As I use public transport or walk to the shops in Colchester, I don’t have the parking issues which seem to deter many people from shopping in the town centre.

However, I find the practice of replacing shop assistants with machines quite alien and unpleasant.

At a time when it is vital to have as many people in employment as possible, some stores are replacing their check-out staff with machines.

I was in one chain store, for instance buying an article which had to be submitted with an empty box. The only one of the two assistant available, apart from the machines, had to leave her post and fetch it.

The only other assistant available had gone on a similar mission. The queue grew long with people, like myself, who prefer to do transactions with human beings rather than machines and one or two of the self-service tills were left empty.

One or two left the queue in frustration. On the odd occasions I have used these machines, they have malfunctioned, making the whole experience even more unpleasant.

B J Butler
Guildford Road
Colchester