7 Reasons

Tag: Self

  • 7 Reasons I Won’t Be Using The Self-Checkout Machines At My Local Supermarket

    7 Reasons I Won’t Be Using The Self-Checkout Machines At My Local Supermarket

    I’m not totally against self-checkout machines or progress, but the ones at my local supermarket have turned shopping into a living hell*.  Here’s why I won’t be using them.

    1.  They’re Confusing.  Now I’m not a man easily confused by technology.  I can put together websites that almost work and look good; I can write HTML and CSS code and I can do things to the inside of PCs too.  And given that the self-checkout systems are supposed to be a user-friendly interface that are accessible to people with little tech-savvy or confidence, you might expect that I’d be able to use them easily.  But they’re bewildering.  Not in and of themselves, but because they are located in a packed group of self-checkouts in a very small space going through different stages of the transaction but bellowing instructions at their customer in the same identical voice.  “Please scan your first item”.  Wait, what!  I’m on my third.  “Please replace the item in the bagging area”.  What!  I haven’t removed the item from the bagging area.  “Please wait for assistance.” Assistance?  To scan a jar of cloves? How daft do I look? Having a row of three machines with only one voice is idiotic.  It’s like having a third member of Jedward.

    2.  Buying Alcohol Becomes Difficult.  Occasionally** I like to buy some beer or wine.  This is not a straightforward purchase at the self-checkout because a light suddenly flashes above your machine (sadly no klaxon) and a member of staff has to come over to approve your purchase.  I have no problem with that whatsoever (except that I haven’t been asked for ID for about two years now); I hold a personal licence to sell alcohol myself.  I have a problem with the amount of time it wastes when I’m shopping in a small store.  Both mine, and that of the person who has to verify that I’m over eighteen.  Because at my local shop…

    3.  When You Need Assistance Everything Comes To A Halt.  In my local supermarket, no matter how busy it gets, the staff working at the manned tills are the ones that have to come over to verify age, remove security tags or deal with the halfwit that’s wondering where the barcode is on a lime, at the self-checkout.  They have to abandon their tills – once they’ve finished dealing with their current customer – leaving you waiting for them to do that, and while they’re dealing with you, there’s a queue of people waiting for the staff member to come back to deal with them.  This annoys everyone.  This means that far from being an efficient system that eases the burden on the staff, they end up spending much of their time travelling between the checkout and the self-checkout and when they are dealing with customers, those customers are ill-tempered.  Essentially their working lives are spent rushing around placating a mob.  They aren’t even equipped with truncheons or tall hats.

    4.  The Machine Tells You Off If You Move Anything.  This is annoying at any self-checkout but, when added to the other frustrations in a small store it becomes infuriating.  The bagging area is tiny and the chances are that you’re probably buying more than one thing.  But if – during your game of bagging area jenga – you move anything in the bagging area, the checkout (or possibly the one next to it, who knows?) bellows at you to replace it.  I don’t go to a supermarket to play a game in which I am forced to balance an assortment of dissonantly shaped objects on a small space while being bellowed at by a robot.  If I wanted to play that game, I’d go to a Japanese television studio.

    5.  The Machine Is Patronising.  Once all the “fun” is over and you’ve paid for everything you were able to balance successfully in the bagging area and you’ve received your receipt (and twelve others), you start taking your items.  And, at some point while you’re doing that, the machine will bellow “please take your items” at you.  But you don’t need to be asked to do this because firstly, you’re already doing it and secondly – unless you’ve been kidnapped by a band of Gododdin tribesman and held prisoner for the past 1500 years or so  – you’ll be aware of how the concept of a shopping transaction works and you’ll already know that once you’ve paid for your items you should take them with you.  And that’s probably when you’ll snap.

    6.  Other Shoppers Will Look At You Strangely When You Argue With It. “I know!  I bloody know!  Of course I’m going to take my sodding items you authoritarian automaton!  That’s what I came here for!   I didn’t come here to give you money and then just leave my goods, that would be cretinous!  I wholly understand that if I leave this lime here with you then when I get home there will be no lime in my gin and tonic.  I get that!  I want the lime!”  It’s much like the modern tradition of arguing with the sat-nav in the car, except that in the car there isn’t a line of slack-jawed people backing away from you and shielding their children from Disproportionately-Angry-Man.  Or if there is, you’re a bus driver.

    7.  Human interaction.  I just like people.  I want to deal with a person:  Not an exhausted, defensive person whose shift has been spent in the service of an infernal machine and in placating the bewildered, the angry and the truculent but a person that is relaxed and at ease in their environs and with their customers.  But I can’t because of the machines.  I miss the happy people that the self-checkout machines have turned into the dejected and the unsmiling.  After all, if I wanted to be scowled at and resented I could just stay at home.

     

    *Okay, an unpleasant experience.

    **On almost every occasion.

     

  • 7 Reasons 7 Reasons Has Been An Unmitigated Success

    7 Reasons 7 Reasons Has Been An Unmitigated Success

    Exactly a year ago today, 7 Reasons was born in York and Fulham. If you weren’t there – and it’s highly likely you weren’t – you will have missed our very first post, 7 Reasons This Blog Was Created. I don’t think we have ever met the high standards that piece of literary genius set, but we have certainly given it our best shot. Except on Thursdays. That day just never really happened for us. As we have somehow made it a year I think it would be useful* to look back and see if we have stuck to the principles we outlined 365 days ago.

    7 Reasons Jonathan Lee Marc Fearns

    1.  “People like lists. This is a well known fact. Shopping lists, to-do lists, Wedding lists, the list is endless. It adds structure to people’s lives. Structure is good. It makes people feel in control. We like control.” – We have certainly controlled a part of your life. A small part maybe, but a part none the less. For three of you, 7 Reasons has become a staple part of your daily diet. You can not remember life when you didn’t know 7 Reasons Why Lemons Would Make You Sick. And more is the point, you don’t want to. And as for the rest of you, well you may read 7 Reasons on an ad hoc basis. Even so, we have still have a presence in your mind. We are still controlling you. Just not as well as we’d wish.

    2.  “Seven is one of our favourite numbers. The number seven is the only number less than fifteen which cannot be represented as the sum of the squares of three integers.  We like that (probably).” – Seven remains one of our favourite numbers. That is all that needs saying on this one. If I start talking about integers I’ll confuse my keyboard.

    3.  “It gives us something to think about on the train or the bus or while walking to the post box. Instead of thinking, ‘Isn’t that woman’s blouse so last season?’ it gives us the chance to think of seven reasons why she is wearing that blouse. This tests our imagination. We like creativity.” – It could never be argued that we don’t think about 7 Reasons on the train or the bus. Indeed, such environments have inspired some of our finest pieces. And some of our worst. But that’s the beauty of 7 Reasons. The brilliant pieces only exist because there are substandard efforts mixed in. Without these everything would appear mediocre. And we already have Switzerland for that. And as for thinking about 7 Reasons whilst walking to the post box, well we’ve done that once too. A cat followed one of us back. Fifty lemons followed the other.

    4.  “On average we waste seven minutes a day thinking, ‘what shall I do next’. That’s the equivalent of 42 hours a year. In 42 hours you could comfortably travel around the world or hold your breath for 2520 consecutive minutes. Both of these are highly dangerous and more often that not result in Deep Vein Thrombosis or death. This blog is an antidote to both. We like saving lives.” – As far as we are aware, in the last year no one has died because they tried to hold their breath for 2520 consecutive minutes. It would be too easy to say, ‘Well, it probably wouldn’t have happened anyway.’ Have a bit of humility and accept that 7 Reasons has saved lives. Except Paul the Octopus’. But he tried to hold his breath for his entire lifespan. We can’t help muppets.

    5.  “Sometimes people take things far too seriously. Life should not be about taking things seriously. It should be about frivolity and nonsense. Seriousness gives us sensible shoes and Jeremy Paxman. They are bad. It’s time to be far more light-hearted. We like joy.” – Without 7 Reasons the world would no doubt have imploded on worry by now. Yes, so a couple of bad things have happened in the last year. ‘So what?’ That’s the 7 Reasons attitude. ‘Let’s look on the bright side’. And that’s just what we did. When we didn’t vote in a coalition Government but got one anyway, it was 7 Reasons – and 7 Reasons alone – who hailed it the greatest thing that could have happened. It was 7 Reasons – and 7 Reasons alone – who finally made it acceptable to cycle in the nude. It was 7 Reasons – and 7 Reasons alone – who encouraged the invasion of France. 7 Reasons gave joy.

    6.  “Sometimes people don’t take things at all seriously. They should. Life is a serious business. Without seriousness we get Balloon Boy and Ken Dodd. They are bad. It’s time to look at things with far more thoughtfulness. We like serious.” – It’s a good job that 7 Reasons has existed in the past twelve months because without it the world would have turned into a laughing stock. It was 7 Reasons – and 7 Reasons alone – who pointed out the glaring flaws in naming Ryan Giggs as 2009 Sports Personality of the Year. It was 7 Reasons – and 7 Reasons alone – who advised against driving golf buggies up the M4. It was 7 Reasons – and 7 Reasons alone – who finally gave those who look like a horse the confidence to go out and not let it be a barrier to achieving success.** 7 Reasons gave seriousness another go.

    7.  “It’s the 21st Century and in the 21st Century you have to be able to back up what you say or do. It’s no good saying, ‘I just bought a new drill’ and then shrugging when your loved one asks why. You must have a reason. Other than, ‘because it had 25% off’. So there needs to be a database to help you answer that question. This is what we will provide. We like drills.” – Ironically, or stupidly, we have never provided you with 7 Reasons I Bought A New Drill, however, we do have the biggest database of reasons anywhere in the world.*** And we only have to read the ‘keyword analysis’ of this website to see that everyone is using this site from students, to the BBC, to pregnant women looking for a place to urinate to men who are wondering if it is acceptable to shake hands after touching their penis. No one can argue that 7 Reasons isn’t the ultimate self-help website.

    *Useful in the fact that it means I don’t have to think too much about today’s post.

    **We take no responsibility for Sarah Jessica Parker making Sex and the City 2.

    ***Logic dictates this. Who else would spend a year thinking up over 2000 reasons for random things?