The Unofficial Sainsbury's Thread

[bilky asko]

I have seen a similar bank of card only tills at a Sainsbury's somewhere in London when I visited recently (EDIT: It was the London Euston Station Local). The barcode scanner requires you to aim the barcode in quite a specific direction, and the machine is even less convenient because there's still no contactless.

Is there a worse laid out store than Euston?

Yes, it was bloody awful as a layout and a shopping experience. No sandwiches in stock at all at lunchtime, aisles that are far too narrow (even for a trolleyless store), and it generally looks unkempt.

[WillPS]

I have seen a similar bank of card only tills at a Sainsbury's somewhere in London when I visited recently (EDIT: It was the London Euston Station Local). The barcode scanner requires you to aim the barcode in quite a specific direction, and the machine is even less convenient because there's still no contactless.

Is there a worse laid out store than Euston?

I think Birmingham New Street Metro would have to be in contention - it's awful!

[Pete]

This'll be why the big Sainsbury's near me had new self-checkouts when I went in last week, with the four conveyor belt ones replaced with 8 standard ones (with quite a lot of room in-between them as they replace a much bigger unit) - these would have been the old style that doesn't accept polymer notes I guess.

My local store axed the conveyor belt ones a few years back, customers were still using the smaller self-checkouts with trolleys with staff attempting to get them to use it. They were replaced with the standard V4.

I seem to recall there being two types of conveyor self scan.

The ones that were previously used in Tesco had a normal self scan at the start then a conveyor to dump your shopping in a large bagging area. The belt did the weighing but would reverse and throw your shopping back at you if it wasn't happy. these were horrible.

The ones in asda have a normal setup with a belt to unload your trolley onto and then a standard self scan at the end with a normal bagging area. These can be flipped to enable staff operation during busy periods.

ISTR both were v5 hardware.

Which ones did sainsburys have?

[WillPS]

Those weighing conveyors were V4 I think, possibly some were V3. Tesco installed them widely in their mass rollout of self checkouts but thankfully stopped and removed them all a couple of years later. JS installed them in their initial roll out too, but they never installed as many as Tesco were - these lasted a lot longer and were possibly still in use until quite recently.

I'm sure I saw the Asda-style ones somewhere else recently but I cannot remember for the life of me where it was. Morrisons? Maybe I dreamt it.
EDIT: Yes, it was Morrisons Aberystwyth. I was in the dream world of mid-west Wales.

I've still never seen one in 'traditional checkout' mode.

[bilky asko]

I did, in the small time ASDA in York decided to replace every single standard checkout with them. I remember hearing a few people complaining about them as you went round the shop. In theory it makes perfect sense, but it seemed like an excuse to man fewer tills.

It wasn't surprising that the next time I visited they had decided to get rid of them.

The V6 conveyor tills at Morrisons are positioned in such a way that even if they are convertible, they can't be used as such. Because of their more traditional looking format, it appears that there are a higher number of novices deciding to use them, therefore making 15 minute waits for one person to scan their shopping rather common.

[WillPS]

Has that York one still got the super fast super spinny megatill?

[Jovis]

Apologies if this has been mentioned, but has anybody else seen the extremely odd hybrid set up as found in Asda Huddersfield (I think it was there...)

The customer unloads there shopping in the normal way. It has a member of staff doing the scanning, with items then redirected to a bagging area and what looks to be a 'normal' self checkout; each member of staff has three bagging areas per 'till'. From this point on, the customer bags their own shopping and pays as though this were a normal self checkout. Sorry for the awful explanation.

Anyway, this has the benefit to the customer of not having to faff about with the scanning, the holdup from their point of view. From the staff member's point of view, they don't need to faff about with the payment and bagging process, the holdup from their point of view.

[Critique]

This'll be why the big Sainsbury's near me had new self-checkouts when I went in last week, with the four conveyor belt ones replaced with 8 standard ones (with quite a lot of room in-between them as they replace a much bigger unit) - these would have been the old style that doesn't accept polymer notes I guess.

My local store axed the conveyor belt ones a few years back, customers were still using the smaller self-checkouts with trolleys with staff attempting to get them to use it. They were replaced with the standard V4.

I seem to recall there being two types of conveyor self scan.

The ones that were previously used in Tesco had a normal self scan at the start then a conveyor to dump your shopping in a large bagging area. The belt did the weighing but would reverse and throw your shopping back at you if it wasn't happy. these were horrible.

The ones in asda have a normal setup with a belt to unload your trolley onto and then a standard self scan at the end with a normal bagging area. These can be flipped to enable staff operation during busy periods.

ISTR both were v5 hardware.

Which ones did sainsburys have?

Sainsbury's (at least the big one here) had the ones with a normal self scan at the start and then a conveyor that pushed the stuff onto rollers at the end (something I had only seen in Makro previously). I never encountered the conveyor backing up because it wasn't happy with the weight, but there always seemed to be a couple of this type out of action so presumably they were quite sensitive.

In related news, in Tesco today the bagging area didn't like the weight of my bags so they had to be checked, and when the staff member typed their code in they printed a little slip off the receipt printer and took it with them before - this is not something I've seen happen previously?

[Pete]

In related news, in Tesco today the bagging area didn't like the weight of my bags so they had to be checked, and when the staff member typed their code in they printed a little slip off the receipt printer and took it with them before - this is not something I've seen happen previously?

yes that's the easy way of doing it. let's you just scan a barcode and it does your username and password. save them having to type it in on the screen, arguably therefore more secure.

normally they have little plastic wallets to keep them safe and if they lose them (or they expire?) they just print a new one.

[all new Phil]

The Morrisons near me that was originally a concept store (but has since changed to a normal store) still has odd tills where you put your shopping on the belt and someone scans it, they then send it through a little tunnel and it all sorts into one of two bays. You have to wait until you've paid to go and pack.

Last time I went, you just helped yourself to carrier bags as they were at the end of the packing bay. No 5p charge as they were after you've paid. I would imagine that system has since changed.

[bilky asko]

Has that York one still got the super fast super spinny megatill?

I'll check the next time I go; I can't recall. This one is the one Jovis is talking about.

The Morrisons near me that was originally a concept store (but has since changed to a normal store) still has odd tills where you put your shopping on the belt and someone scans it, they then send it through a little tunnel and it all sorts into one of two bays. You have to wait until you've paid to go and pack.

Last time I went, you just helped yourself to carrier bags as they were at the end of the packing bay. No 5p charge as they were after you've paid. I would imagine that system has since changed.

I think that's a Wincor Nixdorf Rapid Scan till. The one ASDA in York had before the NCR spinny megatill.