Gone is the customer experience or is it time to checkout yourself?
One Armagh woman likens her Sainsbury's experience to that of being “corralled into a pig-pen”.
Good morning! Welcome to the Armagh I newsletter, which drops into your inbox every Tuesday and Friday morning. We’re hoping to break the 8,000 barrier mark in the coming weeks…sign up below if you haven’t already. Please feel free to share with a friend, or foe, depending on how you view our newsletter.
Self-service checkouts… The bane of your existence, or a lifesaver? This is a conversation I'm sure many of you have been having in the years since these machines started to filter their way into supermarkets across the country.
They can be pretty handy, can’t they? When you’ve only got half an hour on your lunch break and you’re popping into the shop for a sandwich and a tin of Coke they can be brilliant. Why stand in a seemingly unending queue when you can simply swipe your products, tap your card and head about your day?
This might all seem fine and dandy when you’re just in for a litre of milk, but what about the big weekly shop?
An Armagh woman came into our office where she recounted an unpleasant experience in Sainsbury’s last Friday morning, when she was refused service at the regular checkout and instead her trolley load of groceries was redirected to the self-service queue.
For her, convenience quickly turned to calamity and while she has asked not to be named in this instance, her experience helps provide some insight into this debate.
Speaking to our team on Barrack Street, she said she was reduced “nearly to tears” that morning as she stood with her trolley in the supermarket in the Mall Shopping Centre, only to be told that all the manned tills were closing and shoppers had to divert to self-service lanes.
“The machine broke down five times and the girl had to keep coming over and typing in the code to reactivate the machine,” she explained.
When she told a staff member that she would struggle to put her entire trolley through the self-service till, she says she was told that it’s “the way of the world now”.
She replied: “It’s not the way of my world. I want customer service.”
The disgruntled shopper continued: "I was just getting very upset. It was a very anxious experience… As a customer I didn’t feel valued.”
Related: Are our town centres becoming a cold house for the elderly?
She described her self-service experience as almost like being “corralled into a pig-pen” with shoppers left to fend for themselves against unruly machines.
“A lot of places pack them for you and you get that full customer experience. You're not getting that anymore,” she added.
“They were insisting that nobody had lost their jobs. If that was actually the case, why were there not two full tills open?”
So what’s the real story around these self-service checkouts? Are the sceptics simply just technophobes who can’t work a touchscreen? Or is there something to be said for the seemingly now extinct art of good old-fashioned customer service?
Headlines
🏥 'Safe Zones' giving protected access to abortion services confirmed for Craigavon and Newry
💐 Families’ heartbreak as items removed from three children’s graves in Keady
☔ Batten down the hatches! Severe winds to batter Co Armagh on Wednesday
🌳 Watch: New concept designs for phase one of Newry City Park
📰 ‘We can’t cope. I’m broken’: Dad’s tribute to ‘my hero’ Ronan after Bundoran tragedy
📕 Willie’s latest book sells out in record time as cancer charity delighted to receive proceeds
⚠️ Newry Council ‘at massive risk’ over failure to recruit new directors
⚖️ Concerns raised over trial date for man accused of causing couple’s death in Portadown collision
🪦 Newry could be in line for crematorium as cemetery reaches full capacity
🏊🏻♂️ Blue-green algae confirmed at scenic south Armagh lake
⚽ Exciting new pitches and parking plans outlined for Co Armagh football club
Armagh Jobs
✅ Cross Refrigeration require a Cad/BIM Technician reporting to Project Director.
✅ Fairlawns Nursing Home require a Senior Care Assistant for Night Duty.
✅ Armagh Credit Union seek to appoint a Clerical Officer.
✅ ABL Group Commercial Insurance and Risk Advisors are recruiting for a Trainee Commercial Account Handler.
✅ Clearway Group Portadown require an HGV Mechanic and Welder/Fabricator.
✅ ASEE Ltd are offering a number of exciting opportunities.
🛎️ If you have a job and want to advertise it to 40,000 daily users on www.armaghjobs.com, www.armaghi.com, as well as almost 8,000 people on this newsletter and our 100,000 social media followers, get in touch.
Our latest Entrepreneur NI newsletter was published on Sunday if you missed it…
Notice Board
🌳Tree Planting Event in memory of Thomas McKenna | Crossmaglen First Responders | Tuesday, September 26 | 7.30pm | Culloville Community Centre. Refreshments afterwards. Join us in planting a tree gifted by NIAS to pay tribute to the impact Thomas had on Community First Responders schemes throughout Northern Ireland.
🏫 Darkley Primary 90th Anniversary | Thursday, September 28 | 4-8pm. Were you or a family member a past pupil? Come experience the school's warm welcome and their displays, photos and classes. Take a trip down memory lane as you are transported back in time, witnessing a classroom 90 years ago verses a classroom of today.
🎶 Spires of Faith and Hope | Friday September 29 | 7.30pm | Celebrating 150 years at St. Patrick's Cathedral ROI, Armagh with an Evening of Music from Eílis Fox featuring St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir and special guest Catherine Grimley Hughes. Tickets can be purchased at the Parish Office or via Ticket Source here https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/spiresoffaithandhope2023
🌼 Daisy Dander | Gosford Forest Park | Saturday, September 30 at 2PM | Tickets and more info here.
❤️Community Health and Wellbeing Event | Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon PCSP in partnership with SDACT Connections | October 5, 2023 | 6pm - 9pm | Armagh City Hotel. Throughout the complimentary evening, there will be a large number of organisations who will be promoting health and wellbeing as well as advice on alcohol and drugs and improving your mental health. On arrival, there will be a light supper. Guest Speaker Domhnall Nugent from ‘Let’s Face It’ will deliver an inspiring talk in which he'll discuss his own personal experiences with drugs and alcohol and the steps he took that helped him to overcome his addiction. If you would like to attend, please RSVP via email to aisling.gillespie@armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk by Thursday September 28, 2023.
Want to include a free event listing to almost 8,000 of our newsletter readers? Get in touch by simply replying to this email or, if you haven’t received this via your inbox, email us at info@armaghi.com.
Armagh I
For editorial enquiries contact info@armaghi.com
For advertising enquiries contact marketing@armaghi.com
8 Barrack Street | Armagh | BT60 1AD
02837 443 043
Follow us on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok
Vote with your feet, walk away, cash in hand and let it be known you will take your trade elsewhere.
I have used self serve maybe three times in my life when I couldn't be late and I had to do it myself or do without.
That's pressure I don't appreciate.
They will replace us all if we let them.
Don't believe me? Look at the UN website and the World Economic Forum website and see what they have planned.
I was shopping in Sainsbury the day the change was made. I had to wait for a friend to take over a till to get my shopping through.
I said I would not be back, and I shall not.
However, I fear this will help them in their plans to pull out of Northern Ireland, which is what this is really about.
Their workers will be the losers, but Sainsbury have never shown much concern about them.