Supermarket giant Tesco has found itself in hot water with shoppers over its self-checkouts.
A 69-year-old woman called Pat McCarthy started a petition to bring back more Tesco cashiers to tills instead of opening up self-checkouts. To date, the petition has been signed more than 106,000 times, and it's also started a heated argument on Twitter.
Pat, who's from Brentford in West London, says she started the petition because three-quarters of the tills in her local store are now self-service, and she's not a happy bunny about it. Writing on her change.org page, she said: "My name is Pat, I am 69 years old, and retired but I am a volunteer helping disabled people with applying for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) forms and a Trustee of my local Disability Network.
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"My local Tesco has inaccessible self-service tills with no staff which makes the shopping experience physically difficult and overwhelming. At my local Tesco mega-store, and probably all over the country, Tesco is bringing in new self-service and sort-it-yourself card only till machines. They make up 3/4 of the tills now.
"These new tills are not accessible for people who don't have credit cards and can only use cash or those with little confidence to use these self-service card-only tills - myself included. People such as carers, older people, disabled people with mobility problems or lifting problems have to queue waiting for more than 30 minutes.
"I couldn't lift the windscreen wash the other day in Tesco because it was so heavy and some men were lovely to help and had to put it in my car for me. If they weren’t around and my daughter wasn’t with me, I would have been helpless.
"These new self-service card tills have displaced mainly part-time women staff. I love chatting with the staff, albeit briefly, especially as l live on my own. Talking with human staff is important to me. Now that experience has been taken away from me.
"With these new replacement Self-service-card-only tills (SSCOT) you have to choose your shopping if you can find it, put it in the trolley, unpack it, load it onto the belt that is static, scan it (if the scanner works), shove it across onto a packing area, pay for it and then lift it off out of the packing area and then load it into your trolley. This is a physically taxing process. As an older woman, I can't lift anything heavy, and that goes for many disabled people.
"I challenge Ken Murphy Chief Executive of Tesco to meet with me for a discussion to explain his 'replace people with machines policy'. I want Ken Murphy to bring staff back to do check-outs on the till and not have a replace people with machines policy.
"If we lose, it means an erosion of a great shopping experience into a Tesco's shopping nightmare. Sign and share this petition to help people with physical difficulties to have a better shopping experience in Tesco by bringing back staff."
Pat's petition has now started a fierce Twitter debate. While some people are sickened by the thought that self-checkouts could replace staff, others say they're vital for those who suffer with social phobias, mental health issues and disability.
@Its_CCHogan tweeted: "A friendly face at a till improves customer experience hugely. It makes checking out easier, friendlier, and addresses problems. Machines alienate customers and are bad for both the business and the poor customer! #bringbacktescostaff."
@gurggles1234 wrote: "#BringBackTescoStaff Dont use the machines,use the tills with staff,you might have to wait but you keep people in jobs. Keep the machines idol."
@tbo_buddhist said: "With rare exceptions I always go to a person at a till. Machines are reducing interactions with others. More people on tills please and less self-service check-outs. A chance to chat briefly with another person trumps a machine any day. #BringBackTescoStaff."
@dresserman commented: "Have people just worked out that self service checkouts lead to a loss of hours for stores? #bringbacktescostaff Also problem is that customers want everything at lower and lower prices, like Aldi. Without a thought of people losing roles and counters closing."
@TraceySultana said: "#BringBackTescoStaff These tills do not contribute towards National Insurance or pay tax /pay into pensions etc ! Companies that use these are saving huge amounts of money on their payroll but we are not seeing any reduction in shop prices. Its madness a real bug bear of mine."
@CatKLawUK wrote: "@Tesco please listen to your customers. I am tech savvy and even I hate them - they are too slow and not at all designed for a big weekly shop. Plus all the error messages if you don’t put something in the bag the right way #BringBackTescoStaff."
Meanwhile, others jumped to the defence of Tesco. @RobTrav said: "What people don’t understand that haven’t worked in a supermarket staff will be redeployed elsewhere in the store. Let’s me honest how many tills do they need to open at 11am than they would between 4pm and 7pm. It’s about utilising staff at right times #BringBackTescoStaff"
@designinateacup said: "If the staff aren’t on the tills, they’re cleaning, restocking, doing stock management, interacting with customers on the shop floor. Self scan still needs to be supervised by a human because people steal and they constantly break/need age approval. #BringBackTescoStaff."
@willowfae pointed out: "#BringBackTescoStaff . There should be a mix of checkout staff and self-serve. To suggest that there should be no self-serve is abelist & looking at it from your perspective only. I'm autistic & hate checkouts as they give me anxiety. Self-serve allows me to shop without anxiety."
@jo_uk70 said: "Also remember there are people that find social interaction crippling and self service makes shopping a bit more bearable. #BringBackTescoStaff."
@iSiMMUSiC commented: "Big fan of self serve. Always scan as you go if available. Sorts my club card if I’m just grabbing a couple of items on my way to work at a busy time I’m straight past the big queues. Click & Collect for the big shop. Manned tills are grim. #BringBackTescoStaff."
A Tesco spokesperson told the Mail Online: "Our colleagues and the friendly service they provide are absolutely vital to our stores and will always be on hand to help our customers, whether they are checking out at one of our colleague-operated or self-service checkouts. We first introduced self-service checkouts nearly 20 years ago to give our customers a choice and our stores have both types of checkout."
