These new "Fortress stores where people order the food from the person behind the counter instead of serving themselves" sound quite a lot like what we used to call "a normal Greggs".
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
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sadly in our “modern society” we can’t trust people to do the right thing
With the right thing being "not replacing 3 members of staff with self-service shelves or tills"?
i prefer self checkout because it's far faster and easier and I'm a big boy who can pay for the items I purchase
However obviously not everyone is like me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeZsdP2trO0
Oh, well if it alleviates your social anxieties and makes you feel like a big boy then by all means let's get rid of jobs for millions of people!
Sure? I would never ask someone to do a useless job just ... because?
While we're at it we should bring back those guys who hung around all day just to stick your petrol pump in your car!
A filling station attendant!
EV's are also banned because that would reduce the number of petrol pumpers
Any other worthless jobs we should bring back to help ol mate give people jobs?
Alarm clocks! Also now banned
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35840393
Bring back the Knocker uppers! 🤣
Right, but shop attendants do far more than just beep your items through. As evidenced by this very article that you've posted. It's not a useless job.
Customers are not employees, we have no reason to ensure our transactions go through properly. That's the business's responsibility, not ours.
Self service has a place, but not as a complete replacement for human beings entirely, as many businesses are trying to push.
Customers are not employees, we have no reason to ensure our transactions go through properly
Except that it's against the law to steal
I didn't say steal. But if we're going down that route have you tried telling the cops to inform people to just stop doing crime? It would make everybody's lives much easier!
Clearly you've never worked a customer facing retail job in your life. There's always discounts, deals, and reductions that go awry on the tills. It's also against the law for retailers to sell alcohol, energy drinks, or knives to minors, and computers can't be held liable for that happening.
Shop attendants have a purpose beyond just beeping your items through.
Even your mocking example of fuel attendants is provided by a human in the modern day, sitting in the kiosk watching to approve the pump instead of on the forecourt, but there nonetheless.
I'm all for the reduction of labour, we do far too much unnecessary busy work to satisfy the wants of the owners. But this is one of the cases where the job has a clear purpose, for customers, businesses, and employees.
Self service has a purpose, to increase efficiencies, but not to replace humans entirely. Not to squeeze maximum profit to the detriment of everything else.
I didn’t say steal. But if we’re going down that route have you tried telling the cops to inform people to just stop doing crime? It would make everybody’s lives much easier!
Well this change is only happening in areas where there is high crime:
The bakery chain - known for its sausage rolls, steak bakes and pastries - will introduce "fortress stores" in areas where it has been most affected by shoplifting.
This means staff will hand over food and drink from a theft-proof counter in stores in areas such as West Croydon, Croydon, Peckham, Whitechapel, Upton Park, Birmingham and Wilford.
So that means this area will have to pay more for staff and higher prices just to babysit them to make sure they don't steal, I'm sure they're thrilled at the value creation and jobs being created because their fellow citizens are scum
Even your mocking example of fuel attendants is provided by a human in the modern day, sitting in the kiosk watching to approve the pump instead of on the forecourt, but there nonetheless.
How is this comparable at all? Nobody pumps fuel for me today I do it myself, I can also clean my own windows and pump my own tires! and I don't want someone to hang around all day to do these things for me because as I mentioned it's a waste of a persons time, it's not a problem for me to do
Self service has a purpose, to increase efficiencies, but not to replace humans entirely. Not to squeeze maximum profit to the detriment of everything else.
I don't know what we're talking about then, I never said replace every single employee with a self service checkout, I said I prefer them over shop attendants because they are faster and I can it myself (even without stealing)
Good to know you think people taking food are scum, and not the businesses that are gatekeeping it behind profit motive. Your ire is targeted at the wrong people.
You don't pump fuel entirely yourself though.
Pay attention next time you fuel up and you'll notice there's a delay before the display zeroes out. That delay is because a human inside the kiosk watches either through the window or via camera to confirm you look old enough to fuel up and are acting responsibly enough to be allowed to spray flammable liquid out of a hose and approves the sale to begin.
You may think you're a lone wolf capable of being a big boy all by yourself but for better or worse we live in a society. Not lone individuals bravely traversing the wilds of modern human civilisation.
I don't know what we're talking about then, I never said replace every single employee with a self service checkout, I said I prefer them over shop attendants because they are faster and I can it myself (even without stealing)
In response to a comment about replacing employees with self service, in a mocking derogatory manner.
Good to know you think people taking food are scum
Yes because if people steal food then everyone else has to pay higher prices because the cost of the food is borne by the business who simply adds it to a balance sheet and works out the minimum profit margin needed to stay in business
You don’t pump fuel entirely yourself though.
Yeah I do, I take the hose out and put it in the car myself, I don't need someone to do it for me, nor clean my car windshield or tires
I'm aware there is a human who approves to start the fuel pump, this is a separate job
In response to a comment about replacing employees with self service, in a mocking derogatory manner.
lets go over this again:
With the right thing being “not replacing 3 members of staff with self-service shelves or tills”?
i prefer self checkout because it’s far faster and easier and I’m a big boy who can pay for the items I purchase
replacing 3 members of staff does not imply replacing all members of staff
You're arguing against a strawman you have made
And people to turn on street lights.
or increasing wages to keep pace with inflation?
Install sausage roll detectors at the doors
Or a blue dye pack in the steak bakes just like the banks do
Or people could just stop nicking things.
Do you think people are stealing sausage rolls in order to get rich?
Do you think Greggs, a FTSE 250 company which has driven out thousands of local bakeries and pays their workers a pittance, while making vast profits, aren't nicking value from around the country to fill the fat pockets of a few?
Didn’t say that at all. You’ve got your own agenda though, as you’ve proved by jumping to conclusions.
Have a nice day.
It’s Lemmy’s Law - within a comment depth of 2, all discussions evolve into a discussion of communism and/or anarchy.
What things do you think people are nicking from a Greggs other than food then?
Or we could just be paid enough to live and given work to do