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Coles Ditches 'Unexpected Item In Bagging Area' Alert After Customer Backlash

Coles Ditches 'Unexpected Item In Bagging Area' Alert After Customer Backlash
A shopper carries a basket while walking through a Coles supermarket, operated by Wesfarmers Ltd., in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014. Wesfarmers, Australia's largest employer, is scheduled to report first-half earnings on Feb. 19. Photographer: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg via Getty Images
A shopper carries a basket while walking through a Coles supermarket, operated by Wesfarmers Ltd., in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014. Wesfarmers, Australia's largest employer, is scheduled to report first-half earnings on Feb. 19. Photographer: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Coles customers can bid farewell to the annoying voice, not in their heads, but sounding from self-service checkouts around the country claiming there's an ‘unexpected item in bagging area’.

The supermarket chain has dumped the self-service checkout's worst feature, which told customers when the weight in the baggage area did not match the scanned items.

Customers were then locked out of the checkout until a staff member came to unlock the machine, which rubbed many Coles customers up the wrong way.

“We are trialling new technologies at our self-checkouts that reduce customer frustration and enable our customers to get through quicker," a Coles spokeswoman told The Huffington Post Australia.

"This has freed up more time for our team members to provide a better service experience.”

The news has been welcomed by shoppers on social media with one Twitter user tweeting: "I can now die happy".

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