Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 4]

[borcy]

There's a button underneath that is pushed to start it, then it's all run on sensors.

[FiF]

V8mate said:

Exige77 said:

Johnspex said:

Frank7 said:

RATATTAK said:

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

In Tesco today, 3 down in a queue. Bored AF, I was watching customers ahead shopping being scanned. items were scanned, and periodically the belt moved till-wards. How does it know when to do this, weight sensors under the belt, knowing to move the belt onwards?

How about a foot pedal under the counter ?

That’s what I would have thought too.

Surely it can't be anything to do with weight as some items you can buy in Tesco must weigh many times the weight of others. It never occurred to me that it was anything other than a cashier-operated foot switch.

Much as it goes against the grain to agree with anything Frank says.

It’s usually just a light beam at the cashier end of the belt. As the cashier takes the item breaking the beam, it moves along until the next item breaks the beam and it stops again.

That is the primary belt feed controller, but Tesco also have a secondary, cashier controlled, system. Effectively a manual control. One of the few supermarkets where you'll occasionally see the belt not move forward automatically, when the cashier has forgotten to switch back to auto.

If someone else is packing, btw I'm forbidden by 'er indoors to play the game of Tetris with groceries , then you can stand casually near the end of the conveyor waiting to pay, lean on it, and break the beam with a finger.

[classicaholic]

V8mate said:

Exige77 said:

Johnspex said:

Frank7 said:

RATATTAK said:

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

In Tesco today, 3 down in a queue. Bored AF, I was watching customers ahead shopping being scanned. items were scanned, and periodically the belt moved till-wards. How does it know when to do this, weight sensors under the belt, knowing to move the belt onwards?

How about a foot pedal under the counter ?

That’s what I would have thought too.

Surely it can't be anything to do with weight as some items you can buy in Tesco must weigh many times the weight of others. It never occurred to me that it was anything other than a cashier-operated foot switch.

Much as it goes against the grain to agree with anything Frank says.

It’s usually just a light beam at the cashier end of the belt. As the cashier takes the item breaking the beam, it moves along until the next item breaks the beam and it stops again.

That is the primary belt feed controller, but Tesco also have a secondary, cashier controlled, system. Effectively a manual control. One of the few supermarkets where you'll occasionally see the belt not move forward automatically, when the cashier has forgotten to switch back to auto.

With what a checkout desk must cost I can't understand why they don't have a soft start on the belt so it doesn't jerk when starting and all your bottles fall over.

[V8mate]

classicaholic said:

With what a checkout desk must cost I can't understand why they don't have a soft start on the belt so it doesn't jerk when starting and all your bottles fall over.

Till etiquette is to lay all tall items down. Some supermarkets are better at communicating that than others. The Polish women in my Aldi give short shrift to anyone who stands milk/wine etc bottles up

[The Mad Monk]

classicaholic said:

With what a checkout desk must cost I can't understand why they don't have a soft start on the belt so it doesn't jerk when starting and all your bottles fall over.

Your bottles should be laid (lain?) [laying?] {lying?}down.

Do you know nothing?

[classicaholic]

The Mad Monk said:

classicaholic said:

With what a checkout desk must cost I can't understand why they don't have a soft start on the belt so it doesn't jerk when starting and all your bottles fall over.

Your bottles should be laid (lain?) [laying?] {lying?}down.

Do you know nothing?

When you buy as many bottles as I do you don't have enough conveyor length!

[anonymous-user]

V8mate said:

Till etiquette is to lay all tall items down. Some supermarkets are better at communicating that than others. The Polish women in my Aldi give short shrift to anyone who stands milk/wine etc bottles up

God knows what she'd do if your plane took off from it.

[CrossMember]

janesmith1950 said:

God knows what she'd do if your plane took off from it.

It wouldn't.

[talksthetorque]

The Mad Monk said:

classicaholic said:

With what a checkout desk must cost I can't understand why they don't have a soft start on the belt so it doesn't jerk when starting and all your bottles fall over.

Your bottles should be laid (lain?) [laying?] {lying?}down.

Do you know nothing?

Pussies. Get them stood up - If they're not cylindrical ( fabric conditioner etc) then put them so the longer side is parallel with the belt and they won't fall over.

If they are cylindrical, then put something behind them.

The conveyor belts at Morrisons where we go ( ) are jerk free. Not something that can be said about the aisles unfortunately.

[nonsequitur]

classicaholic said:

With what a checkout desk must cost I can't understand why they don't have a soft start on the belt so it doesn't jerk when starting and all your bottles fall over.

I was told by a Tesco person to lay bottles flat which prevents any mishaps. It works!

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Lazadude said:

MartG said:

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Resistance sensor at the end of the belt detects when an item has hit the end, probably.

I think older systems used an optoelectric sensor.

Again, I wondered this, but items were often picked and bagged, before the belt end was clear, When it was it moved.

Look at the side rail of the belt at the end, there's usually a small hole visible which houses a sensor

This, there's a laser at the end of the conveyor. When it's broken the conveyor stops.

Which is why those separators for different peoples shopping work to stop the conveyor, and its appreciated that you have one after you if you are the last person...

That makes perfect sense, and also answers another question. Last weekend I bought a bottle of wine from Aldi. I didn't bother with a plastic divider, as I thought it would be obviously a different customer buying, being a few feet behind the other guys shopping. My wine sailed down to the cashier, and I had to step in to stop her scanning it to the other guy. Nearly had a Jesus free wine moment.

[Frank7]

Johnspex said:

Surely it can't be anything to do with weight as some items you can buy in Tesco must weigh many times the weight of others. It never occurred to me that it was anything other than a cashier-operated foot switch.

Much as it goes against the grain to agree with anything Frank says.

And no smiley? Oof, I’m cut to the quick
After a short period of silently weeping in my room, I’ll ask my neighbour,
although she works on the Customer Service desk at Tesco.

[CaptainSlow]

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

That makes perfect sense, and also answers another question. Last weekend I bought a bottle of wine from Aldi. I didn't bother with a plastic divider, as I thought it would be obviously a different customer buying, being a few feet behind the other guys shopping. My wine sailed down to the cashier, and I had to step in to stop her scanning it to the other guy. Nearly had a Jesus free wine moment.

It might seem obvious but when you've been on a till for 8 hours you pretty much zone out so better off putting a divider down.

As for the sensor, one gag was to peel off small bit of a reduction sticker and stick over the sensor.

[P-Jay]

Cliftonite said:

.
Why are hundreds of bank PIN sentry gadgets sold successfully on eBay, some for over £20, when they are on free issue from banks?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_s...



.

It's only a guess, but...

They're usually a free replacement if you lose them, but lots of people don't trust banks, assume they'll charge and arm and a leg for them.

Those who do bother to check with the bank to discover they're free, might not like the thought of them taking 2 weeks to arrive, if someone is offering same day dispatch someone will buy one in a pinch.

I thought they were being phased out in favour of MFA, but we've just had one delivered.

[gazzarose]

P-Jay said:

Cliftonite said:

.
Why are hundreds of bank PIN sentry gadgets sold successfully on eBay, some for over £20, when they are on free issue from banks?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_s...



.

It's only a guess, but...

They're usually a free replacement if you lose them, but lots of people don't trust banks, assume they'll charge and arm and a leg for them.

Those who do bother to check with the bank to discover they're free, might not like the thought of them taking 2 weeks to arrive, if someone is offering same day dispatch someone will buy one in a pinch.

I thought they were being phased out in favour of MFA, but we've just had one delivered.

We used to have a little calculator type one for our personal hsbc accounts but they seem to babe stopped and I just use my mobile. My credit card in work is a barley card, and when we had new cards recently, all 6 of us had one each. Only my boss has access to the online banking stuff so I don't know why we've all got one, Especially is they are all the same. Weirder still, is when I had to request a new card because my card went a bit dodgy, they sent me another one! So now I've got 2 of the useless things in my locker.

[nonsequitur]

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

That makes perfect sense, and also answers another question. Last weekend I bought a bottle of wine from Aldi. I didn't bother with a plastic divider, as I thought it would be obviously a different customer buying, being a few feet behind the other guys shopping. My wine sailed down to the cashier, and I had to step in to stop her scanning it to the other guy. Nearly had a Jesus free wine moment.

Dividers Rule! Even for a pint of milk and a packet of three! This situation happens all the time in Tesco, but not in Waitrose.

[S1KRR]

I get impossibly irritated when they start scanning before you've loaded most or all of your items onto the belt! All it does is create a log jam at the other end anyway! Would it kill you to wait 30 seconds!


They don't get a "Thank You" when I get my receipt either!
(that last bit I always want to do, but courtesy takes over and I thank them anyway )



To ask another Thing I've Always Wanted to Know the Answer to (TIAWTKTAT )


Why do we Pine for exes?

Last couple days, for no reason I can determine. I've thought a lot about an ex from ages ago. She dumped me. (Pretty amicably. No cheating / abuse or anything ridiculous. Just the standard "don't think we're right for each other") But ultimately the right decision. I've not bumped into her, or been near where she lives for any reason since then. There's been literally no contact since then. I can point out numerous things that make us incompatible. Yet recently my brain will question whether things could have been different. Even though being 100% logical it was never going to work out really.

I'm not about to initiate contact, and I assume she doesn't feel any need to contact me either. She might even be seeing someone for all I know.

It's curious how the brain works though. Is it just rose tinted glasses? Is it just that I'm currently single and getting the old "FOMO" (Fear of missing out) going on? Did I subconsciously see something and it set off the memory of a comment I cant remember? A dream within a dream

Edited by S1KRR on Saturday 23 November 16:33

[popeyewhite]

S1KRR said:

I get impossibly irritated when they start scanning before you've loaded most or all of your items onto the belt! All it does is create a log jam at the other end anyway! Would it kill you to wait 30 seconds!


They don't get a "Thank You" when I get my receipt either!
(that last bit I always want to do, but courtesy takes over and I thank them anyway )



To ask another Thing I've Always Wanted to Know the Answer to (TIAWTKTAT )


Why do we Pine for exes?

Last couple days, for no reason I can determine. I've thought a lot about an ex from ages ago. She dumped me. (Pretty amicably. No cheating / abuse or anything ridiculous. Just the standard "don't think we're right for each other") But ultimately the right decision. I've not bumped into her, or been near where she lives for any reason since then. There's been literally no contact since then. I can point out numerous things that make us incompatible. Yet recently I'll wish things would have been different. Even though being 100% logical it was never going to work out really.

I'm not about to initiate contact, and I assume she doesn't feel any need to contact me either. She might even be seeing someone for all I know.

It's curious how the brain works though. Is it just rose tinted glasses? Is it just that I'm currently single and getting the old "FOMO" (Fear of missing out) going on? Did I subconsciously see something and it set off the memory of a comment I cant remember? A dream within a dream

Edited by S1KRR on Saturday 23 November 16:27

You write "pine" but don't sound like you are actually pining. Assuming (and this is pretty obvious) "pine" was your subconscious speaking, and you've mentioned your relationship happened some time ago, then I'd hazard you're not actually missing the girl herself, but something else about the relationship. Being in love perhaps...maybe the companionship? You're FOMO comment could well be true also.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

S1KRR said:

They don't get a "Thank You" when I get my receipt either!
(that last bit I always want to do, but courtesy takes over and I thank them anyway )

The classic one for this is to say (quickly) fk you very much. They're torn in their mind as to if you said thank or fk you very much

[nonsequitur]

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

The classic one for this is to say (quickly) fk you very much. They're torn in their mind as to if you said thank or fk you very much

YMBJ. If true, very