Cashier number five please
Supermarket chain Morrisons has announced major changes to their self-checkout tills.
The shop said that it is making the change due to an admission by bosses that the expansion of a certain key service “went too far”.
The chief executive of Morrisons, Rami Baitiéh, revealed that the company will be reducing the number of self-checkout tills in its stores.
Baitiéh said in an interview with The Telegraph that the company is in the process of “reviewing the balance between self-checkouts and manned tills.”
He said: “Morrisons went a bit too far with the self-checkout.
“This had the advantage of driving some productivity.
“However, some shoppers dislike it, mainly when they have a full trolley.”
As well as this, the increase in self-checkouts has led to a rise in shoplifting in stores.
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Following on from a full analysis of the tills and their effect across their store network, Morrisons has taken the decision to reintroduce more manned tills in place of their self-checkout counterparts.
One store in Brough, Yorkshire, has already taken action by removing several self-checkout tills and adding in a further four manned checkouts.
During the last ten years, many supermarkets nationwide have massively increased the number of self-service tills in the name of what they believe is greater efficiency, faster check-out times and therefore better service.
However, there has been growing discontent among shoppers pushing back against the unmanned machines.
One high-end northern grocery chain, Booths, recently decided to forgo the self-service checkout after running analysis that found that customers had a more enjoyable experience when interacting with a cashier.
This echoes data collated by The Grocer that found the use of self-checkout machines can reduce customer satisfaction by as much as 8%.
Asda have recently taken similar steps to put more people on tills in a £30m investment, however this will not see an increase in the number of tills, but instead more staff available to manage the ones that are often unoccupied.
