The Tesco & other non-Morrisons supermarket thread

[WillPS]

The Tesco self scan setup is by far the best implementation. The Asda system is far from perfect, but a lot of the issues stem from having no loyalty card or similar, as you say.

Sainsbury's have no such excuse, yet for reasons completely unknown to me when you register you have to input your email and set a password (then confirm it) on their laggy android tablets. Total rubbish. And they too have the awkward 'scan a barcode on the screen of the self scan then scan the QR code on the handset on the self scan' arrangement.

My only gripe with the Tesco setup is that it treats every Clubcard number individually, even though you can have several all linking to the same account. Given the only registration step is popping a postcode in it hardly matters though.

I also prefer the separate bank of checkouts which Tesco seem to have ditched; it meant that it was always a speedy way to pay up and get out, whereas now you're at the mercy of whichever technically illiterate fruitcakes may have tried to use a computer for the first time ever to pay for their trolley load of loose produce and bakery items.

Oh and for some reason there's been a massive delay when transferring to self scan recently (40+ second wait, then loading items at a rate of 1 every 2 or 3 seconds).

[Pete]

My only gripe with the Tesco setup is that it treats every Clubcard number individually, even though you can have several all linking to the same account. Given the only registration step is popping a postcode in it hardly matters though.

No that's useful. Means that if me and Mr Hyma are doing separate trolleys at the same time we can check out a scanner each. I get all the clubcard points, he gets all the nectar points. I got the better deal.

I also prefer the separate bank of checkouts which Tesco seem to have ditched; it meant that it was always a speedy way to pay up and get out, whereas now you're at the mercy of whichever technically illiterate fruitcakes may have tried to use a computer for the first time ever to pay for their trolley load of loose produce and bakery items.

well ours kept the separate bank but then added the barcodes to the larger self scan bank too. So you can make use of the self scan area if all four of the dedicated tills are in use. Plus if there's no queue its faster because you don't have to do a sharp u turn around the barrier.

You can also visit a person on a belted checkout with Tesco's system of course.


Waitrose use the same system IIRC but with a godawful nixdorf till at the end.

[all new Phil]

I just can’t imagine ever doing any of this when I do my shopping. I’ve never even considered doing this self-scan malarkey.

[DJDave]

I also prefer the separate bank of checkouts which Tesco seem to have ditched; it meant that it was always a speedy way to pay up and get out, whereas now you're at the mercy of whichever technically illiterate fruitcakes may have tried to use a computer for the first time ever to pay for their trolley load of loose produce and bakery items.

Ours is a big Tesco Extra, so they have always had the individual tills for them, but I know in Chester they use the same tills as self service.

I did try and use the Asda ones but after the second time it was not working so I gave in, I did not know Sainsburys did them yet? so I guess that is like the Tesco system you just scan your nectar card?

Give it about 6 years and Morrisons might catch up

[Pete]

I also prefer the separate bank of checkouts which Tesco seem to have ditched; it meant that it was always a speedy way to pay up and get out, whereas now you're at the mercy of whichever technically illiterate fruitcakes may have tried to use a computer for the first time ever to pay for their trolley load of loose produce and bakery items.

Ours is a big Tesco Extra, so they have always had the individual tills for them, but I know in Chester they use the same tills as self service.

I did try and use the Asda ones but after the second time it was not working so I gave in, I did not know Sainsburys did them yet? so I guess that is like the Tesco system you just scan your nectar card?

Give it about 6 years and Morrisons might catch up

Safeway had them 23 years ago of course

[TheonlyMCAB]

I also prefer the separate bank of checkouts which Tesco seem to have ditched; it meant that it was always a speedy way to pay up and get out, whereas now you're at the mercy of whichever technically illiterate fruitcakes may have tried to use a computer for the first time ever to pay for their trolley load of loose produce and bakery items.

Ours is a big Tesco Extra, so they have always had the individual tills for them, but I know in Chester they use the same tills as self service.

I did try and use the Asda ones but after the second time it was not working so I gave in, I did not know Sainsburys did them yet? so I guess that is like the Tesco system you just scan your nectar card?

Give it about 6 years and Morrisons might catch up

Safeway had them 23 years ago of course

Yep, still got a couple of Safeway 'Greenboxes'

[DJDave]

I also prefer the separate bank of checkouts which Tesco seem to have ditched; it meant that it was always a speedy way to pay up and get out, whereas now you're at the mercy of whichever technically illiterate fruitcakes may have tried to use a computer for the first time ever to pay for their trolley load of loose produce and bakery items.

Ours is a big Tesco Extra, so they have always had the individual tills for them, but I know in Chester they use the same tills as self service.

I did try and use the Asda ones but after the second time it was not working so I gave in, I did not know Sainsburys did them yet? so I guess that is like the Tesco system you just scan your nectar card?

Give it about 6 years and Morrisons might catch up

Safeway had them 23 years ago of course

They did a indeed, I remember using them as a kid. Scan and Go? Or something it was called.

[james2001]

Safeway had them 23 years ago of course

Safeway- well ahead of all the other chains, until they were taken over by a company who decided smoking areas in the restaurants and pen and paper were the way to go.

[bilky asko]

Safeway had them 23 years ago of course

Safeway- well ahead of all the other chains, until they were taken over by a company who decided smoking areas in the restaurants and pen and paper were the way to go.

Steve Dresser's tribute to Sir Ken Morrison always makes a good read as to why certain decisions were made regarding Safeway.

Safeway were indeed early with the Scan as you Shop technology, but it seems perhaps too early - uptake was low, shrinkage was up, and it was very far off from being a seamless experience with lots of failed scans.

Incidentally, Greenbox is still going - it's a brand owned by US company Instore, who also make the relevant shopping trolleys.

[WillPS]

Safeway had them 23 years ago of course

Safeway- well ahead of all the other chains, until they were taken over by a company who decided smoking areas in the restaurants and pen and paper were the way to go.

Waitrose had them as well, if not before then not long after. JS had a smaller number of sites which have had it ever since too (theirs was called 'Fast Track', Leicester Fosse Park is one example).

Safeway had them 23 years ago of course

Safeway- well ahead of all the other chains, until they were taken over by a company who decided smoking areas in the restaurants and pen and paper were the way to go.

Steve Dresser's tribute to Sir Ken Morrison always makes a good read as to why certain decisions were made regarding Safeway.

Safeway were indeed early with the Scan as you Shop technology, but it seems perhaps too early - uptake was low, shrinkage was up, and it was very far off from being a seamless experience with lots of failed scans.

Incidentally, Greenbox is still going - it's a brand owned by US company Instore, who also make the relevant shopping trolleys.

The main reason uptake was so low on the Safeway scheme was that the only way to use it was to obtain a Safeway ABC card, which itself was unpopular and was dropped not long after. Apparently if you wanted to use them after that you either had to use your old Safeway ABC card, or ring customer services who would post out a pretend one. All pretty arduous.

By comparison Waitrose would let you use a JLP or Waitrose account card, or any other credit or debit card if you nipped to the customer service desk and registered it.

[cwathen]

The main reason uptake was so low on the Safeway scheme was that the only way to use it was to obtain a Safeway ABC card, which itself was unpopular and was dropped not long after. Apparently if you wanted to use them after that you either had to use your old Safeway ABC card, or ring customer services who would post out a pretend one. All pretty arduous.

I would say the main reason the scheme failed was that the technology wasn't really there in 1995. It was self-scan but not self-pay, so they still had to employ someone to sit on a mini checkout to handle the payment. In order to prevent shrinkage from people who 'forgot' to scan things, they also had 'rescan points', where you could be sent to have all of your shopping that you'd scanned yourself and lovingly packed into green boxes scanned conventionally through a normal checkout, thus completely negating the convenience of it. The rescans weren't being profiled properly either (if they even had the technology to do profiling) as some stores/customers seemed to be hit more than others for no obvious reason.

Overall it looked cool and futuristic but it doubtless involved a lot of investment and involved a lot of man-hours in people manning payment points and rescan points only for the customer to pay the same price. And then on top of that, it wasn't even that convenient for the customer and once they'd gone through a couple of rescans they would likely never use it again.

On the ABC scheme, I was surprised that it did fail. It was (at the time anyway) I think one of the only schemes where you accrued points that were directly equivalent to money (even if it was only a penny in each pound). If you had a bill for £50 you could just pay £45 and 'pay' the other £5 with ABC points. That seems better than early Tesco Clubcard points where you'd get sent vouchers for money off random things you might never buy.