B&Q customer says he won't shop at Whitfield store because of self-service tills
Published: 05:00, 06 December 2022
Updated: 15:46, 06 December 2022
A former builder says he won't be going back to his local B&Q - after finding all the checkouts were self-service only.
Ronnie Hoare almost abandoned his trolley filled with more than £100 worth of goods after being faced with the do-it-yourself tills in Whitfield, near Dover.
The 66-year-old says if a member of staff hadn't scanned it for him, he would have walked out.
"I hadn't been in there for a while and had £120 worth of shopping in my trolley," he said.
"I went to the checkouts to find they were all self-service.
"There was one lady helping and I just thought I can't be bothered with this.
"I certainly won't be shopping in there anymore."
Mr Hoare says it's a shame because he uses the shop for inspiration for building work he still does occasionally.
"I'll probably still go there to have a look and get ideas, but I won't buy anything - I won't go through a self-service till," he said.
"You don't go to a restaurant and have the waiter turn around and say would you like to come in the kitchen and cook your own dinner.
"I had a heavy gate and a couple of other heavy bits and I thought there should be a manned till.
"I thought, if I had bought 100 bricks, are you really going to have to scan every single one - is each one going to have a barcode on it?"
He says there are no manned tills at the shop, just six self-service ones and the collection point.
"When I went there, every checkout had an issue," he said.
"There was a person with one bit of wood which didn't have a barcode on it so the member of staff had to go and find the barcode. It's just causing delays.
"It makes me think why should I give them my money?"
Mr Hoare says more shops are getting self-service tills, but he refuses to use them.
"Sainsbury's have self-service checkouts too but I don't use them and I think a lot of people have the same view as myself..."
"It's just the way the world is really," he said.
"I think they've used Covid to do it.
"Sainsbury's have self-service checkouts too but I don't use them and I think a lot of people have the same view as myself.
"I don't have a problem with card or cash - just the self-serve part.
"If you've got loads of heavy items on your trolley, you're going to have to manhandle that trolley to scan them.
"If you've got a bag of cement for example, you're going to have to make sure you put it on the right way so you can scan it."
This comes after Aldi shoppers in Dover said they would be "devastated" if plans for self-scan checkouts at the Cherry Tree Avenue site were implemented.
B&Q was contacted for comment.
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Chantal Weller