FabGuys.com forum: Tesco VAR scanning system

By *ottom_only_CD OP TV/TS
2 weeks ago

Lenzie

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20q5q92y2yo

Some people saying they won't use Tesco again because the store has started using a new security system on its self scanning area.

All it does is prompt them that they have forgotten to scan a item. Why would you be against it unless you intend not to pay for items..?

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By *tephen_b50Man
2 weeks ago

Bristol

"https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20q5q92y2yo

Some people saying they won't use Tesco again because the store has started using a new security system on its self scanning area.

All it does is prompt them that they have forgotten to scan a item. Why would you be against it unless you intend not to pay for items..?"

Maybe people don't like the default assumption built into the system that anyone going through the self-scan is there to steal.

Sounds like a variation of the weighing system that Sainsbury's have had for a few years, that announces "Unexpected Item In The Baggage Area", often triggered by incorrect weighing or moving the bag. Really used to annoy me.

Why don't they just be honest about it, and install an 8k screen and loudhailer that announces to the whole store: "This is an announcement for the thieving scumbag at Till Number 7. Yes, YOU up on the screen, in the blue jacket and black jeans."

"You might think you've got away with that vodka, but we're watching you. Scan it NOW, before we send security to take you out the back and beat you over fucking head with it."

i use my local Tesco and always go to the tills, not self service. If/when they eventually phase them out i'll shop elsewhere. i'm not there to do their job for them. They'll have us stacking shelves next.

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By *ngel50TV/TS
2 weeks ago

Kinross

"https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20q5q92y2yo

Some people saying they won't use Tesco again because the store has started using a new security system on its self scanning area.

All it does is prompt them that they have forgotten to scan a item. Why would you be against it unless you intend not to pay for

Agree, I use check-outs too,

You cannot buy alcohol in Scotland before 10am, which is a pain if you do your main shopping early

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By *ara JevoTV/TS
2 weeks ago

Bristol East

I'll use them when I get an invite to their staff Xmas Party

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By *DCambsMan
2 weeks ago

Cambridge

The self-service checkouts were great when they 1st introduced them, as speedy as a speedy staff member. But then they introduced the whole "scan an item and place it in the bagging area before you can even contemplate scanning a 2nd item"......just wound me up and have used staffed checkouts ever since.

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By *orcsmatMan
2 weeks ago

Kidderminster

I watched a TV programme (I say watched but I deleted it after a few minutes.

But, not too heavily hidden was a preview of a system where you scan nothing. Just leave the store. Everything is automatically added to your bill.

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By *ndyBristolMan
2 weeks ago

Keynsham

I chuckled to myself in Tesco this morning.

I only had 3 items in my basket so a small purchase, looked over at the self serve tills and there were about a dozen people in the queue waiting.

I went to a manned till and there was just one woman in front of me ao I was served very quickly.

In and out nice and fast is what I like at Tesco

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By *aggonerMan
2 weeks ago

Malvern

Using the self-service system is doing someone out of a job. They replaced four checkouts in B&Q with two scanners and one checkout, so three people are out of work so you can save two minutes.

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By *udgepackMan
2 weeks ago

Cardiff bay

"I'll use them when I get an invite to their staff Xmas Party

Excellent

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By *ordonkyMan
2 weeks ago

Blackrock

"Using the self-service system is doing someone out of a job. They replaced four checkouts in B&Q with two scanners and one checkout, so three people are out of work so you can save two minutes. "

It's funny you think it's about your convenience to begin with.

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By *owzerMan
2 weeks ago

Chester.....

[Removed by poster at 28/05/25 18:09:02]

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By *ph1956Man
2 weeks ago

COLCHESTER

That VAR system can also show your PIN number being entered!

Hope they're all honest who see the VAR recording?

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By *illybilly50Man
2 weeks ago

Linc’s

Tesco loose loads through the self scan system. People try it on all the time hence if you get checked every time, it is likely that you missed something and the staff noticed.

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By *lan82Man
2 weeks ago

North Hykeham, Lincoln

"That VAR system can also show your PIN number being entered!

Hope they're all honest who see the VAR recording?"

Ahem! It’s PIN.

NOT PIN number.

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By *ranford cruiserTV/TS
2 weeks ago

Heathrow

Asda got something similar

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By *3versMan
2 weeks ago

glasgow

Much prefer the handheld scanners as you shop. No putting stuff in a trolley, to take out and then put back in.

Shopping goes straight into the right bag, click and pay at the end and off I go.

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By *fdbi55Man
2 weeks ago

bradford

I love how shop staff at self scan , don't want to help take security tabs off bottles of spirit or razor blades ,every little doesn't help

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By *ildwestheroMan
2 weeks ago

Llandrindod Wells

Not going to affect me as I absolutely refuse to use the self check-outs. Can see the advantage of them for kids or workmen going in for a bottle of pop, a packet of crisps or a sandwich. But not for a weekly shop.

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By *eepeter4Man
2 weeks ago

Bournemouth

"I'll use them when I get an invite to their staff Xmas Party

"
don't worry you can come to the Blue Nun Xmas party as you behaved at last years

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By *ello 1000Man
2 weeks ago

Lincolnshire

Hope it's better than the footy VAR

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By *anmannersMan
2 weeks ago

[Removed by poster at 29/05/25 00:12:24]

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By *erfieMan
2 weeks ago

mansfield woodhouse

Never use self scan

They paid people to scan things for you they don’t pay me so on principle I don’t use them as some one has lost jobs after the installation

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By *eneral distanceMan
2 weeks ago

st helens

Always use the shop n scan for years whenever possible

Started using in covid when they wanted less cross contamination

Gotta say

Never had any issues

Been asked to have items checked few times but no big issue, been far quicker and shorter queues, pros outcomes with me

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By *atchmo_Jizz!Man
2 weeks ago

Wolverhampton

I don’t blame the stores for ramping up security in their stores. The levels of shoplifting in this country are off the scale, so wouldn’t they increase security?

Scan and bag/self service checkouts are here to stay so it’s time to get used to them. My local Sainsbury’s is a large store which until a few years ago had 30 traditional conveyor belt tills, now they have just 4.

It’s also worth noting that the old checkout staff haven’t been made redundant, they have been redeployed elsewhere.

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By *anmannersMan
2 weeks ago

"Never use self scan

They paid people to scan things for you they don’t pay me so on principle I don’t use them as some one has lost jobs after the installation "

This is nonsense.

You still have to take items from trolley to place somewhere.

Only quicker way of doing it is to use the hand held scanner.

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By *anmannersMan
2 weeks ago

"I don’t blame the stores for ramping up security in their stores. The levels of shoplifting in this country are off the scale, so wouldn’t they increase security?

It’s also worth noting that the old checkout staff haven’t been made redundant, they have been redeployed elsewhere."

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By *etterbiggerMan
2 weeks ago

Scunthorpe

Sainsbury's paid their CEO nearly £900,000 salary and up to £3 million in bonuses last year, and they want me to do the job of a check out assistant whilst watching every move I make. Show me to the staff canteen I need a coffee break. Service tills cut right back. Shop lifting increased. Not a prayer of me checking myself out

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By *lexieMan
2 weeks ago

Just north of Southampton

"I'll use them when I get an invite to their staff Xmas Party

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By *arbus61Man
2 weeks ago

Leeds

Most supermarkets put 1% on all prices of products to compensate for thefts at self service checkouts

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By *ildwestheroMan
2 weeks ago

Llandrindod Wells

Slightly bemused yesterday. Not Tesco but Aldi. Two checkouts open and queues at both though the girls got everyone through rapidly. No one using the self-checkout but a rather bored looking shop assistant standing there ready to help. Been better off opening a third till.

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By *b72Man
2 weeks ago

Moray

I don’t use Tesco, much prefer Asda. I use the scan and go, pack your shopping as you go round so you don’t have to unload your trolley at the till and don’t have to make small talk with the person working at the checkout. Plus if the handsets aren’t working I just use the app on my phone

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By *tephen_b50Man
2 weeks ago

Bristol

"I don’t blame the stores for ramping up security in their stores. The levels of shoplifting in this country are off the scale, so wouldn’t they increase security?

It’s also worth noting that the old checkout staff haven’t been made redundant, they have been redeployed elsewhere."

If supermarkets were concerned about security, they wouldn't have introduced self-scan in the first place. The result was entirely predictable: thieves love it, and it is heartily detested by everyone else.

As for "time to get used to them": no, I feel no such compulsion. I suffer from the prejudice of believing that since I am the customer, and I am favouring them by spending my money with them, it's *their* job to get used to *me*, and to cater for my preferences. But they decided they didn't need to, so I'll either stand at the cash till until they send someone to take my money, or I'll go elsewhere. There's a M&S food store just down the road from me that has no cash tills at all, that I won't even set foot in.

And let's be clear about why self-servive was introduced. They thought they could lower costs - ie increase profits - by making do with less staff and getting customers to do the job instead.

Your comment re "redeployment" is interesting. Your store had 30 tills; now there are 4. Let's be charitable: say 25 tills might be in use at peak times. Now there are 4. And there will be maybe 3 or 4 staff to help in the self-scan area. That's a total of 8.

What happened to the other 17? "Redeployed" you say? How, exactly? Were there other jobs waiting for them, that weren't being done? Have the shops initiated a job creation scheme? Have they been retired to a home for distressed supermarket staff on the south coast?

Or were they told their hours would be reduced? Or transferred to another store. Or, despite your assertion, "let go"? I love that expression: released to wander free in the natural habitat of the unemployed. Sounds lovely, doesn't it?

Like many things, self-scan was a US import. But in the US, those supermarkets that embraced it have discovered, for reasons already mentioned, that it wasn't the magic recipe for cutting costs that it was supposed to be, and they're actually stripping out a lot of those facilities and reverting back to checkouts.

Coming to a store near you, eventually.

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