"Some Asda shoppers are asking cashiers to stop scanning items when the till total hits £30 as they try to cut costs, the supermarket's chairman says."
All they have to do is cut down on the tattoos vapes roll ups hash carry outsand booze and they will be fine...
A lot of people aren't very good at adding up as they go. This is, I think, one reason why pound shops were popular (when everything cost £1) - it was easy for people to avoid embarrassment at the till.
Functional innumeracy is quite widespread. I heard one person at the bus stop say she always used taxis everywhere as she couldn't understand bus timetables.
As for struggling, I know one neighbour has had to cancel a hospital clinic as he can't afford the fuel to drive there.
Owain
At the big Tescos a couple of miles away, there are always a number of full trolleys by the checkout. I was told that people turn up at the checkout, wait until it's been scanned through, and then find they can't pay.
I forgot all my PINs during the pandemic, as for a year we only bought stuff online. Now, with a £100 contactless limit, I rarely have to enter a PIN. Anyway, that's my version, and I'm barely senile at all.
You will run out of luck after about 6 goes then.
It is a bit more random now that the limit is £100. It used to be 6 straight PIN less and then it would demand a chip & PIN transaction.
Now it is anywhere up to 10 before it flips. But it is completely irrational - £95 went on the nod but next shop £6.95 it demanded PIN! (happened yesterday so fresh in my "how insane is that buffer")
They know what they are putting in, just not how much it costs
Blairs legacy.
For years, I was not asked for my PIN once (I was using it at the ATM and for larger purchases), but was also doing lots of contactless transactions. Since the limit was increased, I am asked every 3rd transaction and it is really beginning to annoy me - especially as the card machines at the office cafe often won't work when you insert the card and I have to get my phone out and use that contactless.
That sounds like the way I shop. What I do know, at least roughly, is how many calories are in what I am buying and the levels of fat and sugar. Different priorities.
I'm much older than that.
Often though, its hard to see prices as the bar code takes up all the room. Not that I find it a problem as I can't see them in any case, so get others to do the shopping.
As for adding up. I do agree that using a cheap calculator is hardly a challenge if you can see. One supermarket I knew actually had a calculator mounted on the trolleys, but I think the realisation set in that this was a bad idea for sales. Brian
As a programmer, I am always a bit suprised that the tills can cope with the wide range of combination offers and discounts that are endemic in stores, never mind the poor shopper havinf even a rough idea of the total.
Of course the result of this is that stopping when the scanning reaches £30/50/100 may not be the optimal strategy. There may be items in the basket that could be scanned without increasing the bill (BOGOF), or in the cae of "meal deals" or other combinations actually reduce the total.
Such things are designed to confuse the buyer... .. I also see TESCO does CLUBCARD only offers and I always scan my card at the end....
... I suppose its worth noting if you use a "shop and go" type app it adds things up as you go so you can see the total... more deskilling...
Dave
The only price indication these days are on the shelves. Long gone are the days where every item, tins or packet, had an individual price sticker.
Some supermarkets supply hand scanners so that a shopper can scan the barcode and get a running total of what is in their shopping basket.
Or just that they didn't last that long where trolleys are kept outside during all weather conditions.
You may come to realise that BOGOF deals are often misleading pricing. Often when one of the major supermarkets has a BOGOF deal the "minor" supermarkets, or other retail outlets, has the same pricing per item but you only have to buy the single unit to get that price. The last time I was in a large Tesco the cheaper prices for fruit, which has a very short life, was when purchasing two items (two punnets for £3 or £2 for one punnet)
It's called dumbing down. How many can still use a slide rule or even logarithmic tables even if they are old enough to have been taught such stuff in school? Don't get me started on P-R and j notation!
One or two pay at the pump transactions per week (which always require PIN) seems to keep me from ever needing to put in PIN for other contactless payments.
Could there be factors other than value? Risk assessment of the purchase? Pattern of behaviour? Location? Do the crims not make a low value purchase to test the card?
Or just use their phone.
I'm always surprised that seemingly poor people buy bottled water. Tap water rather than fizzy sugary drinks would help too.
Another Dave
I went to a warehouse to buy an office chair for home use. Being trade premises, the prices were quoted exclusive of VAT. Both the salesman and his manager were amazed that I knew how much the VAT was without a calculator.
I get that too.
A few years ago I was buying stuff at Iceland occasionally (the shop was right in the town centre and very convenient).
They has a 'Christmas Club' type thing although you could cash out at any time. If you put in £25, you got a bonus (I forget what). So, whenever I was at the till and I was given a total, I would round it up (typically to the next 5 pounds) and say something like "and 3.47 on the Bonus Card please".
They often commented that it was amazing that it came out to a round number.
Just keeping a running totlal is not the purpose of it, though. When you're done shopping, you go to a special till and transfer the contents of the hand scanner to it, pay, and leave. So you also bag your stuff as you go round. No unloading onto a conveyor belt and then having to repack after paying. We do that at Tescos and thus avoid the checkout queues completely.
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