• I CAN fully understand Cllr Richard Cotton’s comments about a digital dystopia that’s shaping our everyday lives, (Plea to Sainsbury’s: ‘Give us humans back on checkout’, September 7).

Supermarket and railway bosses are tearing up all the rules and conventions of a civilised society and they’re doing this at an alarming rate. By forcing us to rob trained employees of their paid tasks they’ve now crossed one red line too many.

I was brought up to respect my elders and to help vulnerable people; and I always believed that statements such as “the customer is always right” and “cash is king” were timeless. I also believed that interpersonal skills were at least as important as any technical skills.

But modern decision-makers have zero respect for elderly or vulnerable customers and they seem to be constructively dismissing any customers who don’t align with their cost-cutting obsessions. Are we really such a nuisance to the shareholders that we need to be punished and eradicated?

When I quit my job I was looking forward to a long break from technology with more human interaction. Imagine my disappointment that the fickle and frustrating machines have come back to haunt me in my retirement and that everyday activities feel like school exams.

IAN SHACKLOCK, N4