A shopper has claimed a Nottinghamshire Asda branch is 'turning into The Matrix' and has hit out at there being too many self-scan checkouts. Sandra Banford, 60, has spoken out after a recent trip to the branch in Arnold.
Sandra Banford, 60, was shopping in the store in Front Street on Wednesday (July 6) lunchtime when she headed towards a checkout with a small shop to find queues for them stretching down the length of the aisles.
Sandra, who is the CEO of City Mobiles, a mobile hairdressing team that serves hospitals and nursing homes among others, says there were only three checkout staff scanning customers' shopping, and when she joined the back of one of the long queues, she noticed that the majority of customers waiting were older people. She said a member of staff asked an older gentleman behind her to self-scan as he'd become agitated, but that he replied saying he doesn't like to use them and prefers the face-to-face interaction.
This prompted a response from Sandra, who quietly agreed, and says she then spoke to another member of staff, asking why more staff were not serving customers on the tills. And, according to Sandra, the staff member's response was that Asda wants to encourage more people to use self-checkouts.
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Sandra said: "When that was said, I thought 'what about elderly people who are not very good with technology?' I'm not brilliant and I know there are staff on hand to help, but every time I've used them, my experience is that something has gone wrong.
"These queues were bad on a Wednesday lunchtime, what are weekends like? They must be bedlam, I'm really annoyed, and the situation is only getting worse.
"It's just not right - I think they were designed for speed in the beginning, but now they've evolved. After I'd queued and was served, because I suffer with my back and my hip and was stood waiting for so long, I had to go and sit down.
"I noticed some of the checkout staff knew the names of people they were seeing and chatted to them - that's not something a machine can do. I've had people say to me that they chat with friends that are on the checkouts in-store.
"I'm not saying get rid of them, but I think there needs to be an equal half-and-half split. There are a lot of pensioners in Arnold, and they don't want to be stood there, agitated and frustrated."
Asda has been approached for comment.
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