Coles shopper blasts supermarket after self-scanning $258 shop

A man from New South Wales has stirred a debate online after blasting Coles because he had to utilise the supermarket's self-serve checkout for a large grocery shop on Saturday evening.

"You know what blows chunks? Doing a $260 grocery shop and having to do it yourself. If you can't afford staff then your business model is stuffed!" the man posted on the Coles Facebook page, along with a snap of the self-serve checkout screen that showed he had scanned a total of 61 items.

The post is one of a growing number of complaints over self-serve checkouts since the technology has been rolled out by various stores around the country, which include discount department store Kmart, and Coles' rival Woolworths.

'Scream for the manager'

The man's complaint, which involved Coles' new self-serve checkout with a conveyor belt, was not met with sympathy by some shoppers who didn't believe there were no manned tills at the North Rocks store he'd walked into.

"Get a Karen haircut and scream for the manager, that's more effective," someone commented.

"I don't believe no manned tills were open. If you prefer them queue for one like our fools did," another person criticised.

"Did you also screech about having to pick up items from the shelves? Asking for a friend," someone else chimed, to which the author replied sarcastically, "No, I have a servant for that".

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"No one makes you use the self-checkout. You're also a douche for using a checkout designed for like up to 10 items at the most," said a fourth, who appeared to be unaware that Coles' new self-serve checkouts allow unlimited items.

'Way too much'

Other shoppers who sympathised with the man agreed that no one actually likes the self-serve checkouts, especially when doing a big shop.

"That much shopping is way too much to take through a self-scan, you need some arty farty smelly candle to burn while you are waiting," someone commented.

Coles, which replied to the man's post, apologised for the frustration caused.

"We understand a speedy checkout experience is important to our customers and we monitor weekly and daily customer volumes to ensure we have enough team members rostered on," the Coles representative said.

Self-serve checkouts not reducing jobs, says Coles

In a statement to Yahoo News Australia, Coles has allayed concerns that self-serve checkout technology is completely replacing manned registers or taking away jobs.

"Self-serve checkouts are a preferred choice of checkout for many customers and offer convenience and efficiency. We are providing more choice to our customers in how they can choose to check out in our stores," the statement reads.

"The introduction of self-serve checkouts has not led to a reduction in the number of people working in our stores. The team members previously allocated to checkouts have been moved into the store to improve our offering to customers. Of course, if a customer would prefer to be served by a team member they are still available to happily serve them at the check-out."

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