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Nearly 120,000 people sign pensioner’s petition for Tesco to bring back tills
‘Talking with human staff is important to me… Now that experience has been taken away’
A pensioner’s petition urging Tesco to bring back its tills and to stop ‘replacing people with machines’ has reached nearly 120,000 signatures.
Pat McCarthy, sixty-nine, launched the petition with her daughter after she found herself continuously struggling to use the self check-out tills at her local Tesco mega-store.
Noting that talking with human staff is important to her, Pat implored for Tesco’s Chief Executive Officer Ken Murphy to reinstate more staffed tills and check-outs.
Pat, a retired volunteer helping disabled people to apply for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) forms, wrote: “What used to be a great shopping experience has now become physically difficult, overwhelming, and a ‘nightmare’.
Tesco PLC / Flickr
“At my local Tesco mega-store, and probably all over the country, Tesco is bringing in new self-service and sort-it-out-yourself card only till machines. They make up 2/3 of the tills now.
“These new tills are not accessible for people who don’t have credit cards and can only use cash or those with little confidence to use these self-service card-only tills – myself included.
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“People such as carers, older people, disabled people with mobility problems or lifting problems have to queue waiting for more than thirty minutes.
“I love chatting with the staff, albeit briefly, especially as l live on my own. Talking with human staff is important to me. Now that experience has been taken away.”
Tesco PLC / Flickr
Pat went on to point out that, as an older woman, she struggles with the heavy lifting these self-serve tills require, as do many disabled people.
She concluded: “I want Ken Murphy the Chief Executive Officer of Tesco’s to bring more staffed tills and check outs. I want him to commit to a People & Profit Policy not a Profits before People Policy.”
Pat’s petition has been met with a huge wave of support, with it having a massive 119,996 signatures at the time of writing.
A Tesco spokesperson has since addressed the petition, saying in a statement: “Our colleagues and the friendly service they provide are absolutely vital to our stores and will always be on hand to help our customers, whether they are checking out at one of our colleague-operated or self-service checkouts.”
To read Pat’s cause in full and to sign the petition yourself, click here.