23rd November, 2024.
You know, Brentwood’s branch of Sainsbury’s is wonderful.
It’s got most of the stuff I need on a daily basis: even if it’s quite a walk away.
The problem … is the SmartShop.
You scan an item with the app on your phone, put in in a bag in your trolley, head for the Smart Shop self-service till, scan the QR code, double check the list, pay for everything …
Then walk out of the store, and go home.
Swearing about the amount you have to carry, the wait for the bus, the price of the cab, the time it takes to put everything away, what-have-you!
Most of the time … ?
The actual in-store shopping, scanning the stuff into the till and paying for it … is relatively hassle free.
Except when the till beeps at you: to tell you it wants a member of staff to quickly double check things.
I can understand that.
Sainsbury’s want to make sure we’re not shop-lifting.
My specific issue?
Every month, I do a big shop.
I try and get a month’s worth of stuff: frozen food, cleaning stuff, a big pack of toilet roll, what-have-you.
Every month of the past year or so?
Every single month?
When I’ve done this monthly shop, the system asks for a member of staff to check my shopping.
Every month.
It takes a varied amount of time, depending on whether they just need to check a few items or — like yesterday — unpack everything and re-scan the lot.
But it happens, every month.
To the point where — yesterday, in the queue for the till — I asked the staff member on duty to keep their eyes peeled: as, any minute now, they’d be asked to check my shopping.
Lo and behold … the poor woman had to wander over to the till I was at.
I’m getting used to it: I don’t know if the staff are.
They should be: as it’s been happening once a month, for anywhere between a year to eighteen months.
Like I say: I can understand why it’s happening.
But I’m finding it time-consuming, repetitive and vaguely insulting.
I can only hope someone at Sainsbury’s head-office is reading this.
I’d like it to stop …
~≈🛒≈~
