Absolute rip-off crude oil derivatives

[Dave Liquorice]

As per Aldi, f'ing stoopid...

[Ian Jackson]

In message , tim..... writes

To me, the taste of homemade mashed potatoes, frozen, is indistinguishable from when you mash it (but perhaps it's slightly more 'watery'). Similarly, chilled foods containing mash (shepherd's pie, cottage pie etc) can be frozen with impunity.

Microwave baked potatoes taste better if subsequently kept for two or three days in the fridge. Freezing doesn't seem to affect the taste.

[Dave Liquorice]

Two reasons for that they don't have designated trolly parks and lazy customers (that applies to all supermarkets though). Of course if they have trolly parks they also need to employ someone to collect 'em up and return them to the store door.

I wonder how much it would cost to have 1,000 quid sized, disposable, "tokens" made so one doesn't have to wander around busy carparks more than absolutely neccessary? (to get your quid or personal token back). I park close to a trolley park if they exist...

one company £68 + delivery + VAT.

But why bother:

And easy enough to DIY from a bit of suitable strip 3.15 mm thick with the end rounded to 22.5 mm. 1" ali angle looks to have the right sort of thickness, might to a shade too thick.

[Tim Watts]

OK - just ordered. If those work they will save me occasional swearing...

[290jkl]

Fuck all, you can buy them on ebay.

Fuck all.

I don't bother.

No point when they are that cheap.

[Dave Liquorice]

The few reviews I read seem positive. B-)

I'm going to have a DIY try when I can find the offcuts of ali angle I know I have some where. Will also see if I can add some sort if spike/lever. The other day some one had a their quid stuck in the slot even with the podger fully inserted, a couple of other trollies also had coins stuck in them. New trollies...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Makes no difference how many trolley parks there are - some will still just abandon their trolley anywhere.

Impossible to have enough people to make sure there are never 'abandoned' trolleys. But having to pay for them does...

Just keep some pound coins (or tokens) in the car(s). Not as if that's difficult.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Three bags from a basket? I keep decent sized bag in the car and take one with me if I'm only going to need a basket. With a trolley I just pile it back into that and pack at the car.

Now if there was some way to stop the person in front taking 5 minutes to find all their cards, vouchers, cash etc I'd be happy. Or more self checkout isles for trolleys.

[Dave Liquorice]

Two without much bother.

Out in the wind and rain F that for a game of soldiers and not relvant to not being allowed to take a basket through the checkout to the packing shelf. B-)

I sort that out having unloaded the trolley, if there is any waiting time at that point. The ones that really annoy me are the ones were actually paying appears to come as a complete surprise and their purse is in a handbag that is now buried by packed bags.

Don't like them, I'd like to keep someone in a job. I also doubt that they are quicker for a trolley load, only one person unloading, scanning, packing, reloading. With a checkout scanning and packing is done at the same time.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I am near always behind just that person. Hence my preference for self checkout.

[Weatherlawyer]

Therefore the small amount of potatoes you use are still worth buying at £4 a bag

Isn't that pointless?

[polygonum]

Seems to be just as big a surprise to _some_ users of self-checkouts as manned checkouts.

I detest self-checkouts as spawn of the devil. I doubt more than a tiny fraction of Lidl customers, for example, could process their own stuff anything like as fast as their staff. So there would have to be more tills, occupying a larger area, and ending up almost certainly with longer waiting times overall.

[Ian Jackson]

Probably about as pointless as any other frozen food!

[tim.....]

a fully loaded, overflowing basket, sometimes with some things in my hand as well ;-)

Oh and my bags aren't very big

I never seem to have the right change for the trolley - it's a new (to me) car and I haven't gotten around to filling the coin tray

vouchers - in Lidl!

[tim.....]

well no, because multi-packs of beans (bought that way for the multi-pack discount) keep perfectly well in form that they are collected from the shop

other items that I often buy in bulk when there's multi-buy special offer meat/butter/bread (for example) does not and the extra purchase needs to go in the freezer to avoid ending up in the bin instead.

tim

[Dave Liquorice]

With a bit of people watching you can spot the likely ones. They will either be talking to the checkout operator an/or their partner and definately not concentrating on the task in hand.

Self checkouts are a PITA with a weeks family shop deep trolly load.

[290jkl]

More fool you.

Sure, but what matters is that you don?t have to pay for those staff wages in the price of what you buy.

Yes.

No, because there is just the single person involved, they occupy a smaller area than the same number of manned checkouts do.

Ours don?t even have a separate aisle for each self checkout.

Not when you have more checkouts. With self checkouts that don?t have any wage cost involved there is no reason why you can't have sufficient so that there is never any waiting for one.

[polygonum]

Of course there is a reason not to have a many tills as that! Starting with the modest size of Lidl and Aldi branches. Though even the huge Morrisons have nowhere near enough for there not to be a longer queue for self-checkouts than for the other tills. I don't know the ratio, but you must need many more square metres per customer served than with standard manned checkouts.

They also need sufficient staff to hover waiting to get people out of the many malfunctions these things suffer. Once the available person is handling an issue, any further issues simply lead to more customers having to wait at the self-checkout till unable to do anything.

[meow2222]

Every place I've been with self checkouts uses less floor space per selfie. Malfunctions are a pain, but one staff member can cover several checkous, rather than 1. Its a no-brainer. If they offered a small discount for selfc heckingout I bet they'd save costs, and more people would use them.

NT

[PeterC]

These shops are now going away from that as the price to buy is increasing. There seems to be an increasing proportion of branded goods in packages that aren't on sale elswhere - usually lower quantity - and real crap - 800mAh AA and 200mAh "ready to use" rechargeable cells anyone?