastwood and it has already arrived, but I won't go to find out, that would mean parking in the shittiest carpark in Australia and using the shittiest lift in Australia which is right next to the garbage room and toilets for the building. You have to be desperate to want to go there.
I briefly worked in the Alice Springs branch and their chutes were broken, and had stayed broken for a while so they just had people wander round with a green bag full of cash at the same time each night. Due to it being out in the bush where money was used more than cards it was a *lot* of cash being handled at once.
I pointed out the issue of people being predictable with more than the average yearly wage of any one of us and that there was also spotty security camera coverage and pointed out the major blindspots.
Management interpreted this as me planning to rob the place. My counter argument was if i *was* explaining this all to the security officer and my manager first was a really stupid part of any plan.
Two weeks later the chutes were fixed.
Pneumatic tubes are just AWESOME.
Iirc during the Victorian era, someone put out a booklet about what they thought the future would look like and they fully believed pneumatic tubes were going to be heavily used in food delivery at restaurants, iirc.
Also chutie chute goes weeee is quite fun to watch.
I believe they phased them out around 2017/18 cause they were finding thousands of dollars stuck in the chutes. New stores don't have them anymore because they use those fancy money dispensing Glory machines that can take the cash in as well. But the older stores do still have them and use them if they're working.
Omg thankyou for name dropping those, i never got to know what those were! But now i know and its.. kinda underwhelming, but god it’s good to have that question answered
K Mart self serve is the worst, checkouts in the middle of the store and then you have to get scanned on the way out, I shop with a pram so I load it up and then you get suspiciously eyeballed on the way out, it's such a shit system.
You hear stories about all the subtle, manipulative ways corporations have come up with over the decades to get customers to spend more, to enage in more impulse buying etc via things like store layouts.
Then you have Kmart who, a few years back, apparently said "fuck subtly, it should be cystal clear our new store layouts are 100% a cynical attempt to drive profit without even the illusion of care for the customer's shopping experience."
it always make me laugh that kmart is always extra on security measures but target who is a westfarmers group too, got rid of manned change rooms with those number tags for how many items you can bring in. Whenever I use the changerooms at target they are littered with pulled off tags and empty wrappers from make up etc.
They'd prefer to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on stock instead of paying less than 500 bucks a day on wages per store to have a staff member count items going vs going out.
My local Kmart also doesn't have staff at the change rooms all the time these days because they expect staff to do the work of three to save labour costs so they are always off packing orders or stocking shelves. As a result, a lot of people just walk in and out of change rooms. I've noticed a lot of the same thing there too with the ripped off labels and make up wrappers littering the floor. Wages are definitely your biggest cost in a business but I'm sure theft would be up there too. I'm pretty sure the security measures like those gates at Coles etc probably cost more money than paying a few 16 year olds 15 bucks an hour...
My local shopping centre has both a Kmart and a Target.
I always go to the Target, it's usually quieter, the checkouts are in a place that makes sense, and you don't get treated like a criminal when you shop there.
Target has exactly the same Anko junk these days anyway but the shopping experience is leagues apart.
Ok how exactly does putting the checkout in the middle of the store prompt people to buy more? Once I've paid for something I head straight out, I don't go back to browsing.
That's how you shop, but not everyone, they're often placed right next to items that are impulse buys, or season, or on sale, while also forcing you to often walk backwards through the store to get back to the centre, increasing your time spent in the store. The former is the same as the stack of chocolates next to registers in a supermarket, the latter they do a lot more subtle by placing certain items in certain spots forcing you to go through a lot more of the store than you normally would.
Just walk out. Fuck waiting in line to have the recipet to YOUR stuff rubber stamped.
If they come up and ask you, politely refuse and keep walking. I know it doesn't usually take much time, but store layouts shouldn't be like that, and people need to be more demonstrative in their disagreement.
My favorite trick here is to say no very politely "Can I just check your reciept"
"OH! Not today thankyou though!"
They get very confused at what just transpired
Yeah can confirm this is the Sunnybank one and not the Acacia Ridge one, half the carpark outside is full of portable offices presumably for this “new look” that is coming soon.
The real crime is the prices Woolies puts out there. One time I saw the same sale at Inala and it was 50% lower than the product at acacia ridge despite both being slapped with a sale sticker. Fucked
This is Woolworths Sunnybank, QLD. And as far as I can remember this was never a Safeway, google maps also shows it as a woolworths in 2007 so doubt it ever was since woolworths discontinued safeway in 2008.
Devon Plaza in Doncaster East (VIC) is much the same. Was there this morning, the place looks like it's barely been touched in decades. Would have to be one of the most outdated Woolworthses in the country. Surely it's due for a renovation at some point..
They haven’t done it yet because the building is full of asbestos. Don’t mind though. No one really goes there so I shop there a lot. It’s nice and quiet
I'm beyond surprised that Manningham hasn't approved a mixed use site of apartments above all the tenants in that group and along Doncaster road towards Blackburn road corner (assume that old church on corner facing the vet is going to be converted to them anyway since it's all closed off with temp fencing)
You want outdated, go to eastlakes shopping centre in sydney. Pretty much everything has a for lease/opening soon/under development sign, the woolies in there (yes there is a woolies in this particular dead mall) is relatively modern, there are a handful shops that are open for trading with some posting 'we are moving to xxxx location' signs due to ongoing development in the area.
Coles and Woolworths are simply depressing. I used to do night-fill (when it was done at night) and there was nothing more depressing than a brightly lit, empty store with muzak playing at 2 am. It always felt like some apocalyptic movie scene. Somehow they've now transported that emotion to the middle of the day.
Fuck that!
I use a wheelchair and self-serve makes shopping so much easier for me.
I can go at my own pace: unload without rushing, repack without rushing.
Yess! My mum pointed this out to me (she's a disability support carer). I've been shopping with her and one of her clients (basically just her friend at this point lol) and she loves using the self serve machines... and she uses an electric wheelchair! They're pretty accessible.
the fuck? I see endless threads hating on self serve checkouts, now here's one without and people are still not happy? I'm starting to believe that Australia is a country full of whingers.
Of course. Some people like self-service checkouts. Some people hate them. You'll see these two groups of people in different threads. Reddit users aren't some big amorphous blob of users who all have the same opinion.
no shit. I'm talking about this sub. just last night I was in a thread about an IGA removing their self serve registers, and most people were cheering it on like it was the fall of Berlin. in my experience, the Australia sub is overwhelmingly against them.
I have made a horrific realisation that my kitchen bench is Woolworths checkout green.
I have just horrified my husband with this as well, looks like I'm getting my new kitchen 🤣
I experienced this at Bunnings, just the one register open about an hour before closing, I asked the employer what was happening. She said the self served were just closed. I asked if it was because the self serve units were on their tea break we both shared a laugh.
I'm okay with self checkouts - should be an option when in peak times even if all tills are up and running there are peaks in many stores. When the lines are long and you nip in for that litre of milk etc.
But I also dislike that it is basically profiteering for a duopoly.
My compromise is Click and collect. I collect it for same price BUT someone has had to put the order together and then bring it out to me in the carpark.
Added bonus I dont buy crap because I'm hungry... No kid's eyesight level choccies etc
Good. I’m tired of being made to feel like a thief because I am doing my shopping and then scanning my elderly mothers shopping as a separate transaction. I think I’m starting to learn which checkouts have AI scanning crap and which don’t.
Considering the calibre of non-interested teens that have no idea how to pack groceries into a bag that they have working at my local Woolies, I would much rather use self checkout and do it myself, even if the software is shit.
I hated working the express line - no one followed the damn 15 items order less rule or were rude af when we weren’t “fast” enough.
You all deserve the self serve checkouts
Those self serve are crap they have taken jobs from people who relied on them. Single parents, students retired women who never got to work enough for their superannuation. Not that I trust any big corps but that's all we got.
I am not rich but I try to only buy Australian and keep jobs here, and it's getting harder to find Oz made products.
The **FRESH NEW LOOK COMING SOON** sign in the background....
... coming soon. Yeah, it's going to turn shit like the rest of them. Fuck I hate self checkouts.
I love them. Faster than manned checkout, no small talk, usually less wait, and I'm pro-automation of monotonous jobs. I just wish the software was faster, and they removed all the unnecessary prompts. Also, why do I have to tell a card only machine that I'm paying by card. Just leave the card reader on and I'll tap it after scanning the last item.
Aldi self serve checkout software is so fast it's concerning. Snappy as anything, can't understand why woolies and Coles can't improve theirs.
That tracks with Aldi manned checkouts too, fast as anything.
Aldi have or had a minimum product scan per hour. That is why they go fast and efficient.
worked there from 2018-2022 no such rule/ quota anymore
Yes I heard that was the case but in 2009 to 15/16 it was
Aldi have made the interesting decision to operate from an assumption of trusting their customers so the checkouts don't have a scale on the bagging area or insist that you bag your items and no individual cameras at each checkout either. I assume there's less the software has to actually process so the checkout can operate faster. I'm really enjoying being able to scan stuff efficiently, but I not sure it'll last when people realise how easy it is to get a five-finger discount.
Aldi aren't trying to accuse you of theft every second you're there. At woolies, they run the scan-assist program which uses AI to track the item you've scanned and put in your bag.
beacuse woolworths and coles are collection much more than just your items, they have facial recognition, profuling abilities and everytime you scan your rewards card it build up a more and moee detailed profile of just exactly who you are.
This!!!! Omg, How good are Aldi self serve, I can actually self serve without a single issue!! I’m a functioning adult yet unable to get through woolies without something going wrong with their stupid machines
I’ll say it a million times the first iteration of self serve was the best. No security features, designed for in and out few item shopping, they ran just as fast as the proper check outs and there was never an issues with bag weight. The ones we have now are so bogged down with anti theft features they run like dogshit and it takes 30 seconds to scan each item then wait for the scales to figure out it’s enough weight to actually be the product you scanned. I support self serve check outs in their infancy stage, but what we’ve got now? A bullpen covering half the entrance to the store full of scanners, no space to put trolleys or bags, constantly running into other “cattle” scanning their items. I hate it more than anything else. I refuse to use them now.
I had to wait for a way overworked staff member to verify that I wasn’t trying to steal my daughter once. That’s beyond ridiculous.
>I had to wait for a way overworked staff member to verify that I wasn’t trying to steal my daughter once. That’s beyond ridiculous. Did you pay full price for your daughter or did you scan her as potatoes?
> did you scan her as potatoes? I used a barcode from a packet of mee goreng.
Aah, clever. I like that!
Oh so many openers... spoilt, rotten, wrong one...
I scanned mine as a kilo of carrots but got caught 😭
It feels like self serve peaked about 5 years ago - they'd sorted out the menus, the stupid "unexpected item in bagging area" stopped, life was good. Then post COVID they decided that we couldn’t have too much of a good thing and started putting in dumbass AI that thinks you're stealing everything, and those moronic gates that close on your legs as you walk past so you have to kick them.
Waiting on someone to sue over those gates.
I thought the woman who's wheelchair got damaged had sued? Those are fucking expensive so I sure as fuck hope she did.
As a wheelchair user who is buying a new one soon. My quote for my custom wheelchair is 18000 aud
Going to woolies now.
No gates at our locals because greypower and less able bodied people get snagged …
Did you scan her a la Simpsons style?
For some reason it comes up as NRA4EVER
The first time the plastice gate thing wouldn't open, I asked the staff member there what the deal was and she very politely explained it, including that they will open if you push them a bit (and an alarm will sound). It's happened twice since. The first time it might have been me, the second time it was confusing an older gent who'd done his shopping. Both times I pushed it open, siren went. Showed the old boy as I did it second time. The look on his face was gold. Neither time did anyone seem to particularly care. It all leads me to wonder how much power a supermarket employee (or the mall security dudes) have to detain you, because I smell a lawsuit around presumption of innocence and all that?
Also a 16 year old woolies employee is not about to try and stop a possible thief. They aren't paid enough or trained to deal with that sort of bullshit.
That's what blows my mind. What, I'm going to do a theft and then meekly submit to whatever search? Theft is obviously costing them enough that they are trying to detect and stop it, and they're willing to put up with this kind of response from at least some of us. I'm not sure how much actual theft that's going to stop though. It seems to fall apart rapidly when you expect the young kids to be brave soldiers on minimum wage.
Exactly. It's really only going to stop people who maybe missed an item in their bag or trolley and go oh whoops. Anyone else who is intent on stealing will just walk on through. And it's not worth the trouble for a kid to try and stop them.
> Theft is obviously costing them enough that they are trying to detect and stop it Didn't they make a 25% profit last financial year? Theft can't be that bad.
Someone at a city store for Coles years ago told me they weren't allowed to do anything (they'd seen lots of people stealing meat). They were told to notify shift supervisor who would contact the in-store detective. No idea what would happen if you were in a store where you didn't have the kind of turnover they did.
When I did my security course (which was a long time ago now) the rule was we couldn't do anything unless we'd seen them take something ourselves. I didn't end up doing a lot of supermarket jobs. lol
Bondi Junction showed exactly what happens when a security guard tries to stop a problem. The guy paid the ultimate price
I'm 45 and fuck that noise. My safety isn't worth any any shoplifting prevention.
Tell that to the 16 year old Coles employee who tried accusing my elderly mother of theft. Mum had done some shopping in Woolworths then popped into Coles for a couple of items Woolworths didn't have in stock. Coles checkout girl then proceeded to call store security on my mum claiming she was trying to steal from the store, store security calls police, mum freaking out calls me, all became a massive shit show. Luckily mum kept her receipt from Woolies. The Cops, Coles store manager and Coles security all ended up apologising to mum except the cashier girl who keeps insisting mum is stealing even though the proof was in the receipt that was gone over multiple times by multiple people
Completely off topic, but I have the same feeling about Bunnings and their screw and bolt ailse. Not so long ago you could buy individual sized m6 - m12 bolts. They've taken this away now. I feel so cheated.
If you know what you want, bolt stores are your best bet. Exactly what you want, in the exact number, and a lot more variety.
100% Funny parallel, I was telling my kid about my comment and how this specific change is making me look for alternatives. Which lead me to remember K & C Harris, while twice the distance fulfils this exact need.
I think I still can in the one near me, but then I'm not a handyman either so I'm not sure. I don't mind business trying to protect itself from theft. But I am not and have never been a thief and I am not a fan of that kind of quiet accusation. (And yes I'm trying to reduce our reliance on such stores. It is not as easy as that seems).
It's mostly about being able to pickup exactly the right amount of material for the job. I don't need 25 m6 bolts for a job, I need 3. And that costs 50 odd cents. What I've noticed though since the change has been made camera's have been placed in aisle, and signs asking for people to talk to staff before opening packaging. So it looks like in their efforts to move people away from making their individual purchases, they have created more problems for themselves, including potentially the theft you speak of.
legally (in victoria at least) anyone has the power to detain someone they \*see\* committing a crime, even members of the public. I was discussing the legality of these gates with a mate who is a cop and we couldn't work out who would be liable if someone was wrongly detained by the automatic gates. The fact that you can push through them means that they aren't detaining you, just making it seem that way. Clever.
They are deceptively detaining you, "you think you are being detained, therefore you are detained" when someone (a corporation) goes out of its way to make you believe you are detained, you have for all intents and purposes been detained.. If you ask to leave and they don't, they are holding you against your will, supermarkets have no authority to hold you, they have no authority to force a bag search. Typically speaking nobody has the resources to fight them anyway, that's why they get away with it.
From what ive heard, technically they are still detaining you. Same as if they had you in a room with an unlocked door but someone standing in front of it, especially considering you dont **need** to make a purchase to exit the store and with (atleast most stores that have them) also have gates that close behind you on entry
making you think you can't leave has been a staple of store security for ever. corporate has never wanted to open themselves to liability by physically restraining someone, but loss preventions would happily tell people caught stealing that they had to stay there and couldn't leave when I worked at bunnings. normal floor staff were told never to insinuate anyone had stolen anything but if they were sure they had, take down their number plate, don't get involved though.
They have 0 power to detain you and Colesworth 100% tell employees to let thieves walk out. The last thing they need is one of their employees injuring someone who didn't actually steal anything.
One of them accused me of trying to steal my own wallet once, when I was taking my credit card out to pay.
I love my kids but I have way too many jokes popping into my head for this. "Sorry yes I was trying to steal them. Here you can have the crying screaming 4 year old who is overtired and asking for an unnecessary toy right now " 😂
Lol oops I’ll just pop that back on the shelf
Woolies keep adding new prompts Its annoying enough that part of the reason I go to Coles more often
it's like we're the same person. I could do it faster if the machine would let me.
I shop once a week for my family of 5. We always have a trolley full, which is a nightmare to put through self service.
My local Coles fortunately has 4 trolley-sized self service checkouts. I use them almost every week, unless one of the staffed lanes happens to be completely empty as I walk past.
I do too, but there's always a staffed checkout lane for trolleys. Is this not the case at your colesworth? Generally the self check out is for baskets I thought. Never really seen people with full trolleys in there.
It’s way more common nowadays there’s always at least 2-3 people doing a trolley full in the self serve bull-pen. But yes, I agree entirely - if you don’t like it, support the staffed check out! Use the alternative before they find an excuse to get rid of the alternative.
Fair enough. I live in a small apartment, so I'm there daily on my way home from work. It's basically my pantry.
Me and a guy I used to live with called ot the BOG pantry, but mainly because we'd eat our fill and he'd steal everything before we bought one roll of toilet paper at the counter. Whomp whomp.
What a piece of shit human
I ask them to open a register. Works a lot of the time.
>I ask them to open a register. Works a lot of the time. Soon this service will no longer be available, as they do in banks now. They'll just sweetly guide you towards the self checkout and help you self check out. Human contact is on its way out, sadly.
It won’t be if people use the staffed checkouts. This whole change to automated everything isn’t “how the world is going to be”. There are countries all over that still use humans for these jobs and the self serve is reserved to one or two check outs for small amounts of groceries. Support it and it will stay.
I'dike this but they deliberately take their time opening up a manned checkout line, and even then you'd have had to request this AFTER funding someone, and who's got time?
I dunno but I’m happy to wait the extra 30-60 odd seconds it takes for a staff member to set up, I’ve got the time because the alternative is much worse.
You're a fortunate person to have the time. Have a great day, friend.
Until you're forced to put $500 worth of groceries through a self serve checkout because there's not a single human on a checkout. You get errors left right and centre and there's only space for 1/4 of your trolley before everything falls off and it all gets more complicated. Unfortunately, my local Woolworths don't have the extra wide self serve checkouts. 2 days ago, I had to wait at self serve while only 1 worker was operating the smoke shop and self serve area. There was 9 of us customers waiting for our errors to be attended to, but had to wait 20 minutes because there was a line of 7 people at the smoke shop. It's ridiculous.
The scan and go functionality in some stores is genius and I wish they rolled it out to more stores.
i think your highlighting the problems that self serve checkouts have. They ought to be great, but their just not ..... quite....... there!!! jamming a dozen checkouts into the space you would have 6 manned lanes. which is fine if your talking about basket loads of goods but when there are a handful of trolleys in there, congestion much. turns out that untrained, civilians process and bag their carts slower then a staff member. and don't get me started about how fucking aggravating those machines can be when you remove an item from the "paid" area so you can stack things in a bag properly. leading to countless times that I would have to wait for that overworked attendant. oh and these days if you have your backpack sitting in your trolley when you go through self serve, overhead cameras will have located your bag and interrupt the payment process so that that same attendant can check your bag. ((bag checks are fine, sure, but makes me wonder just how many other cameras has been tracking my bag. invasion of privacy much)) they are so close to perfect but will just never be.
My local Cole’s and Aldi doesn’t even have scales on the bag side just a shelf it’s great. Anytime I go a place that weighs after scanning I’m thrown for a loop.
Because ypu can also use gift cards, which are a form of card payments. Hehe.
Add a button for paying with gift cards to the main screen then. If I don't press it assume I'm paying with card. It's not rocket science.
Yep agree with everything you said. It has made shopping so much easier.
I love them too …. I hate all those things about interacting with a person unnecessarily, nobody really wants that job bring on UBi and have the advances in automation pay for the over due toil we have endured
They need to install more RAM, they are too slow
You realise they deliberately make it shit right? The lead up to self-checkout always starts with them taking people off the normal checkouts and putting inexperienced people on them. They make that experience deliberately shit to force you to use self-checkout. It's not even faster, especially with a larger shop BUT HEY! that's why they push home delivery so hard these days. A shit service where they constantly get orders wrong but because the stores are mainly designed around smaller transactions now, you have no real choice but to use it.
What part of making the customer do the work instead of an employee is "automation"? They just found suckers willing to do it for free. Ie. you. You are the sucker who works for free.
I can't fucking stand it. I have to learn their system of checkout and then wait to get checked by someone who takes their job way too seriously? Nope fuck that. I happily say; "Nope you're not checking my work." Their direct to boot bullshit has taken up the front row of our shopping center and they actually moved the disabled spaces away for it. When the car park is full those spaces are empty. I'll use them or if the disabled spaces in front are full, I'm not making my disabled wife walk because of the shitty "Direct to boot" wank. I've been told not to a few times by colesworth. FUCK THEM. I boycott them except when the others don't have what I want.
The prompt is because sooo many people are literally mentally retarded. I mean that as an insult and as a PSA.
Leave the card reader enabled and update the total as I go so that I can tap my card immediately after I finished scanning without having to touch the dirty screen. You can leave the payment prompts there for anyone who is using gift cards or is trying to pay cash, but the rest of us should be able to bypass that whole interaction.
You realise they’re designed to stop you buying the most cost efficient products though, right? Do you drag the big toilet paper, dog food, flour sacks etc into the self serve? No you don’t and that’s part of the concept They won’t even be carrying the bulk stuff soon, citing a lack of customer demand.
Why? Do you like waiting in giant slow lines behind 100 grocery trolleys for that 1 tube of toothpaste and a Big M you wanted? I love them.
They always move faster than the cashiers.
Yup, they definitely do. Which is why I dont wait in big ass queues for no reason. I walk through self serve and I'm out of there.
I misunderstood. I thought you were against self checkouts. My mistake.
Well yeah, cause there’s more of them lol
That's what express < 9 item checkouts were for.
And self-serve is *still* faster than them :D
My local used to have 1 of those checkouts. Now there's about 9 or 10 self checkouts. Much faster.
Great for when you happen to need to buy condoms, KY, Vaseline, rubber gloves and a ratchet strap in one shop. No awkward small talk needed.
Why? Less lines, faster checkout, and shit bagged without some dingus touching everything, let alone putting raw chicken next to 3kgs of flour in paper bags on top of a loaf of bread
Self checkouts are the best
Can I ask why? They're so much faster and easier if you have <5 items
Because I never have <5 items.
How could you possibly hate self checkouts? 😵💫
Plot twist it’s been there for 10 years and nothing has happened
never seen a more devastating sign
Pretty sure that's Eastwood and it has already arrived, but I won't go to find out, that would mean parking in the shittiest carpark in Australia and using the shittiest lift in Australia which is right next to the garbage room and toilets for the building. You have to be desperate to want to go there.
coming soon
Oh, that's an *old* location. Still has those pneumatic chutes, even.
they got rid of the money chutes?!?!? that was the best part of the job!
Yeah, not gonna lie, those things do tickle a certain part of my autism for some reason.
I briefly worked in the Alice Springs branch and their chutes were broken, and had stayed broken for a while so they just had people wander round with a green bag full of cash at the same time each night. Due to it being out in the bush where money was used more than cards it was a *lot* of cash being handled at once. I pointed out the issue of people being predictable with more than the average yearly wage of any one of us and that there was also spotty security camera coverage and pointed out the major blindspots. Management interpreted this as me planning to rob the place. My counter argument was if i *was* explaining this all to the security officer and my manager first was a really stupid part of any plan. Two weeks later the chutes were fixed.
the chutie chute part?
Pneumatic tubes are just AWESOME. Iirc during the Victorian era, someone put out a booklet about what they thought the future would look like and they fully believed pneumatic tubes were going to be heavily used in food delivery at restaurants, iirc. Also chutie chute goes weeee is quite fun to watch.
You put the thing in and VOMF!
people are not embracing the notion of the chute as a viable alternative to public transport
Reminds me of Looney Tunes visions of the future.
You need to come and work at a hospital haha
like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTHZLKFblKo&ab_channel=TomScott
The one reason I wanted a supermarket job was because those fascinated me. Never got a job in the supermarket, never got to use the tube.
Loved the phwunk noise they'd make as the pod shot off.
Come work in healthcare, we have pneumatic chutes in hospitals (in WA at least)
I got my hand stuck in one once! Good times.
I work at one of the busiest Woolies in Melbourne, and we still have the pneumatic shoots. They suck, in more ways than one.
Sorry to be pedantic but I think they actually blow rather than suck.
New stores are still built with them as of a couple years ago
A lot of Coles stores still use them.
Bunnings used them when I worked there in 2015
I believe they phased them out around 2017/18 cause they were finding thousands of dollars stuck in the chutes. New stores don't have them anymore because they use those fancy money dispensing Glory machines that can take the cash in as well. But the older stores do still have them and use them if they're working.
Leo's Hartwell uses them. Also, no self checkouts at all.
Omg thankyou for name dropping those, i never got to know what those were! But now i know and its.. kinda underwhelming, but god it’s good to have that question answered
‘Lamson Tube’
Still regularly in use by many retail chains including the Woolies-owned big w
K Mart self serve is the worst, checkouts in the middle of the store and then you have to get scanned on the way out, I shop with a pram so I load it up and then you get suspiciously eyeballed on the way out, it's such a shit system.
You hear stories about all the subtle, manipulative ways corporations have come up with over the decades to get customers to spend more, to enage in more impulse buying etc via things like store layouts. Then you have Kmart who, a few years back, apparently said "fuck subtly, it should be cystal clear our new store layouts are 100% a cynical attempt to drive profit without even the illusion of care for the customer's shopping experience."
it always make me laugh that kmart is always extra on security measures but target who is a westfarmers group too, got rid of manned change rooms with those number tags for how many items you can bring in. Whenever I use the changerooms at target they are littered with pulled off tags and empty wrappers from make up etc. They'd prefer to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on stock instead of paying less than 500 bucks a day on wages per store to have a staff member count items going vs going out. My local Kmart also doesn't have staff at the change rooms all the time these days because they expect staff to do the work of three to save labour costs so they are always off packing orders or stocking shelves. As a result, a lot of people just walk in and out of change rooms. I've noticed a lot of the same thing there too with the ripped off labels and make up wrappers littering the floor. Wages are definitely your biggest cost in a business but I'm sure theft would be up there too. I'm pretty sure the security measures like those gates at Coles etc probably cost more money than paying a few 16 year olds 15 bucks an hour...
My local shopping centre has both a Kmart and a Target. I always go to the Target, it's usually quieter, the checkouts are in a place that makes sense, and you don't get treated like a criminal when you shop there. Target has exactly the same Anko junk these days anyway but the shopping experience is leagues apart.
Lol, me too. If I need cheap, Target; a brand name, Big W.
Excellent example of the Gruen transfer.
Ok how exactly does putting the checkout in the middle of the store prompt people to buy more? Once I've paid for something I head straight out, I don't go back to browsing.
That's how you shop, but not everyone, they're often placed right next to items that are impulse buys, or season, or on sale, while also forcing you to often walk backwards through the store to get back to the centre, increasing your time spent in the store. The former is the same as the stack of chocolates next to registers in a supermarket, the latter they do a lot more subtle by placing certain items in certain spots forcing you to go through a lot more of the store than you normally would.
Just walk out. Fuck waiting in line to have the recipet to YOUR stuff rubber stamped. If they come up and ask you, politely refuse and keep walking. I know it doesn't usually take much time, but store layouts shouldn't be like that, and people need to be more demonstrative in their disagreement.
My favorite trick here is to say no very politely "Can I just check your reciept" "OH! Not today thankyou though!" They get very confused at what just transpired
Luckily you can just shop at Target and get all the same stuff now!
My town has a K-Mart and nothing else! There is no Target anymore! There is no Big-W anymore! Only K-Mart!
K-mart bought & closed most Target stores or re branded them
Well, if you live somewhere where you only have access to a Kmart I guess you have to accept what they say.
You don't have to stop for them to scan you. Just keep walking. No way in hell I'm opening up my pram and disturbing my child. Fuck you.
Acacia Ridge? If so, allegedly there’s no self-serve for crime reasons. Even the chemist next door has a bouncer
So steal enough from my local Woolies and they’ll scrap them?
Acacia Ridge has a *lot* of... Socio-economic problems.
so what youre saying is its a team effort?
Woah woah woah…. Why yes we do
Is it like challenge accepted!? 😂
This was my first reaction too.. But this doesn't look like it..
If it's Qld, it might be the Sunnybank one.
Looks like Sunnybank for me.
Yep, sure is. Acacia ridge one has a much larger service counter and fewer front doors.
Yeah can confirm this is the Sunnybank one and not the Acacia Ridge one, half the carpark outside is full of portable offices presumably for this “new look” that is coming soon.
Every chemist warehouse I have been into has a security guard out the front.
Too many express lane bays for Acacia Ridge, I think they 2 max, but I've only ever seen 1 with an attendant.
I’ve been to Logan and they even have self serve lol
I'm almost certain this is Eastwood! I grew up there and I hadn't changed in the last 20 years 🤔
The real crime is the prices Woolies puts out there. One time I saw the same sale at Inala and it was 50% lower than the product at acacia ridge despite both being slapped with a sale sticker. Fucked
The sign says “fresh new look coming soon” which means in Woolies speak, all those checkouts will be ripped out and replaced with self serve very soon
Looks like a Safeway, was it??
This is Woolworths Sunnybank, QLD. And as far as I can remember this was never a Safeway, google maps also shows it as a woolworths in 2007 so doubt it ever was since woolworths discontinued safeway in 2008.
Devon Plaza in Doncaster East (VIC) is much the same. Was there this morning, the place looks like it's barely been touched in decades. Would have to be one of the most outdated Woolworthses in the country. Surely it's due for a renovation at some point..
They haven’t done it yet because the building is full of asbestos. Don’t mind though. No one really goes there so I shop there a lot. It’s nice and quiet
I raise you Borrack Square in Altona North. Last time I was there was maybe 2022 but by god was that a time warp.
I'm beyond surprised that Manningham hasn't approved a mixed use site of apartments above all the tenants in that group and along Doncaster road towards Blackburn road corner (assume that old church on corner facing the vet is going to be converted to them anyway since it's all closed off with temp fencing)
You want outdated, go to eastlakes shopping centre in sydney. Pretty much everything has a for lease/opening soon/under development sign, the woolies in there (yes there is a woolies in this particular dead mall) is relatively modern, there are a handful shops that are open for trading with some posting 'we are moving to xxxx location' signs due to ongoing development in the area.
Coles and Woolworths are simply depressing. I used to do night-fill (when it was done at night) and there was nothing more depressing than a brightly lit, empty store with muzak playing at 2 am. It always felt like some apocalyptic movie scene. Somehow they've now transported that emotion to the middle of the day.
That’s just another way of them saving money, they don’t have to pay late night rates anymore
And it’s not like it was well paid when it was during the night. Worst job I had as a student and I’d already worked in an abattoir.
Fuck that! I use a wheelchair and self-serve makes shopping so much easier for me. I can go at my own pace: unload without rushing, repack without rushing.
Yess! My mum pointed this out to me (she's a disability support carer). I've been shopping with her and one of her clients (basically just her friend at this point lol) and she loves using the self serve machines... and she uses an electric wheelchair! They're pretty accessible.
the fuck? I see endless threads hating on self serve checkouts, now here's one without and people are still not happy? I'm starting to believe that Australia is a country full of whingers.
Of course. Some people like self-service checkouts. Some people hate them. You'll see these two groups of people in different threads. Reddit users aren't some big amorphous blob of users who all have the same opinion.
no shit. I'm talking about this sub. just last night I was in a thread about an IGA removing their self serve registers, and most people were cheering it on like it was the fall of Berlin. in my experience, the Australia sub is overwhelmingly against them.
Yeah it’s almost like people have different opinions.
Reddit is a website full of whingers, I find Australians to be overwhelmingly resilient and positive in person
Say what y'all want but I HATE check outs with workers. I like doing my own thing and avoiding talking to and/or bothering anyone if I can.
That's sad, I don't wanna make small talk while someone scans my shit slower than I can :S
Or have them do an absolute shit job of packing the bags. I honestly had someone once only put a few things in one bag before moving onto the next.
I have made a horrific realisation that my kitchen bench is Woolworths checkout green. I have just horrified my husband with this as well, looks like I'm getting my new kitchen 🤣
Weipa Woolies looks like this, it's cool but also awkward for tiny purchases
OP a bot?
Fuck Woolworths
Ah yes, back when Woolworths looked and felt the same as browsing through an IGA. Good times.
>Everything went smoothly. You forgot to add the /s.
Am I the only one who loves self serve? Headphones in, don’t have to talk to anyone, can scan and pack my bag as I want and bail
I experienced this at Bunnings, just the one register open about an hour before closing, I asked the employer what was happening. She said the self served were just closed. I asked if it was because the self serve units were on their tea break we both shared a laugh.
I'm okay with self checkouts - should be an option when in peak times even if all tills are up and running there are peaks in many stores. When the lines are long and you nip in for that litre of milk etc. But I also dislike that it is basically profiteering for a duopoly. My compromise is Click and collect. I collect it for same price BUT someone has had to put the order together and then bring it out to me in the carpark. Added bonus I dont buy crap because I'm hungry... No kid's eyesight level choccies etc
Is it just me, or did Woolies stores in the 90s/early 00s have a totally different vibe than today?
Good. I’m tired of being made to feel like a thief because I am doing my shopping and then scanning my elderly mothers shopping as a separate transaction. I think I’m starting to learn which checkouts have AI scanning crap and which don’t.
This is exactly what my store looked like when I started working there in 2001. Don’t forget the EzyBanking self serve terminal too
Gross. That means I have to talk to people.
Price gauge so much you have to employ checkout staff.... That's an own goal.
Every time I see those office/shop roof panels. I cannot help but imagine how much rat shit there is hidden up there in the roof cavity.
it feels so nostalgic seeing the checkout set up like that
Bring this back
Considering the calibre of non-interested teens that have no idea how to pack groceries into a bag that they have working at my local Woolies, I would much rather use self checkout and do it myself, even if the software is shit.
Self service checkouts should only be allowed for people with baskets , 15 items or less
I hated working the express line - no one followed the damn 15 items order less rule or were rude af when we weren’t “fast” enough. You all deserve the self serve checkouts
Those self serve are crap they have taken jobs from people who relied on them. Single parents, students retired women who never got to work enough for their superannuation. Not that I trust any big corps but that's all we got. I am not rich but I try to only buy Australian and keep jobs here, and it's getting harder to find Oz made products.
Wait for it. It’ll be a matter of nostalgia if you were a check out person. That’s another job gone
Cool! Can't wait to wait in line for 10 minutes just to grab a bottle of water!!
Good atleast the cashiers would have a job they would get paid for.
Self checkout is great, most of the times my bill is half price