Phone calls are now widely automated, and going to the shops requires several apps in some cases.
Supermarkets are where the change is most prominent. Self-service tills are becoming more common in a bid to speed up the flow of customers, almost like cattle.
But is that necessarily a good thing? Well, a recent Reddit thread sought to find an answer to the question: Why are there no staff at tills anymore?
One user said: “Our big Waitrose has manned tills at which they have carefully placed chatty staff. They know their market well. Some shoppers are lonely and not in a rush so value the chat. Others don’t and can use the self service tills.”
And someone replied: “It’s nice when supermarkets do things like that.
The new so called assisted self service tills are a disaster, inefficient, customers can’t use them and hate them. Chaos. pic.twitter.com/bp1XOX11MY
— Jeremy Starmouse (@Jeremy_Starship) September 1, 2025
“I don’t know if it’s a nationwide thing as I only go to my local one, but my local Morrisons has autism friendly hours on Saturday mornings where the lights are dimmed, the tills don’t make any noises, and they avoid making announcements on the store speakers unless absolutely necessary (which is pretty much never at that time of the morning).”
Another, rather profoundly, put: “I used to far prefer self service tills and the convenience of whizzing through, thus avoiding the frustration of slow staff, chatty old people in front of me, etcetc.. However I’m finding myself going full circle now, and try to go to staffed tills as much as possible. I think we’re losing a lot by having banks and banks of unstaffed machines and no one to say hello to (even for a grumpy introvert like me).
“Meanwhile the younger generation is reporting themselves as being the most lonely demographic ever and they struggle with more mental health issues than we’ve experienced previously, yet we persist in removing people from our daily interactions.
Want to contact your bank? Here’s a handy chat bot. Want to buy shoes? Buy online and hope to god they fit your weird duck feet. Need to report a crime? Talk to the screen and here’s your pointless crime reference.
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“And of course, fewer people from the immediate community are being employed by these supermarkets. It turns out the bottom line is more important to them than the society they reside in. We as a society are slowly shafting ourselves into a hollow echoing people-free void while congratulating ourselves on saving 2 minutes in a queue.
A lot of people, however, disagreed: “Many of us are quite happy to use self service tills, they are often quicker, which is all that matters. I get irritated if I’m forced to queue at a staffed till in a supermarket which doesn’t also have self service tills (unless it’s a smaller convenience stare without the space). In 2025 I expect to have that option.”
Someone else bluntly replied: “I avoid supermarkets that *don’t* have self-service tills.”
What do you think? Let us know in the comments
