Six years after introducing self-service checkouts in its stores, British grocer Booths is taking a step back and bringing employees back behind the checkout.
As a result, the company intends to remove this technology from 25 of its 27 supermarkets as part of its renovation program, The Groccer reported on Wednesday. The goal is therefore to bring cashiers back into stores to provide better customer service.
Self-checkout checkouts have allowed retailers to reduce customer service costs in recent years. However, several people have expressed their dissatisfaction with this system, be it when purchasing alcohol, which requires verifying the customer’s age, or because of technical problems.
“We’re not big fans of self-checkouts. We pride ourselves on our excellent customer service and that is not possible with a robot,” Nigel Murray, managing director of Booths, told British media.
“If competition lowers prices, we will promote quality,” he added.
However, the company believes it is necessary to retain self-service checkouts in two of its stores because they “can get quite busy,” Mr. Murray says.