Are there any chain supermarkets in UK (or London specifically) that don’t use scales at the self-checkout?

12 comments

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2. Buying loose produce is still a thing, the scales are required to process the at transaction. Yes, most supermarkets have a scales at the produce section that can weigh and produce a barcode, but they can fail, the one on the tills is a back up.

3. I think They’re there to help weigh loose fruit and veg where the price varies by the weight and to avoid theft. So if you change the labels and the item doesn’t match the weight of the barcode description it gets flagged up.

4. Waitrose never used to. I assume their LP policy was just charging you enough extra that they could afford people stealing.

5. Do you mean scales on the scanner to weigh loose produce, or the scales in the bagging area?

   The scales to weigh loose produce are exactly that – to weigh loose stuff like bananas and calculate the right price.

   The scales in the bagging area are for theft prevention, to stop you scanning a pack of noodles and putting an xbox into your bag with it. Every product the shop stocks has its weight programmed in with a tolerance either way so the tills “*know*” if you’re being dishonest. It’s a small measure and won’t stop determined thieves but does put off chancers who would try theft if they think nobody is watching

6. If you mean scales in the sense of weighing all the stuff you buy, not just loose produce, then for example, every M and S allows you to pay on the app and not go by a till at all. Their purpose is to correlate the cost of what you buy to its notional weight to guard against shoplifting, but it is, indeed, very faillible (unexpected item in the bagging area etc).

   A lot of places DO have self-scan options, where you can simply either take a scanner around with you or scan using your phone app. Certainly Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda do, I cannot remember if others do. However, this functionality may be restricted to larger stores, not express/ metro/ local ones.

7. I’m not in London but the m&s near me dosent have scales on some of the self scans, makes it easy to double scan items though quite annoying

8. Use the scan and go service rather than the self checkout. Much easier and faster as you can just put the stuff in a bag as you co around.

9. They don’t do nothing, they are there to ensure people are scanning everything they are paying for.

10. Amazon Fresh and Tesco have stores where they don’t even have checkouts. You sign in with their app, pick up what you want and walk out.

11. They are an essential part of the technology. How do they slow things down?

12. ALDI. No items are weighed. Well, as of when I left last year!