A while back I lamented the rise of the self-service till in supermarkets – there a few things that make my blood boil more than the electronic woman’s voice insisting “unexpected item in the bagging area.”

Or so I thought, until hearing the recent experience of a colleague, which has made me reconsider my earlier opinions.

For it seems that the actually interacting with a human could, in fact, be worse.

Said colleague was picking a few items up at a well known supermarket chain the other week and had reached the checkout. 

It should be noted that at almost eight months’ pregnant she has reached the stage where few could confuse impending motherhood with failing to lose the extra Christmas pounds, prompting the woman at the till to ask “When are you due?”

So far so normal, as I’m reliably informed that when you become pregnant your private life automatically becomes other people’s business.

Perhaps less usual was the response to her reply of “at the end of April”, at which point she was told she had “timed it wrong” as spring and summer babies would have to be moved down a school year.

A questionable interpretation of the ongoing debate over whether parents of later summer babies should have the choice of starting them in reception a year later, but it is what happened next that beggars belief. 

When my colleague light-heartedly replied that she was born in March and there was nothing with her, the reply from the checkout “assistant” was: “Well that’s a matter of opinion.”

It’s not clear whether the follow up of “I don’t know you, do I” was intended to be an explanation or an excuse. 

Surely if a customer spoke in that manner to a member of staff they would be reported to a senior manager over “aggressive behaviour” or some such term? 

Perhaps impersonal machines are not so bad after all.