Coles has apologised for “letting down” shoppers after an angry customer slammed the supermarket for making shoppers scan their own groceries.
Joe Salanitri, a comedian from Melbourne, shared a video titled “employee of the month” in which he shared a supermarket experience many Aussies can relate to.
During a recent visit to his local Coles, Mr Salanitri – who co-hosts the popular Sooshi Mango Saucy Meatballs Podcast – detailed how he’d been forced to use a self-serve checkout with a whole trolley of groceries.
“I’m working for Coles now, we, we are working for Coles now,” he states in his expletive-filled rant.
“So I’m going to send you [Coles] my tax file number so I can start getting paid.”
Mr Salanitri then went on to ask the supermarket giant: “What do you want me to do next?”
His list of helpful suggestions included, stacking the shelves, reversing the delivery truck and locking up on the way out.
“Do you want me pack the bag? I don’t know how to pack the bag with these condiments, knowing what’s going to squash and what’s not going to squash,” he continued.
“I haven’t gone to school for this sh*t, I don’t know how to do that… what am I going to do with the grapes? WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH THE GRAPES?
“What’s next, do you want me to make my own f**king Coco Pops? Facts.”
While Mr Salanitri has undoubtedly sprinkled humour throughout the short clip, it clearly resonated with other Australians, amassing over 1 million views and thousands of comments from many who agreed self-service checkouts were “labour”.
Coles responded to the common gripe in the comments section, stating the retailer was “sorry”, and had received the message “loud and clear”.
“Ohh this was a hard watch for us! We’re sorry we let you down,” the response read.
“We should always have a range of checkout options open for the convenience of our customers, but we hear you loud and clear that this didn’t happen when you visited.
“We will share your feedback with our Ops team (feedback as in, your actual video!) because we are always listening and learning, and your vid makes your point clearly.”
However, the apology appeared to do little to quell those in agreeance with Mr Salanitri, as the video with flooded with others sharing similar experiences.
“WE have had ENOUGH Coles!!! No we don’t want to serve ourselves!!! When I’m tired, cranky, sick, whatever the last thing I feel like doing is working a job I didn’t apply for,” one raged.
“Then you gotta wait for someone to press the magic button to confirm you’re not stealing,” mused another.
As someone else added: “He’s not wrong and we are all paying top dollar.”
Others revealed they “refuse” to use the self-service checkouts, arguing it “takes jobs away from humans”.
“Always line up for the human!!! It’s starts with the self checkout then they take everyone’s jobs,” one said.
“I have never and will never use self-serve. I would never allow Coles, Woollies or Aldi’s to take away people’s jobs, and at the end of the day, I do not get staff discount to do their job,” someone else agreed.
As another pointed out: “It’s not just Coles it all the supermarkets.”
Retail chains around the world, including here in Australia, first implemented self-checkout systems nearly a decade ago but in recent months supermarkets have been adding a wealth of additional security measures to them.
The systems now include cameras directed at the shopper as well as inside their shopping bags and new technology that can detect whether you are scanning truthfully.
Many Australians have argued they now feel like “criminals” when doing their grocery shop and have slammed the supermarkets for introducing such strict measures.