Shoppers Drug Mart ditches self-checkout voice after complaints
Shoppers Drug Mart is saying "Ugh, WHATEVER, bye-eeee!" to the widely-reviled'snarky teen' voiceinside its automated checkout machines.
As promised, the retail pharmacy chain has started rolling out new self-checkout prompts at its stores across the country. This voice,according to the company, was made using Canadian talent –notKardashian talent.
Here she is in all her polite, robotic, vocal fry-free glory:
Meet the NEW, new Shoppers Drug Mart self checkout voice – now with 90% less sass!https://t.co/enbY7EEMnbpic.twitter.com/ivgUILnN7L
— Lauren O'Neil (@laurenonizzle)October 19, 2017
Just listen to those soft, Northern-sounding A's (or should I say "eh's"? Hehehe.)
For comparison's sake,hereis what the robo-cashiers have sounded like since they first hit select Shoppers locationsin March.
A lot of peoplehatedthat voice, likening it to "a bored drunken teen," a "whiny millennial", the "Cash Me Outside"chick(of Maury and then internet fame,)Family Guy'sPeter Griffin as a secretary, and ateenager in the 70's(did they sound different back then?)
Shoppers Drug Mart needs a better voice performer. This one sounds like she’s rolling her eyes and filing her nails.pic.twitter.com/TkDDSZMrMU
— Tod Maffin (@todmaffin)June 30, 2017
So many people were complaining online about the machine's perceived attitude – most of them, entirely unprompted – that Shoppers was compelled to take action. We were compelledto write about itand, more recently, look for real-life evidence ofthe new voicein action.
Of the six downtown Toronto Shoppers Drug Mart locations I visited while searching for the new prompts, only one of them – the24/7 store at Yonge & Carlton– had eliminated the super-villain inside of their machines.
Rumour has it that the new-and-improved prompts have been installed at theBloor and Spadinalocation, as well as onThe Queensway, east of Parklawn.
Nothing appears to have changed with these self checkouts expect for the voice prompts.
The lady whose photo greets us still looks like Blake Lively – she just sounds more like Anne Murray. Robot Anne Murray.
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