EARLY on Wednesday morning last week I called into Holmbush to use the cash machine.

While there I picked up my morning paper from Tesco’s, although normally I prefer to support the local newsagents.

I stood in a queue behind a couple unloading their trolley. The checkout woman spotted me and bellowed in a loud voice: “Self-service checkouts not working?”

The surprising thing about her ill manners is that she was not a young kid who did not know any better, but a mature woman.

I replied in an equally loud voice: “I wouldn’t use them on principle.” Then went on to say: “Has it ever occurred to you what is going to happen to your job if all these tills go self-service?”

She then surprised me yet again by bellowing back: “It won’t bother me.”

This raises a number of issues. There are between two and five million unemployed depending on which government-massaged figures you believe. Can the country afford to lose any jobs, unskilled or otherwise?

Also, should the wonders of computer technology deny us the right to communicate through fellow humans.

Most important of all, how can Tesco’s management expect young staff to act with good manners towards customers if that is the example set by the more mature members of staff?

Stuart Bower, Towers Road, Upper Beeding, Steyning