Tesco have come up with a new plan to abolish their check out staff in the smaller Tesco Express stores, and instead have the self service check outs where you scan your own items, and pay via card, or cash.


The stores themselves

The Tesco Express stores are much smaller than the normal Tesco shops, and sell a smaller selection of goods. There is no deli counter with fresh meats/cheeses, but the shops do sell a small selection of everyday items such as bread, milk, butter, flour, eggs, cereal, snacks, alcohol, soft drinks, frozen food, ready meals, coffee, sugar etc etc. The stores are great if you need a top up on your shop, but you can't do a full weekly or monthly shop in the stores, and some things in the express stores are more expensive than in the larger shops, and they don't tend to sell a big range of Tesco Value foods.

The stores are much more like Co-op and Spar stores, which are great for popping in and getting a small shop or bits which you may have forgotten when doing a big shop. They're very handy, and tend to be in busy town centres where a larger shop wouldn't fit, but where a convenience store is needed!


Self Service

The problems come when you get to the self service check outs. Instead of somebody who has been trained in the tills serving you, you have to do it yourself. This could be quite good, if the machines ever worked properly.

Everytime I have used the machines in Tesco they have been slow and constantly mess up, and tell you you "need assistance" and a worker has to come over ANYWAY to fix the problem, or check your ID if you've bought any of the millions of things with age restrictions on these days! It ends up taking you longer than it would at a check out, and there will always be someone in front of you who needs to put their glasses on or takes hours using the machine so you end up waiting in line for hours!!!!!! I dread using them at Christmas when the shops are full to bursting, and your having to wait for some old dear who has no idea what they're doing! It's absolutely terrible, and a complete waste of time and energy!! I would rather go to a larger store and have the choice of using a cashier or using self service!

In Conclusion

Just use the larger stores! The self service is a novelty for the first few times, but when you start to see the flaws it just get's very annoying, and you just want an spotty teenager earning some extra money putting your items through the till and taking your money!

If you can afford to not go to these little Express stores and use the self service, then don't use them, they're very annoying and break down so much you end up taking extra long getting your shopping!!!