Yes but if you have a lot of items you rely on the beeping sound with the scan rather than the lights or what is on screen. If you hear a beep you keep going. If you can’t hear anything you’re not sure whether it went through or not so it’s easy to make a mistake especially since they no longer check for weight before allowing you to keep going.
Not a Coles story, but people stealing things through the self-serve is a pretty common thing at my local Woolworths.
When I first moved to this part of the city, and went to the store for the first time, I went in and did a full grocery shop through the self-serve checkouts (as I normally do, as the others are rarely open).
After completing the transaction, I walked to the other end of the centre and stopped by the bakery to grab some fresh bread and mid-conversation with the lady in the bakery, the old lady who mans the self-serve checkout tapped on my shoulder and started yelling at me for stealing a carton of Pepsi.
She had a duplicate receipt printed in her hand and she was going off, I couldn’t believe it. The lady from the bakery was right in the middle of trying to serve me and the Woolworths lady was causing a massive scene in front of everyone.
I assured the Woolworths lady that I had indeed scanned the Pepsi, and fumbled around looking for my receipt while she kept having a go at me. I finally found the receipt and clearly pointed out the pepsi carton right in the middle of the list of items.
She wandered off and didn’t even apologise.
Long story short, complained to the store manager, who gave me a free $300 voucher for the trouble.
That old lady still mans the checkouts at Woolworths to this day, but she’s never said a single word to me ever since.
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Woolworths has confirmed a report in The Australian today it is looking at a sale of its petrol business which could be worth as much as $1.5 billion. The report says Caltex is in final stages of negotiations of buying out Woolworths’ share in the joint venture.
Woolworths statement to ASX this morning:
Woolworths Group (Woolworths) notes today’s media speculation in relation to its Petrol business.
Woolworths wishes to advise that it is currently evaluating whether to retain or dispose of its Petrol business (the ‘Business’). Woolworths has received incomplete and conditional proposals from a number of parties in relation to:
a. the purchase of the Business; and
b. the development of an enhanced convenience and loyalty offer to its customers.
Woolworths remains in discussions with a number of interested parties. No decision in relation to the future of the Business has been made, and Woolworths wishes to advise that current discussions may not result in a transaction.
Woolworths does not propose to comment further while these matters remain incomplete and materially uncertain.
Woolworths in Lavington is getting a fresh new look
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Must be the one that was previewed last month. Could you get photos eventually if possible?
Called into Woolworths at Stirling in Perth yesterday. The new logo/signage has gone up outside which made me think the store had finally been upgraded. Was proven wrong upon entering the store.
It’s always so quiet in there. I’m surprised they keep it open.
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Wow, so it still is in the old Newmart/Action livery despite the exterior sign change. Have they even added self serve or replaced the old Newmart signage at the checkouts yet? It was such a dodgy conversion. Nonetheless it’s a really cool example of Supermarket aesthetic of the late 90s - it’s gotta be one of the last supermarkets in Perth that still has the really high dark ceiling in the fresh produce area.
I’m surprised the Target in that centre is still trading.
Yeah not sure how either survive in that centre. Doesn’t help that access to the centre is so unbelievably poor.
Why is Woolworths selling their Caltex petrol business? That’s a shame.
It’s still being considered at this time of writing, but yes it is a real shame for Woolworths that they may let it go, as well as the year as a whole for them. Once a Supermarket juggernaut in the early 1990s to mid 2000s, it seems that they are really restructuring the brand as a whole.
The Everyday Rewards program shuffle up fiasco, contaminated food scares, the defeat and closure of Masters stores and lagging BIG W sales has really made Woolworths stop and think about their brand. I have felt that Woolworths has gone down in quality a bit over the years, but hopefully these changes help.
Don’t get me wrong, they still are a huge brand as a whole, but it feels this is a bit of a demise of their control in various sections.
I can remember when it was just Target before 1993 with external entry doors. Then when Newmart opened, it was a really dodgy warehouse style supermarket with pallets on shelves and a high ceiling.
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Yeah but I also think the staff members need better training to hover around people at scanners more, it would reduce people doing the wrong thing. Like at quieter stores where you only have 6 scanners with a staff member there you feel like you are being more watched so would be less likely to do a dodgy. Yet some of the busier stores have like up to 20 self checkouts and only one or two people working there you could get away with pretty much anything. The staff seem to just stand in one spot unless they are called over for help. IF they were walking up and down the scanners more and looking at peoples screen they would more likely do the right thing.
Although they could easily just implement a checking point for fruit and veggies - i.e. before you pay it could show on screen what fruit/veggies you’ve scanned in and flash for a staff member to come over and verify what you’ve scanned in against what you’ve got. It would take 10-20 seconds max.
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If they want to reduce theft, remove self checkouts and staff the registers.
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I’m guessing its an easy asset to sell to recoup some money to try and correct some of the other issues the company is having. Making money out of fuel must be tough - there are little margins (particularly when you discount) on the fuel itself and you’d need to make it up by sales inside the shop
Woolworths have really taken their eyes off the ball in trying to launch Masters - not only has it been a disaster, they’ve got major issues with Big W and Coles is starting to eat into their market share again. Its looking like Woolworths are trying to strip the company back to what works
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And with Coles having expanded “down down” to selected shop items at their cobranded Shell outlets, no doubt the shop margins at Caltex/Woolies have taken a slight hit from the inevitable tit for tat.
It probably doesnt help that most Woolworths branded sites are small in comparison to the Coles Express outlets - some of the CE locations i’ve been in could house a small supermarket
Oh, but then they have to pay somebody don’t they? This way it’s much cheaper… so they say. 
Really doesn’t matter if the younger generation struggle to get jobs in the future though. 
Woolies business model has always sucked with Petrol - how they completely overlooked the potential to develop a big convenience offering with their supermarket distribution network… they’re idiots - and every other competitor (Especially Coles but also Caltex/BP/Puma) has beaten them at their own game for a long time now. Do not be surprised if any of the old school legacy Plus Petrol locations in shopping centre carparks get shut down by the new owner due to the inability to expand the convenience store past the minature little box that Woolies has.
A lot of people like to check themselves out. It ends up being a lot quicker and for a lot of people, they prefer not to have someone having a gander at what they’ve bought, even if they aren’t stealing shit (yes it sounds silly but it is something people think about).
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Never once heard anyone say they prefer self-service over the old way. If anything, I think most people miss the actual physical interaction with someone rather than a machine and think of it as a damn shame jobs are being shafted due to automation.
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Self Service is far superior for say, <15 items.
A full trolley? Never. They shouldn’t allow full trolleys through at all (especially when its someone with kids who want to distract them with it and use the damn thing as a toy) IMO if a checkout is open.
I doubt anyone is missing the silly small talk from the checkout operator.