Self-service tills make us feel sad and lonely

‘UNEXPECTED item in the bagging area.’ There are few phrases that get my goat more.

‘They’re groceries! What were you expecting, for crying out loud?’ I want to yell.

I rue the day that someone thought those automatic self-service checkouts were a good idea.

And it’s not just the technical glitches — it’s all so pressured. There’s no space to put the shopping, you can’t properly pack the bags and all the while the queue of people behind you grows. Awful.

And, apparently, I’m not alone in thinking this. A survey this week from a housing charity for the elderly found that a quarter of older people are put off from shopping by automated checkouts. They reported finding them ‘intimidating’ and ‘unfriendly’.

It was this last word — unfriendly — that I found interesting. I wonder if we realise quite what we’ve lost now in our increasingly automated world.

I’ve always talked to the cashiers in my supermarket and got to know some of them quite well. But for older people this point of contact is even more valuable.

As a doctor, I’ve treated lots of elderly patients and am always saddened by the number who tell me they go days on end without meeting a single person.

Faceless, friendless automated checkouts are no substitute for human interaction. To make matters worse, many post offices — the other point of contact for many older people — have been closed, further isolating them.

Local shops give many people a reason to get up in the morning, a focus, a guarantee of meeting and talking with someone.

What we lose with this technology is far more valuable than the few extra minutes we save scanning our own fruit and veg.

MORE than half of all fat men don’t think they’re overweight, according to research published this week. Where has this normalisation of being fat come from? Partly, it’s the influence from the U.S., where conspicuous consumption is celebrated and the larger body is more accepted. We’re also increasingly nervous about discussing obesity, with doctors shying away from mentioning it for fear of ‘offending’ people. But the fact remains that a fat man is a man at risk — and offending patients is surely better than letting them slowly kill themselves.