Unlike supermarket checkout operators some 50 years ago when product and department knowledge was an essential part of several days training, todays operators need only to pass each product over a scanner and point to where the customer scans their card. Do they need any training?
I'm not disputing what you say about the general staffing ethos but our nearest Tesco has had many of the same people on checkouts for years. Mainly older women, perhaps they are on longstanding different contracts?
Mmmm, there were quite a few of the older ladies who had worked M&S for 20 or more years, now trapped there in awful contracts until their pensions were due, but didn't feel anyone would employ them elsewhere at their age if they tried to move and therefore had to accept every awful contract change. They were bitter and resentful, but you wouldn't know it at the check out. Now in one week they can have two 4am starts stocking shelves and 2 9pm finishes multi-tasking.
As a 15 year old I worked in woolworths on Saturdays and I can assure you it was far easier than working in a supermarket nowadays. The tills you only bleep things across, in fact throw up an array of messages, there are vouchers, loyalty cards, deals, the stores insist you point to place on the receipt to try to get good feedback and the tills demand you read certain messages to customer on certain items. Bakery and fruit veg items you have to weigh and find the right code for. If the newbies stick the wrong thing in the wrong place on the shelves the ticketing pricing is wrong so by the time it comes to the till customers are sometimes shocked at the price. If newbies on the till get the sequencing wrong on the till and the little darling thing just comes to a full stop and doesn't tell you why. If you don't know how to get out of its endless circle you'll have to ring and wait for a manager - have you seen to the look on peoples faces if they are stuck in a queue waiting for a manager?
To be fair this was a large M&S next to a huge Tesco and I was only there for 6 months whilst I was waiting for an operation, to take my mind off it. Made some fantastic friends there and we had a good laugh, but it was the type of spirit you might find in a concenration camp, everyone was waiting to break out, through pension, further education or just finding another avenue of work. The assistant store manager left and told me that never when he started at the M&S training academy did he think he would have to treat people so badly as part of his job. He left and got a basic job in sales after spending 15 years of his life working his way up to a management position.
Good luck with your AI on the automated tills, those little feckers have the devil installed as standard
I have seen people standing and shouting at them so many times, throwing the food they were going to purchase across the store, just walking off with shopping without paying saying it wasn't their fault the till didn't work - frankly I should have stopped them, but they simply weren't paying me enough to get involved in my opinion.
I did find the people I was working with really lovely though and so many varied people there for different reason, all really lovely. You are right though, younger ones do tend to leave after a couple of months, once they realise they do have to work, their Mum can't come in and help them and they've failed to hide in corners and let other people do the work for them.
