London Sainsbury's Butlerian Jihad

 

In my quest to save the galaxy from the dictatorship of the machines I found myself fighting a battle I had not expected to in a strange and distant land far from home. I was at Sainsbury's in Victoria Station, London. I was on my way home from an event and had not eaten during the day so I stopped off there to buy a few sandwiches to munch on the coach home to Oxford. I selected my wares and did my usual, walking straight past the auto-tills to the manned checkout. In this branch of Sainsbury's that consists of just the tobacco and lottery kiosk. There was nobody behind the cash register and so I waited. There seemed to be only one man at work on the shop floor for some reason, which was strange seeing as it was quite a busy time of the day. He saw me, but instead of entering to kiosk to serve me he gestured towards to auto-till aisle. He was an elderly Asian man who didn't speak very good English, but he clearly was asking me to pay for my goods there. I shook my head and said: "No, I want to be served by a human being not a machine." He protested and kept pointing at the auto-tills. In the end I think he understood, but told me it wasn't possible for me to pay at the kiosk. However I continued to protest. He ended up running my sandwiches through the auto-till for me. I warned him: "These things are going to put you out of a job, mate." He scowled and muttered something at me. Seeing at Sainsbury's had left him alone in the store to run it single-handed it looks like they're halfway there already. I thanked him and left with my purchases. I've since been back to that shop and this time they had more staff there and I was able to pay at the kiosk. Humans 1- machines 0.

See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2026/01/lidl-butlerian-jihad.html.