Our local Tesco has just incorporated one of the most significant technological advancements (or perhaps you might look on it as a deliberate regression) that I've ever seen — self-checkouts that don't have a scale on the bagging platform, so they never come out with an "unexpected item in bagging area" or "please bag your item" error. You still need someone to approve you for a Red Bull, but it's progress if nothing else.
I'm surprised it's taken this long for somewhere to cotton on to the fact that this was probably a good idea. "Unexpected item in bagging area" has been a (not particularly funny) joke for many years at this point, and I can only imagine how irritating it must have been for the Tesco employees continually having to clear such errors day in, day out. I mean, it was certainly irritating for the customers, so imagine having to deal with that annoyance all day. Retail workers have my eternal respect.
The other thing that I thoroughly approve of is that while there's still an annoying voiceover (which I understand is necessary both for people who are hard of vision and for informing the shop staff that they need to intervene for instances such as the aforementioned Red Bull approval) it's not quite as annoying as it used to be. The old self-checkouts used to smugly note "All of your Tesco points add up!" whenever you scanned your Clubcard, which I found inexplicably irritating any time I heard it. Now they just say "Clubcard accepted", which is much better.
My irritation at "all of your Tesco points add up" is purely irrational, but it stems from the fact it's a completely redundant statement. Of course they all add up, that's what a cumulative count of points does. And the fact it says this after you've scanned your Clubcard means that it's not even effective as a means of incentivising you to use your Clubcard — you know, like someone going "if you remember to scan that, all of your Tesco points will add up before you know it" — because you've already scanned your Clubcard and thus are extremely familiar with the fact that all of your Tesco points do, indeed, add up.
Sorry. I get mad just thinking about it. But now it doesn't do it any more. So even with all the chaos and insanity of the world in 2021, I can at least take comfort in the fact that my experience every time I go to "little Tesco" to pick up milk and/or a Meal Deal is now marginally less annoying than it used to be. Every cloud and all that.
Discover more from I'm Not Doctor Who
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
