Good morning dear friend

Its 6-months now since the start of the petition - Stop Replacing People by Machines was commenced.

Almost l million people have viewed the petition and not far short of a quarter-of-a-million have signed the petition. Almost 70,000 of you have shared the petition with friends, families and your contacts. Thank you. 

At a time when the cost-of-living-crisis is paramount in peoples lives and the energy crisis worrying us all, my petition may not be on the front- burner.  The self-service-card-only-tills create barriers for many people with disabilities, those who are carers who pay in cash they receive from their clients, those who use cash (l0% of us) and many older people who don't like using credit or debit cards for purchases. |Many of us prefer the customer service assistant helping us - especially if we have a large shop.

The result of the increase in the use of self-service-card-only-tills is that those of us wanting to shop with the help and assistance of a member of staff on the till have to wait longer than if we used the self-service till.  This petition started in Tesco's Osterley and the manager there has made adjustments to enable more customer service assistant tills to remain open, but that is not completely the answer - we want to have an option when we shop not be directed to the self-service tills as the quickest way out of the shop. I believe the new arrangement is a disadvantage to many of us - thousands of us who have signed this petition

I would like to know about those of you with a disability first.  What issues do the new self-service till arrangements mean to you - what barriers do you face?  How does the self-service-card-only-tills disadvantage you? Are you willing to let me use your story to illustrate how frustrating and difficult the new self-service till arrangements are. I will enquire of other people who have signed the petition in my next update.  I would like to hear from you.

My email address is pmccarthy940@gmail.com - in the run up to Christmas Tesco's and other stores are likely to rely on more people using the self-service-card-only-tills to shop.  Does this create difficulty for you.  I love to chat, albeit for a very short time to the customer services assistant at the till - I miss that friendly and supportive service, one that has been largely replaced by machines.  There seem less people and more machines.  Let me know what you think.

With kind regards

Pat