It's probably people's most hated part of using a supermarket self-checkout till. The dread of the 'unexpected item in bagging area' announcement and the inevitable wait for a human to come to your rescue.
Clearly conscious of this, Tesco now wants to change the voice of its robotic notification. Perhaps it wants a clean slate.
Whatever the reason, the big news here is that said voice could be yours. Yes, yours. The retail giant is holding auditions to find the new voice of its self-checkout tills, reports the M.E.N.
It is inviting people to submit their voice to be new sound of self-service checkouts in stores across the country, with people auditioning also in with a chance of earning up to 10,000 Clubcard points. In a post on the company's TikTok page, a Tesco spokesperson said: "Audition to become the new voice of Tesco checkouts by duetting with me & including #TescoVoiceOfCheckout. You could win 10,000 Clubcard points."
For many years, the voice of the self service checkouts was British actress Helena Breck, who previously appeared in EastEnders. She also voiced the checkouts in Sainsbury's and Asda, though in 2015 the recordings were changed to that of a male actor in 2015.
Fans of Tesco have been taking to TikTok to share their amusement at the marketing strategy by the supermarket. One wrote: "You should do regional accents in their regions, rather than just one RP accent as a blanket across the nation, or funny ones, just something more."
Another said "This is going to be gold", while another added: "Not me thinking this was someone just makin' a weird tiktok but it is actually Tesco looking for someone". Finally, one other shopper added: "I'd rather not have my voice every time I go into Tesco."
