Every flea bites

[Lee]

my local screwfix, A board outside, good position inside. I remember a time before you could buy a key on every street corner!

[Count Muppet]

I always wondered why they didn’t offer key cutting anyway?

now I see they fit one of those crap machines, I’ve got no worries.

The company that owns these machines must have some great salesmen

[Tom D]

ive got a morrisons on my doorstep they put one in  the 1st one was like the one in the pick requiring  an operator  the new one they put in is stand alone  ,  being honest  nobody ever asked the price before m they all do now ,  I used to charge £4 for a cylinder and £ 5  for a mortice , I now charge   4.95 each  or 3 for a tenner  just like the machine , im about the same takings , mind  it cuts a bigger range than I 1st thought ?

[GLENGRAVING]

Got one in B&Q to one side of me, The Range in the other direction - wonder if they're being rolled out in all Screwfix locations? 

I suppose from a consumers perspective, these boxes tend to have much longer working hours than you or I - but that's the only benefit. Luckily most customers know why it's better to come to a (human) specialist, and there's plenty complaints about these machines online. 
I posted a wee grandstanding rant on my instagram about it (the £3.50 on my chalkboard refers to some padlock keys which we have priced lower )

Edited June 11, 2019 by GLENGRAVING
link redacted

[Mike at Vauxhall]

As Glengraving says, just a quick look at the reviews says it all. 

[Auto Key Wizard]

8 hours ago, GLENGRAVING said:

there's plenty complaints about these machines online.

Exactly...

We were contracted by Laserkey to do the R&D testing on their first UK prototype machine

The machine was installed at my shop for eighteen months, were paid £1000 +VAT per month and collected all sales revenue from the supplied blanks

I told the original company (Laserkey) That it was a clever concept, but would not replace the traditional way keys were duplicated

We have seen the production machines sited locally over the years, with no real affect to our key turnover,
They never end up sited in these locations for very long, so don't let yourself be dictated to regarding lowering pricing

We will never be selling three keys for a tenner anytime soon, Our key cutting starts @ £5

Recently Timpson have opened within the town's Morrison store, which allows us to futher increase prices inline with theirs,