Morrisons announce major changes to self-checkout tills

Cashier number five please

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.

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.