How do you feel about shopping without Tills? IKEA update

Yes I love it , also if you are on a bus journey and you have to change buses to reach your destination if you get on the second bus within a certain period of time it counts as one journey

Future career as a personal shopper :joy::joy:

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SPent hours yesterday looking for a bikini :bikini: ended up in a brilliant shop Rougegorge in Les Arcs , personal service… help, advice, could buy in 2 parts so that top one size bottom another haha. Loved it … and the sales were on !!! I then had to buy 2 bikinis lol lol
Yep I could have done with a Tily yesterday :blush::blush:

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That sounds great - I hate it when you can only buy the same size tops and bottoms as they never fit!

I have in fact talked at length with both young women whose circumstances I described, Ann, and with the brother and mother of the one who offered my wife lessons in French of her own volition, and was very keen to start. Having made an appointment to start the lessons she didn’t turn up, and stopped her shifts at the shop too. The shop manager was her mother, and her brother was an assistant on the butchery counter.

My wife and I were concerned about her and I made discreet and careful enquiries about her because we didn’t want her to be upset or embarrassed. Her brother explained she was having a rather difficult time, and I asked him to reassure her and not to worry herself if things were not currently convenient. We believed in her and would always welcome her if things turned out better in future.

I try not to make easy assumptions about people or to pressure them into arrangements, but I do talk to local people and show interest in them, short of being intrusive. As a father of six I do know what difficulties young people face in today’s harsh world, and young French people and English people are not so very different in their outlook on life, in their hopes and aspirations, and their concerns.

No tills - what happens when things go wrong, security wants to see your receipt, etc.

My wife has the misfortune to frequently use a hotel in Lancashire when she’s back working.
It would be a fairly decent hotel except it is self check in. No staff around at all.
Several times she’s managed to check in only to find the card key doesn’t work - and there’s no-one around to sort it. Then it’s call a national helpline.

Sometimes it won’t even let her check in - doesn’t recognise the booking etc. Again call a helpline.
There are staff in the hotel but not at reception, so you have to wait until HQ calls the restaurant/leisure centre/background staff or whatever to get someone to go and assist.

That’s not good customer service and I can’t help but think any problems with Tesco’s system could result in poor customer service.

And if you are thinking Tesco’s plans won’t affect you in France, remember that Carrefour (who have already announced large scale closures) and now in talks about working with Tesco

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When I made my flying visit to Brittany to view my future home I stayed in a hotel…I was given the key but during the entire 3 days it never opened the door to my room and I traipsed back down flights of stairs to fortunately talk to someone on reception…One of my daughters will be staying in a local self check in apartment with her two little sons…my grandsons…later this year…I’ll be really pissed off if there’s any problem…! x :wink:

And to think all this started from a question about paying in Tesco with an App! I have worked on a checkout in Tesco’s, I didn’t feel demeaned by it, it was a way of earning a bit of extra cash. But then I was much older and previously had an enjoyable and satisfying career. My main job in Tesco was working on the delicatessen counter and I realised that the some of the customers it was similar to going to the corner store. They had an opportunity to actually talk to someone. Paying by App I guess will be very convenient for some but surely makes the whole experience even more faceless. I am presuming that there will still be some of the traditional check outs left?

Margaret_Ann it was me that suggested that check-out work could be demeaning for some, but I recognise that for some it is a useful source of income as well as a way of keeping usefully busy post-retirement.

But for some young people retail jobs offer little scope for continued growth educationally or career-wise: they are not designed to fulfil the legitimate aspirations of our young people, and are seen as dead-end jobs with little social status and very limited financial prospects.

They keep some people off benefits, but yield nothing besides. It seems likely that all such jobs will be automated within 5-10 years, and many other low-skilled occupations too. Work as a means to solvency is going to have to be reconceptualised to avoid social upheaval. The malaise and discontent of many young people can’t be ignored much more, and the complacency of some of us older folk will not be tolerated either.

For the most part I agree with you. To be fair, in Tesco there were opportunities to progress. After my first 3 month review I was asked if I was interested in being placed on a management training course. However, this was quite a few years ago so the structure may have changed. I am being controversial here I know, but I believe that in many ways the current educational system lets young people down, especially in poorer areas. There will always be a need for people to do basic jobs so they are kept ‘in their place’ I have lived and worked in areas of the UK where unemployment is high and it is a depressing experience and often the youngsters have no aspirations.

I may be a bit controversial here, but there will always be a section of society who wants to work , but through no fault of their own certain jobs will not be available to them. However working on tills , shelf stacking etc gives them the opportunity to be employed, earn money and rather than be demeaning actually boost self esteem. That’s before we get into retirees , people with child care issues etc

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Totally agree Nellie :+1:

Absolutely Nellie. Very well said.

One company I worked for… the Boss had insisted that his young son did a long spell at every level of work from the most menial/boring to the highest/interesting. He wanted the lad to experience and understand each and every aspect, not only of the work itself but of the folk who slogged away… (at whatever).

“Until you know what it is like to be bored, wet, cold and tired… and yet still have to finish the work in-hand … you cannot expect to command the respect of your employees and you have no right to tell them what to do.”

I heard several wonderful anecdotes from the “old boys” who remembered his determination and his pain… “we were not even allowed to let him come in out of the rain… none of us were allowed to let him off lightly… he was too tired to speak some days, yet he had to keep going…”

I did not know the Boss (his Dad), but “the lad” turned out to be a great human being and a wonderful employer.

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This is the sort of thing I dread… give me a real person on the Till… please

We are in danger of losing all “human contact” and being controlled by the faceless directors of big business.
I recently took mum shopping in a larger town where there is a Super U, not a hypermarket but nevertheless larger than our ‘local’ Intermarché. There were only 3 cash desks open, none of them being ‘handicapped’ tills. I can’t go through a ‘normal till’ with mums wheelchair so I was forced to go through one of those basket only ones (horrible with a wheelchair and balancing bags etc;). I mentioned to the lady in charge of these that it was crazy, people without any handicap could pass through any till, while those in wheelchairs had no choice. She agreed and said it was the ‘patron’ who decided these things. If mum hadn’t been so stressed by the whole experience I would have demanded to see the patron there and then.

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M&S are testing at an app that does away with tills altogether. You just have to scan and pay on your phone and leave!!

I visited M&S last week… amazingly (and to the relief of OH)… I found nothing that I wanted to buy. :relieved:

However, my mobile is not modern enough to scan etc… so that is another way of visiting M&S in the future without fear of overspending… :joy:

Not even underwear?! :smile: Love their knickers :open_mouth:

Nope… uninspiring… very disappointed as there was room in my suitcase… :roll_eyes:

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