No idea what Poundland are up to, I went in earlier to find a long queue, walking round noticed the self service till were all closed, now they are switched on (and clearly drawing power) but display lane closed.
This was at 11:15 this morning, totally rediculous in 2023. I know the staffed tills provides jobs, but so does supervising the self service tills and sorting out problems quickly.
Sometimes people need to go in, pick up products, take to a till, pay for goods and get out quickly, self service tills are ideal if you have normal non age restricted products.
Just open the bloody self service tills.
@zleap it can often take a surprisingly long time for modern EPOS to reboot and connect to the servers, and the IT support is often outsourced to faraway places, added to which retailers do not like their staff knowing too much about how the EPOS works as they don't trust them (its why its very difficult for someone well educated/qualified to get a retail job, the bosses think you are planning to rob the place)
I think quite a few employers see people who have a good portfolio as a threat, as they are worried we will see and report concerns (esp in schools). The PoundLand staff can open the tills, they just seem to do so at certain times. As I said they are on, so surely not drawing any more power than they are when the screen is opened up for use. (staff press button and type in a code thingy).
It is just a pain, on a Saturday morning, when I want to drop in before heading to set up for a club at the library or en route to a work assignment, pick up a few things, pay and head off, quickly without having to wait in a queue or behind someone with a shipping order (lots of items) and messing around with cash.
II am not sure what the reason is, but they have been closed at 8:45 ish, but then opened up later in the day. Hopefully they can get it sorted if technical or sorted out if a policy issue.
@zleap there are also many electromechanical bits like the scanner, load cell, card reader and printer that can intermittently act up and need to be diagnosed and parts replaced by "boots on the ground" (skilled engineers which are usually outsourced or shared across many shops within a 50 mile radius)
Incidentally the local Co-op will only put self service tills in more affluent areas where they don't create an extra shoplifting/fraud opportunity...
If they are anything like the self service at lidl, they work on weight, too, they complain if you even put a bag in the wrong place.
8 self service tills at £land and 2 normal tills. All 8 were closed.
@zleap if there hasn't been an actual system failure of the self service till, there could be a security-related reason (too many customers "forgetting" to scan items and the shrinkage being noticed). There is otherwise 0 gain to the shop from leaving the self service till switched off, they will lose sales doing that..