Autistic woman at ASDA told to put her shopping back after struggle with self-service checkout...

[AGXStarseed]

(Not written by me)


An autistic woman who struggled with the self-service checkout at supermarket Asda was persuaded by staff to put all her shopping BACK on the shelves, it has been claimed.

Supermarket bosses have now launched a full investigation into the bizarre incident and apologised to 69-year-old Jacqueline Cox.

She says she left her local store empty-handed after being persuaded to return all her shopping to the shelves after popping into the supermarket in Levenshulme last Friday to pick up a few groceries.

But when she came to pay for her shopping, Jacqueline, who is autistic and has learning disabilities, struggled with the self-service checkout machine.

When she told a member of staff she couldn’t use the machine, Jacqueline said she was told she would need to put her shopping back.

The worker then helped her return her shopping to the shelves, rather than helping her scan the items, Jacqueline said.

Asda bosses have apologised for the confusion and say they are investigating the incident, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Jacqueline says when she told a member of staff she couldn’t use the machine, she was told she would need to put her shopping back (Photo: Manchester Evening News)


Jacqueline’s niece Emma Griesdale said her aunt was very distressed by the incident and now refuses to return to the shop.

She said: “They only have self service tills there so you don’t really have a choice but to use them.

“She goes every week and has never had a problem. Usually the staff are happy to help. I want her to keep as much independence as she can.

“It could be a misunderstanding but my aunt would not just put her shopping back. She was told ‘you will have to put your shopping back because we don’t do it for you’.

“She was very worked up about it because it completely threw her usual routine. She feels like she can’t go back.”

Emma, from Levenshulme, has since visited the store on Stockport Road to speak to the manager, who has promised to look into the bizarre incident.

She said Jacqueline, who shops there every week, usually finds staff at the store very helpful but depends on routine because of her condition.

Emma said she would like to see training implemented at all Asda stores that will equip staff with the skills needed to help those with learning disabilities.

She said: “They need to train their staff to make sure they are helping everyone properly and something like this doesn’t happen again.

"The manageress has been helpful and said she will look over the CCTV to work out what has happened. We are going to meet with her and I’ll introduce her to my aunt.”

An Asda spokesperson said staff are in the process of identifying the incident on CCTV.

They added: “Our colleagues are committed to always going above and beyond to assist customers who need a little extra help with their shopping. We are very sorry for any distress caused to Ms Cox and have launched an investigation to understand what happened.”


Source: Asda apologise after bizarre incident with autistic woman at tills

 

[toothless]

wow in levenshulme i am not far from there i think but i do know the ASDA.
i go to the ASDA in Trafford park opposite the Trafford centre sometimes and over the years ive gotten to know so many of the staff,theyre all so helpful, so i hope no one associates this incident just with ASDA,its this specific store that the poor woman has had problems in.

i hope Jacqueline is able to go back again as part of her routine,and i hope the person who treated her like crap is reprimanded and retrained,id personally have a meeting set up with her and Jacqueline so she could apologise to her and make her feel better about going to the place.

i personally despise those help yourself machines they ALWAYS do multiple errors when i use it with my support staff,theyre supposed to make it quicker for you but i think that was just a guise to get rid of more humanoid staff so they don't have to pay as many wages.

one issue i have with this article [sorry i always nitpick on stuff like this] ,the use of 'has learning disabilities', this implies they have used the DSM manual of diagnosis speak,when we are talking about the UK-jacqline 'HAS learning disability' or 'is learning disabled' -it is not the same thing as learning difficulties [in which case you would HAVE learning difficulties] like dyslexia,dyscalculia, dysgraphia etc,it is what our DSM and American peers call intellectual disability,so there is only one way to have learning disability-you either have it....or you don't,rant over and out...sorry.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Why do they only have self service check out tills? Not everyone can use the damn thing. If it's not being with intellectual disabilities it's going to be the elderly. Surely they don't get many elderly people in there. My parents, my dad whose just the other side of 60 refuses to use them.

Although it would probably cost jobs it would be nice if supermarkets implemented what Amazon is looking to do where you just pick stuff up off the shelves and walk out and get charged automatically when leaving.

 

[Tribble]

Isn't ASDA the British version of Wal-Mart? If so then this doesn't surprise me, as that sounds like their usual level of incompetence.

 

[gregmcph]

If you are in that position, put your basket on the floor and just walk out. They can yell all they want.

 

[OkRad]

WTF? That is rude. I agree with the poster above me. And maybe tell them a few choice words. I would have said something hopefully not too rude. Maybe like "Hey, I am having a problem over here! Do you MIND???!!!" If they pushed it, ummmmmm, I still have meltdowns even though I am now Neuro Diverse but not autisitc!!!

 

[Bolletje]

Reminds me of a story I read last year where a blind woman was kicked out of a store because she had her seeing eye dog with here and the store policy was "no pets allowed". Poor woman.

 

[Kari Suttle]

(Not written by me)


An autistic woman who struggled with the self-service checkout at supermarket Asda was persuaded by staff to put all her shopping BACK on the shelves, it has been claimed.

Supermarket bosses have now launched a full investigation into the bizarre incident and apologised to 69-year-old Jacqueline Cox.

She says she left her local store empty-handed after being persuaded to return all her shopping to the shelves after popping into the supermarket in Levenshulme last Friday to pick up a few groceries.

But when she came to pay for her shopping, Jacqueline, who is autistic and has learning disabilities, struggled with the self-service checkout machine.

When she told a member of staff she couldn’t use the machine, Jacqueline said she was told she would need to put her shopping back.

The worker then helped her return her shopping to the shelves, rather than helping her scan the items, Jacqueline said.

Asda bosses have apologised for the confusion and say they are investigating the incident, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Jacqueline says when she told a member of staff she couldn’t use the machine, she was told she would need to put her shopping back (Photo: Manchester Evening News)


Jacqueline’s niece Emma Griesdale said her aunt was very distressed by the incident and now refuses to return to the shop.

She said: “They only have self service tills there so you don’t really have a choice but to use them.

“She goes every week and has never had a problem. Usually the staff are happy to help. I want her to keep as much independence as she can.

“It could be a misunderstanding but my aunt would not just put her shopping back. She was told ‘you will have to put your shopping back because we don’t do it for you’.

“She was very worked up about it because it completely threw her usual routine. She feels like she can’t go back.”

Emma, from Levenshulme, has since visited the store on Stockport Road to speak to the manager, who has promised to look into the bizarre incident.

She said Jacqueline, who shops there every week, usually finds staff at the store very helpful but depends on routine because of her condition.

Emma said she would like to see training implemented at all Asda stores that will equip staff with the skills needed to help those with learning disabilities.

She said: “They need to train their staff to make sure they are helping everyone properly and something like this doesn’t happen again.

"The manageress has been helpful and said she will look over the CCTV to work out what has happened. We are going to meet with her and I’ll introduce her to my aunt.”

An Asda spokesperson said staff are in the process of identifying the incident on CCTV.

They added: “Our colleagues are committed to always going above and beyond to assist customers who need a little extra help with their shopping. We are very sorry for any distress caused to Ms Cox and have launched an investigation to understand what happened.”


Source: Asda apologise after bizarre incident with autistic woman at tills

Good god. Walmart has better standards than that! I would know, i work there. We have self check out machines and the cashier is expected to be polite and patient and helpful with everyone. If the customer has an issue, help them scan their stuff! Explain it to them! If its something simple like their card isn't working, suspend it and move it to the cashier's register! Its super easy i've done it many many times before! And that lady is totally wrong about taking items back on the shelf. I don't see why any big chain store would make the customer do that. Walmart doesn't! Its a theft risk to be honest. Its collected in organized buckets in customer service behind the counter and employees take them back to their departments to put them away late in the evening when its slower.

I had a mentally challenged elderly woman come in with her very young granddaughter once. The elderly woman was in one of those electric scooters. She expected the little girl to check out all of her stuff for her but the child was simply too young to do it all by herself. It was my first week on the job and my first day working the self checkout, so i was brand new. And i knew better than this ASDA cashier! I took the old woman and her granddaughter up to my register and checked her out there, all from the very beginning. Couldn't suspend it and start from where they were cause the child had been bagging items thinking they were scanned but she wasn't actually scanning all of them.

It took forever but it got done just fine! The front end manager at the time was mad at first because she didn't realize the elderly woman had some sort of cognitive issues and needed help. She really should have gone to a regular register but she didnt and i did not feel comfortable asking them to get in line all over again at a regular register. We aren't really supposed to anyways. We are not supposed to take customers who have more than a few items on our (cashier's) register on self check out cause its a security risk. But when i explained the situation to the front end manager was totally fine with it, happy that i had helped the woman. How this Asda employee didn't get it, i just don't get.

 

[Kari Suttle]

Isn't ASDA the British version of Wal-Mart? If so then this doesn't surprise me, as that sounds like their usual level of incompetence.

This is a case of a terrible employee, not a terrible business. I work there. They were the only ones that would hire a dumbass like me with no prior job experience and all the **** that comes with undiagnosed, unreported HFA/AS. They just hire ****** people - like this woman from the story - and a lot of kids who don't know what they're doing cause its their first job. I'll be honest, my supervisors and coworkers are nicer to me than my real family is. Not everyone's like this terrible asda employee.

 

[Nepenthe]

This is so sad. Another unaddressed issue is the fact that a lot of people on the spectrum aren't versed in how to handle conflicts like this, regardless of how high functioning they may be. Things become overwhelming and confusing, and a person really has no idea what to do.

My heart goes out to this poor woman and her family for the lack of sensitivity displayed by the employees at this store.

 

[umbrellabeach]

How stupid. If the employees don't help customers with self-scan, why are they even there?

 

[Gary DuBois]

(Not written by me)
this makes me sad she is autistic just like me and she should be treated more kindly and for people to have more patience with her she should have still been able to get all of her grocerys and then also get some free ones too

An autistic woman who struggled with the self-service checkout at supermarket Asda was persuaded by staff to put all her shopping BACK on the shelves, it has been claimed.

Supermarket bosses have now launched a full investigation into the bizarre incident and apologised to 69-year-old Jacqueline Cox.

She says she left her local store empty-handed after being persuaded to return all her shopping to the shelves after popping into the supermarket in Levenshulme last Friday to pick up a few groceries.

But when she came to pay for her shopping, Jacqueline, who is autistic and has learning disabilities, struggled with the self-service checkout machine.

When she told a member of staff she couldn’t use the machine, Jacqueline said she was told she would need to put her shopping back.

The worker then helped her return her shopping to the shelves, rather than helping her scan the items, Jacqueline said.

Asda bosses have apologised for the confusion and say they are investigating the incident, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Jacqueline says when she told a member of staff she couldn’t use the machine, she was told she would need to put her shopping back (Photo: Manchester Evening News)


Jacqueline’s niece Emma Griesdale said her aunt was very distressed by the incident and now refuses to return to the shop.

She said: “They only have self service tills there so you don’t really have a choice but to use them.

“She goes every week and has never had a problem. Usually the staff are happy to help. I want her to keep as much independence as she can.

“It could be a misunderstanding but my aunt would not just put her shopping back. She was told ‘you will have to put your shopping back because we don’t do it for you’.

“She was very worked up about it because it completely threw her usual routine. She feels like she can’t go back.”

Emma, from Levenshulme, has since visited the store on Stockport Road to speak to the manager, who has promised to look into the bizarre incident.

She said Jacqueline, who shops there every week, usually finds staff at the store very helpful but depends on routine because of her condition.

Emma said she would like to see training implemented at all Asda stores that will equip staff with the skills needed to help those with learning disabilities.

She said: “They need to train their staff to make sure they are helping everyone properly and something like this doesn’t happen again.

"The manageress has been helpful and said she will look over the CCTV to work out what has happened. We are going to meet with her and I’ll introduce her to my aunt.”

An Asda spokesperson said staff are in the process of identifying the incident on CCTV.

They added: “Our colleagues are committed to always going above and beyond to assist customers who need a little extra help with their shopping. We are very sorry for any distress caused to Ms Cox and have launched an investigation to understand what happened.”


Source: Asda apologise after bizarre incident with autistic woman at tills

 

[Kari Suttle]

How stupid. If the employees don't help customers with self-scan, why are they even there?

That was my point in my post somewhere above. They are expected to help the customers. I work part time at Walmart. They're there to help them with whatever problems they're having and they're encouraged to check out customers on the cashier's register at the front of the self checkout (albiet with lots of restrictions). I mean really, without a cashier there nobody would be able to buy anything that's age limited lol. That's the other reason the cashier is there - to help people as well as approve age-restricted purchases. Alcohol, cold medicine, some car stuff, non-school supply glue, sharpies...etc. This woman just wasn't cut out to do the job she was hired to do, i think. She should have been working some behind the scenes job if she can't handle working with people.

 

[Judge]

That was my point in my post somewhere above. They are expected to help the customers.

To my knowledge this hasn't changed in retail. I mean yeah, you can bag your own groceries or check them out yourself at some places. But when customers require assistance it's still incumbent on the proprietor to help them to some degree.

Though I'm guessing that in this case, this was likely little more than some employee who was having a bad day who made it all much worse for themselves.

 

[toothless]

Isn't ASDA the British version of Wal-Mart? If so then this doesn't surprise me, as that sounds like their usual level of incompetence.

ASDA is owned by wallmart to my knowledge and their signs above their shops usually say 'ASDA wallmart' in many of the bigger stores.

my sister works for them part time and she treats people with dignity and kindness but the other week she got called a 'ginger (rude word)' and a load of other abuse as a group of kids tried to buy a load of alcohol along with regular shopping,she refused the alcohol but after the abuse she deliberately scanned their shopping extremely slow which made them even more irate,theyve gone in her store before abusing staff i dont know how theyve not been banned.