Chaos in supermarkets as computerised tills crash

[Twisted Titan]

Chaos in supermarkets as computerised tills crash

Shoppers in Sainsbury's and Waitrose supermarkets around the country faced chaos on Saturday after a computer glitch left them unable to pay for their shopping.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8038833/Chaos-in-supermarkets-as-computerised-tills-crash.html




Long queues formed after the supermarket giant's tills refused to accept debit or credit cards following the computer malfunction.

A company spokesman said all 872 stores were affected, with the problem lasting between 20 and 45 minutes.



Sainsbury's said it was investigating and that managers realise it is causing "great inconvenience" to customers.

Waitrose and B&Q were among other High Street names affected from about 1400 BST.

Dozens of shoppers reported the problem on Twitter, the micro-blogging social network site, with several complaining that they had been unable to pay for their shopping.

One twitter user said: "Massive computer glitch in Sainsbury's today. All the card machines stopped working, and then the ATM went down!"

Another user said: "Saturday afternoon in Sainsbury's. All card payments down. Chaos!"

Others reported scenes of "bedlam" as customers attempted to withdraw cash from ATM machines so they could pay for their shopping.




One shopper, Dave Thorp, from Preston, tweeted: "Payments glitch hits Sainsbury's. A return to the dark ages as Sainsbury's are only able to take cash."

Ian Gottherd, from Somerset, added: "Computer glitch preventing card transactions at every single Sainsburys in the UK. Chaos would be an understatement."

There were also reports that the problem was affecting other big high street names, including Morrisons, B&Q, Homebase and Argos.

However Tesco said that it had no reports of problems with its payments system, despite the rumours.

[Twisted Titan]

Physical cash is a vital part in your preps

at least a 1000 dollars in each denomination

1,5,10,20,

50 and hundreads are not as important as the smaller denominations

[madfranks]

Physical cash is a vital part in your preps

at least a 1000 dollars in each denomination

1,5,10,20,

50 and hundreads are not as important as the smaller denominations


True, but what are you going to do when you hand a teller $100 for an $83.77 purchase and they don't have their computerized calculator to tell them how much change to give you?

[JohnQPublic]

...One shopper, Dave Thorp, from Preston, tweeted: "Payments glitch hits Sainsbury's. A return to the dark ages as Sainsbury's are only able to take cash."


:oo-->

[Horn]

...One shopper, Dave Thorp, from Preston, tweeted: "Payments glitch hits Sainsbury's. A return to the dark ages as Sainsbury's are only able to take cash."


:oo-->


Yes, we're well on our way, the electronic cards just speed up the process.

[chad]

i paid cash for a $900 stove this weekend, you would have thought i was a drug smuggler or something. they had to call the manager up. :oo-->

[Dogman]

Physical cash is a vital part in your preps

at least a 1000 dollars in each denomination

1,5,10,20,

50 and hundreads are not as important as the smaller denominations


True, but what are you going to do when you hand a teller $100 for an $83.77 purchase and they don't have their computerized calculator to tell them how much change to give you?


There is one huge gorilla in this conversation that is being missed. Sure if the stores computers crash and cc's can not be used and also the tellers can not ring up the sale.

The gorilla is in most modern stores , they use bar code scanning to identify and price the item. When is the last time you have seen prices on anything? You have to look for the tag on the shelf to see what the cost is.

To do bizz the stores will have to hand mark every item in the store, so they can make a sale.Can use the old style registers to ring up the sale. If they still have them most stores have gotten rid of the old electric registers (non computer) and are disappearing fast, and the old hand price marking stamp machines are getting as rair as hen's teeth in most stores.

[Twisted Titan]

Physical cash is a vital part in your preps

at least a 1000 dollars in each denomination

1,5,10,20,

50 and hundreads are not as important as the smaller denominations


True, but what are you going to do when you hand a teller $100 for an $83.77 purchase and they don't have their computerized calculator to tell them how much change to give you?


There is one huge gorilla in this conversation that is being missed. Sure if the stores computers crash and cc's can not be used and also the tellers can not ring up the sale.

The gorilla is in most modern stores , they use bar code scanning to identify and price the item. When is the last time you have seen prices on anything? You have to look for the tag on the shelf to see what the cost is.

To do bizz the stores will have to hand mark every item in the store, so they can make a sale.Can use the old style registers to ring up the sale. If they still have them most stores have gotten rid of the old electric registers (non computer) and are disappearing fast, and the old hand price marking stamp machines are getting as rair as hen's teeth in most stores.



Good Lord I cant even remeber the last time I saw one of them now that you mention it.

Sheesh we are trouble


T

[Glass]

One shopper, Dave Thorp, from Preston, tweeted: "Payments glitch hits Sainsbury's. A return to the dark ages as Sainsbury's are only able to take cash."

Ha! now there's a walking tweeeting idiot. Pay cash, do it now. People shouldn't use any type of card to pay for stuffs. I always pay cash. Sometimes they have cash only tills. It's like super express because no one uses it. They usually have a greeter at that till to double check that "you do have cash?".

The scary thing is I'm like 0.01% of the shopping population. At some point they won't be able to give change because they won't find it economical to carry a float in their till. But on the upside, they regularly get people asking for "cash out" so they have to carry some change.

Seems like the tills worked in store ok, just the payment system went down

[Book]

http://www.shift4university.com/images/badtransactions/clerk.jpg
"OK...I'll just take your word for it that this 1965 "silver dime" is now "worth" fifty dollars and ring it up folks. Thank you and have a nice day!"

:oo-->

[MNeagle]

ah, that should be 1964 Book.

[Book]

ah, that should be 1964 I believe.



Thanks for correcting me MNeagle.

|--0--|





U.S. Silver Coins:
When They Ended and What They're Worth

In the early 1960's, the silver supply for the nation's coinage was dwindling rapidly. As Congress and the Administration debated over silver's future role in coinage, the silver market jumped 10% immediately, and another 30% by 1962. This set the stage for the complete elimination of silver from our coinage by the end of 1964.

[skid]

I try to pay cash for everything. I'm surprised the bank teller i see regularly doesn't ask me why i need all that cash. I just don't trust credit cards and debit cards. When i have cash I know I can pay for it...

[Sparky]

Physical cash is a vital part in your preps

at least a 1000 dollars in each denomination

1,5,10,20,

50 and hundreads are not as important as the smaller denominations


True, but what are you going to do when you hand a teller $100 for an $83.77 purchase and they don't have their computerized calculator to tell them how much change to give you?


You'll only be handing them at most $84. That's why TT said $1000 in each denomination!

[steel_ag]

pay with united states notes vs private fed credit i.e. federal reserve notes

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/republic-restored

Aug 11 podcast

bonus info about "OPEN" method in the courtroom

[Light]

The more you use cash the longer it will be around. They would love to get rid of it but they do not want unrest.

[Twisted Titan]

http://www.shift4university.com/images/badtransactions/clerk.jpg
"OK...I'll just take your word for it that this 1965 "silver dime" is now "worth" fifty dollars and ring it up folks. Thank you and have a nice day!"

:oo-->



But people have no problem beliveing that 100 dollar FRN is "worth" more than a 50 FRN because the Federal authority declares it.


99% of the population take the gubbermint at their word.


Just saying

T