Booths, the UK supermarket chain based in Lancashire, has decided to ditch self-checkouts across most of its stores, with the company’s chief revealing that this move has led to a surge in customer happiness. Nigel Murray, the managing director, disclosed to The Grocer that their customer satisfaction scores have soared from 70 to 74 out of 100 since November 2023, attributing part of this success to the removal of self-service checkouts.
Murray explained: “We’re at 74 now, up from 70 (out of 100). Not all of that is due to the fact that we’ve taken self-service checkouts out of many of the stores.” He continued by highlighting the positive impact on service quality, saying, “But when you look at things like service, into the ‘promise of things to come’ section, we’ve scored brilliantly.”
He further commented on the efficiency of staff-operated checkouts: “Because in really simple terms if you’ve got somebody who is doing a job repetitively for six, seven, eight hours a day, they are going to do it faster and better than if you are just turning up to do it once every three days.”
This development comes as other major retailers are also revamping their checkout experiences. Home Bargains, for example, is taking steps to combat theft by implementing significant changes to its self-checkouts, including trialling new anti-theft software, reports Birmingham Live.
This AI technology, integrated into CCTV systems, can detect whether items at self-checkout have been properly scanned. Home Bargains is working with tech companies SAI (Storewide Active Intelligence) and Everseen to embed this advanced software into its security cameras. SAI has described the innovation as transforming standard security cameras into “specialised and capable in-store AI assistants.”
Aldi has announced that customers will now be able to purchase lottery tickets at self-checkout machines, expanding its services. Previously, these were only available at manned checkouts.
On the other hand, Asda is planning to increase the number of staff on checkouts, acknowledging that it has reached a limit with self-service tills. The supermarket stated that while self-checkouts are efficient for customers, it aims to invest more hours into having manned checkouts. The decision, it claimed, was not based on shoppers’ preference for human assistance over a machine.
