Swap Shop!

[Bill]

I’m sure I’m not on my own when it comes to getting slightly annoyed when supermarkets move things around for no apparent reason. Well, we did our weekly shopping at Sainsbury’s on Saturday only to find that Sainsbury’s had taken this to any entirely new level. Every single item in the fruit and vegetable department had been relocated, not just by a bit but seemingly as far away from their original location as possible making it impossible to find what you need.

Who the hell makes these decisions, and do they not factor in the annoyance caused to their customers by doing this? It’s not like we ended up buying anything extra by having to search each and every shelve for what we wanted, it just took us twice as long as it should have taken. “Where the hell are the onions” I asked, “I think they’re where the bananas were” she replied, “but I’m not really sure myself.”

So, already wound up, we arrive at the checkouts only to find that the self-checkout area had been doubled in size and now there was a long que of people each like us with a full load of shopping and all waiting for the one cashier. Again, I wasn’t on my own at being angry, everyone was, especially as several shop assistants were standing idly by in the self-checkout areas.

We’ve always shopped at that store but I decided there and then that that would be the last time and we’d take our business elsewhere, where customer experience was put before the thinking of some spotty oink university graduate who thinks they know better. ☹

 

Bill 😊

[ninearches]

Self checkouts are a blight on shopping. Home bargains near us is great for continually relocating stock . Luckily ,they have not yet gone to self checkouts.

[Evil Sid]

Moving the location of stock in the place is a ploy brought in copying American stores.

Moving the location means that shoppers have to wander round looking for what they came in for but also generates the chance of impulse buying.

I only use self checkout if i have a couple of items, much preferring to use a manned till as i can have chat with the cashier whilst they are scanning my items and i don't have to wait for a member of staff to help when the scan doesn't work or pops up an error.

one of my relatives refuses to se self checkout and if it is pointed out to them that a self checkout is free usually replies with "no thanks i don't work here." or "do i look as though i work here" if they are in a bad mood.

never tried the scan as you shop either so cannot comment on that especially how it works for payment. i mean do you scan it and then just walk out?

[Confused52]

16 minutes ago, Evil Sid said:

Moving the location of stock in the place is a ploy brought in copying American stores.

Moving the location means that shoppers have to wander round looking for what they came in for but also generates the chance of impulse buying.

I only use self checkout if i have a couple of items, much preferring to use a manned till as i can have chat with the cashier whilst they are scanning my items and i don't have to wait for a member of staff to help when the scan doesn't work or pops up an error.

one of my relatives refuses to se self checkout and if it is pointed out to them that a self checkout is free usually replies with "no thanks i don't work here." or "do i look as though i work here" if they are in a bad mood.

never tried the scan as you shop either so cannot comment on that especially how it works for payment. i mean do you scan it and then just walk out?

My understanding, but I haven't and won't use it, is that with self scan you take the shopping and the scanning tool to the checkout and pay what it says using a card. Every so often you get accused of shop lifting and they check what is in the trolley. Not a great plan as people seen to do it using their own bags which they pack as they go round the shop to allow a quick getaway. The checking business makes a real mess of that. These systems are designed for young people shopping for one like pretty much everything else in society today.

[Observer II]

Unfortunately, the desire to increase profits trumps customer service imo.  I'm simply too old for these gimmicks, simply can't take it in nowadays, so I supposed I'm resigned to queuing for a real person to check me out.    

[ninearches]

This Home Bargains near me seems to have more staff shifting stock about than cashiers. Oh ! ,& runners for when the cashier needs a barcode.

[Evil Sid]

16 hours ago, ninearches said:

This Home Bargains near me seems to have more staff shifting stock about than cashiers

like most stores if they are not busy then staff are told to restock shelves and check for out of date items, as they get more customers then staff will be diverted to the checkouts as needed. prime example of this is aldi who open and close tills to suit the number of customers waiting, they too have mow got self checkout tills.

 

[Bill]

I can’t believe anyone impulse buys vegetables but then again I didn’t have a university education to teach me otherwise. My uneducated instinct though tells me that the frustration and annoyance created by doing this far outweighs any slight potential increase in sales.

The extra profit they might have made if I had bought the bloody strawberries while looking for onions has to be weighed against the fact that on principle, I won’t be shopping at Sainsbury’s again, and that means they’re going to have to sell an awful lot of strawberries to make up for the loss of our entire annual shopping.

 

Bill 😊

[Evil Sid]

i agree that impulse buying vegetables may not be a thing but by shifting them to the back you have to wander around looking for them and so increase the chances that you may just spot something and say "that's a bargain I'll get some of those" or that you have seen on an advert and think "ooh i will try that", and that is what they are banking on.

having worked in retail i spent many an hour doing a monthly shift around of stock on the aisles, sometimes it was switching stuff between shelves of the same section top to middle, middle to bottom and bottom to top and others it was shifting stuff to completely different aisles, all in the hope of an impulse buy, and that was in a small corner sized shop with about five aisles. could be just as vexing to the staff who had to direct customers to the new location or show them where it was, especially when checking for out of date stock or doing a stock take.

can only imagine how annoying it is for those online order pickers when there has been a big shift about in a supermarket.

[Bill]

I think we all understand what they’re trying to do Sid but do they take into account how annoying and off-putting it is for the customers? I go to the supermarket to stock up on the food I need for the week, and I don’t like the idea that I’m being experimented on or tricked into buying something I didn’t want. Ideally I want to get the shopping done over and done with as quickly as possible and I resent the fact that certain stores go out of their way to prevent me from doing this, and Sainsbury’s seems to be the worst of them all for this.

Recent tv advertising makes me wonder if some stores are finally becoming aware of the us and them situation they’re creating with the allegedly ethical Co-Op claiming that they don’t just lower prices on the things we don’t need but rather on what we do need. A small step in the right direction maybe but it’s the bigger stores that could do with a lesson in ethics.

In future, I’ll be doing my weekly shopping at Morisons which is a lot further away and maybe a bit more expensive but at least I’ve never noticed any deliberate buggering about with the location of stuff, plus they always seem to have plenty of assisted checkouts to deal with a full weekly shop.

 

Bill 😊

[ninearches]

Men are not great shoppers , we like to go in ,get what we want & back out again .regardless of cost. Women like to browse ,so maybe shuffling stock doesn't bother them while they look for the cheapest prices.

[Evil Sid]

a typical shop for a fortnight is currently around £50.00 for me but that is because i am now single.

when mrs sid was alive the same shop was not much more say around £70.00.

if mrs sid came with me then that shop could top £100.00 plus and take three times as long and would involve visiting each aisle at least three times as she remembered something else she wanted.

i have a system to get me in and out quickly developed over the last few years as mr sids health was not to good and she worried how long i would be and would often phone me to ask how long before i got back home.

i got it down to around twenty minutes of shopping for the fortnight then it was down to the checkout queues and packing.

[ninearches]

I think the length of check out queues could well prove costly for supermarkets ,exacerbated by the desire to inflict self service tills ,which are ok for a few items but not for the weekly shop. Add to that having to call a self service assistant to get the machine working again or to remove a security tag from your purchases . It a NO from me .

[Confused52]

Where we go the routine is to arrive at the checkout and tell the staff to man a check-out for us to use. It doesn't take long. After that a number of elderly folk make a bee-line for the open till. The person we usually ask is in charge of the self service tills so the point is made every time.