Supermarket Tesco is continuing to move away from staffed checkouts as it expands its self-service option. One industry analyst said it was clear that checkout were "underutilised".
Tesco said that larger self-checkout areas had been well-used and it was expanding its offering with larger area that could accommodate trolleys. These are three times longer than standard self checkouts and mean six bags can be packed at once, reports BirminghamLive.
But it comes as many people have been petitioning for Tesco to bring back staff to checkouts. More than 218,000 frustrated customers signing a petition calling for the supermarket to stop adding the self-service checkouts to their stores on change.org.
A Tesco spokeswoman told The Grocer: “We are proud to offer customers choice when it comes to checkouts, and after successful trials we are introducing new trolley-accessible self-service checkouts in some of our stores, which have more room and are easier to use for larger shops. Our colleagues and the friendly service they provide are absolutely vital to our stores – they will always be on hand to help our customers, and will continue to operate attended checkouts so that customers can choose the option they prefer.”
Grocery Insight chief executive Steve Dresser told The Grocer the move was in line with an increasing trend for moving to focus on self-service checkouts.
He said: “[Supermarkets] are moving to dedicated checkouts rather than empty manned checkouts, which naturally are linked to the hours given to the front end. Of course, there are savings to be made losing the manned checkouts, but the reality is, you rarely see checkouts open these days en masse anyway, so it’s underutilised space. It’s not always positive for customers, however, as some may feel forced into self-service options.”
