Shoppers Drug Mart ditches self-checkout voice after complaints

Shoppers Drug Mart is saying "Ugh, WHATEVER, bye-eeee!" to the widely-reviled 'snarky teen' voice inside 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 – not Kardashian 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/enbY7EEMnb http://pic.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, here is what the robo-cashiers have sounded like since they first hit select Shoppers locations in March. A lot of people hated that voice, likening it to "a bored drunken teen," a "whiny millennial", the "Cash Me Outside" chick (of Maury and then internet fame,) Family Guy's Peter Griffin as a secretary, and a teenager 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. http://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 compelled to write about it and, more recently, look for real-life evidence of the new voice in action. Of the six downtown Toronto Shoppers Drug Mart locations I visited while searching for the new prompts, only one of them – the 24/7 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 the Bloor and Spadina location, as well as on The 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.

by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO