High Street chain collapse sweepstake

Martin Phillp
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Joined: Wed 11 May, 2011 01.28

After two decades, Wendy's is returning to the UK market. First site will be in Reading, followed by Stratford (presumably Westfield) and Oxford.

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TVF's London Lite.
Zimba
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue 13 Oct, 2020 11.01

all new Phil wrote: Sun 09 May, 2021 11.29 I can remember one supermarket (possibly Asda) trialling a till system that allowed it to be both manned or self serve, with the screen spinning round and the interface changing depending on what mode it was in. Never really seen them since so I guess it was logistically a bit of a challenge - not overly clear where was manned and where wasn’t.
I might be wrong but I'm sure they're just the trolley self service tills in the stores that haven't had them replaced with the newer ones which are getting rolled out with the new layout. Never ever seen them used by a staff member though. Believe the ones in Morrisons can be aswell if they we're laid out with a gap inbetween.

https://dmrqkbkq8el9i.cloudfront.net/Pi ... -tills.gif - Can see it there.
https://ninanco.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... 70x658.jpg - The fold out tray at the back is so it's higher so you can reach over the top.
bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

all new Phil wrote: Sun 09 May, 2021 11.29 I can remember one supermarket (possibly Asda) trialling a till system that allowed it to be both manned or self serve, with the screen spinning round and the interface changing depending on what mode it was in. Never really seen them since so I guess it was logistically a bit of a challenge - not overly clear where was manned and where wasn’t.
Asda in York did this in 2015, replacing all the standard staffed tills with the hybrid convertible type. The majority of them were not staffed at the time, they seemed to cause queues and they were slower for staff to use as well. They got rid of most of them after about year and changed back to the standard Asda tills (except in a dark grey colour scheme), leaving a few behind but only ever used in the unmanned mode.
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BBC TV Centre
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu 29 Apr, 2021 22.35

They did this in my local Asda, and have seen the hybrid tills in action a few times with staff scanning items through, there was also a little screen that would face the shopper.

All now gone since they splashed the budget on a grey tin of paint and new self-service hardware and went into drugs, replacing the awful cafe for a pharmacy.

Do wonder that the point of the iittle video of your face is on the actual self checkout is for? Is this some sort of reverse psychology to prevent shoplifting, or something by the marketing dept to see how happy we are at our rear-pocket tapping savings?!
Philip
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Joined: Fri 22 Feb, 2008 21.23
Location: Merseyside
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Don't know where to put this, but I went to IKEA in Warrington today for the first time since before the pandemic, and the car park was absolutely packed. Despite that, there was no queue to get in to the main shop, but there was a queue for the returns. (Although when I left, I noticed that they'd put up a queuing system for the main entrance which wasn't there when I arrived).

I also overheard one of the staff say that Saturday was a record breaking sales day.

M&S was a bit emptier by comparison. Though I did enjoy overhearing this conversation between staff and a customer as I entered the food hall:

"Do you want to use one of our pay and go scanners?"
"No."
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Jonwo
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Joined: Sat 26 Apr, 2008 02.05

I think the pandemic has proven that the majority of the population isn't about to become hermits anytime soon.
thegeek
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Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 12.35

woah
Posts: 365
Joined: Sun 28 Mar, 2010 12.39

Meadowhall store yesterday, down to the last scraps of stock:

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Certainly brought it home that it's finally going - this was actually quite a nice store and fully refurbished only a couple of years ago.
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WillPS
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Joined: Tue 22 Apr, 2008 18.32
Location: Carlton
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Debs Meadowhall always felt like a really nice store, even before the refurb. Nice and airy, sensibly sized with a good layout.

Blackpool was another decent one.

They were very much the exception though.

Similarly BHS Meadowhall was an uncharacteristically nice, modern store compared with the rest of the estate at collapse.
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Pete
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Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 13.36
Location: Dundee

Eldon Square was really nice too, as were some of the new smaller town branches like South Shields.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
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Ebeneezer Scrooge
Posts: 326
Joined: Tue 23 Sep, 2003 13.53
Location: Scrooge Towers

all new Phil wrote: Sun 09 May, 2021 11.29 I can remember one supermarket (possibly Asda) trialling a till system that allowed it to be both manned or self serve, with the screen spinning round and the interface changing depending on what mode it was in. Never really seen them since so I guess it was logistically a bit of a challenge - not overly clear where was manned and where wasn’t.
We still have these in our small local Asda. I remember seeing a member of staff convert one in the week it opened, but since then any staff assistance had been (up to current restrictions) in the self serve configuration, where the member of staff taking pity just offered to change the login and drive the till from the same side as the customer!
Seemed like a bit of a faff to change the bagging area over in that first week, especially since they just loaded up the trolley directly in subsequent weeks.
Snarky
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