Removing self-checkouts will not work for all supermarkets, a leading retail expert said today after a chain became Britain’s first to return to fully-staffed tills.
Booths bucked the trend by axing its self-service checkouts at all but two of its 27 stores in northern England in November 2023 and favouring staffed tills instead.
It was the first such shift by a significant UK supermarket, after years of all its rivals opening thousands of self-checkouts and dramatically reducing tills with staff.
Managing director Nigel Murray has since revealed the change is playing a major role in improving customer satisfaction at Booths, dubbed the ‘Waitrose of the North’.
Today, retail expert Jonathan De Mello said it was a ‘bold move given the increased volume of staff needed to offset the loss of self-checkout terminals’ amid higher payroll costs for firms after changes to the minimum wage and national insurance.
But he added that the idea will likely work better for Booths than for its rivals, given it is an aspirational retailer in more rural environments and small towns with stores that tend to be visited by customers for a ‘major day out weekly grocery shopping trip’.
Mr De Mello, founder and chief executive of JDM Retail, also told that scrapping self-checkouts would not work for the bigger national supermarkets.
He said this was because they ‘have a mix of large stores and convenience stores, and are more reliant on shopper volumes’, adding that a ‘mixture of actual staff and self-checkout – with greater self-checkout in urban environments – will still be key’.
Mr De Mello explained: ‘Booths scrapping self-checkout is a bold move given the increased volume of staff needed to offset the loss of self-checkout terminals.
‘Retailers have had to bear significantly higher payroll costs following the government’s changes to the minimum wage and national insurance, which came into effect at the start of this month, and many are actually increasing their investment into automation, AI and self-checkout as a result – not reducing it.’
By JONATHAN DE MELLO
Booths scrapping self-checkout is a bold move given the increased volume of staff needed to offset the loss of self-checkout terminals.
Retailers have had to bear significantly higher payroll costs following the government’s changes to the minimum wage and national insurance, which came into effect at the start of this month, and many are actually increasing their investment into automation, AI and self-checkout as a result – not reducing it.’
Self-checkout remains a highly convenient way to manage queues, and is essential in urban environments where there are high volumes of shoppers buying only a handful of products on their store visits.
It is less necessary in more rural environments and small towns – where Booths stores are mainly concentrated – as these stores tend to be visited for a major day out weekly grocery shopping trip.
As an aspirational retailer similar in positioning to Waitrose, Booths is less reliant on high volumes of shoppers, and customer service – versus the faceless nature of self-checkout – is more important in such environments.
Whilst scrapping self-checkout entirely will work better for Booths than for most, it would not work for the bigger national grocers, as they have a mix of large stores and convenience stores, and are more reliant on shopper volumes.
For these retailers, a mix of actual staff and self-checkout – with greater self-checkout in urban environments – will still be key.
With shoplifting on the rise, this move by Booths will help reduce the amount of shrinkage they have to bear, as there is greater potential for theft with self-checkout.
Mitigating this requires staff members policing tills more effectively, and potential security staff – which defeats the object of self-checkout reducing staff costs somewhat.
However, on balance, self-checkout is still more beneficial to retailers than not – and particularly beneficial to grocery operators that are heavily weighted towards smaller convenience oriented stores.
Jonathan De Mello is the founder and chief executive of JDM Retail
‘Self-checkout remains a highly convenient way to manage queues, and is essential in urban environments where there are high volumes of shoppers buying only a handful of products on their store visits.
‘It is less necessary in more rural environments and small towns – where Booths stores are mainly concentrated – as these stores tend to be visited for a major day out weekly grocery shopping trip.
‘As an aspirational retailer similar in positioning to Waitrose, Booths is less reliant on high volumes of shoppers, and customer service – versus the faceless nature of self-checkout – is more important in such environments.’
The history of self-checkouts can be traced by to the automated teller machine which was invented in London nearly 60 years ago in 1967.
The self-service till was then invented by David R Humble in Florida in 1984, before they became popular in the 1990s.
The number of self-scan tills in the UK has soared over the following decades to now stand at about 80,000.
Now, the decision by Booths to return to fully-staffed checkouts comes at a time when many rival supermarkets have been bringing more self-service tills into their stores.
But Mr De Mello pointed out that Booths is a different type of business to many of its rivals in terms of the types of stores and the areas in which it is located – so scrapping self-checkouts therefore would not be a good move for all supermarkets.
He said: ‘Whilst scrapping self-checkout entirely will work better for Booths than for most, it would not work for the bigger national grocers, as they have a mix of large stores and convenience stores, and are more reliant on shopper volumes.
‘For these retailers, a mix of actual staff and self-checkout – with greater self-checkout in urban environments – will still be key.’
It comes as figures this week showed the number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales in a year had passed half a million for the first time.
A total of 516,971 offences were logged by forces in 2024, up 20 per cent from 429,873 in 2023.
The figure is the highest since current police recording practices began in the year to March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
And Mr De Mello said: ‘With shoplifting on the rise, this move by Booths will help reduce the amount of shrinkage they have to bear, as there is greater potential for theft with self-checkout.
‘Mitigating this requires staff members policing tills more effectively, and potential security staff – which defeats the object of self-checkout reducing staff costs somewhat.
‘However, on balance, self-checkout is still more beneficial to retailers than not – and particularly beneficial to grocery operators that are heavily weighted towards smaller convenience oriented stores.’
The move by Booths has been welcomed by Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams who told that some older supermarket customers ‘really dislike’ using self-service checkouts, and can find it difficult paying for or scanning their own shopping.
She added: ‘Many older people also enjoy having a chat with the member of staff at the till and so it is a positive step if some supermarkets are going to have fully staffed checkouts once again.
‘As technology develops it’s understandable that organisations are looking at how they can automate functions but it’s important they remember that some of us, particularly if we are older, can find these new approaches difficult to navigate.
‘If businesses want to meet the needs of all their customers, they must find the right balance so that a non-automated, human option is also always available.’
‘s coverage of Mr Murray’s interview to The Grocer also prompted a huge reaction this week, with our article on Monday attracting more than 1,700 comments.
Best-rated comments included ‘I only use staff tills’; ‘good, keep people in jobs’; ‘top idea! Let’s bring people back not machines’ and ‘at the end of the day I would rather have a person, more service and interaction. Well done.’
A further top comment said: ‘Well done Booths – I’ve only been to a few of your branches and they are near the Lake District when we holidayed there. Lovely, clean, well-run supermarkets. Just as good as Waitrose and cheaper.’
Another said: ‘Anyone singing the virtue of self service checkouts should be given a spatula and shown the kitchen when they want a McDonald’s burger. Me? If I pay for goods or services I expect to be treated as a customer not an unpaid staff member.’
Other comments urged rival supermarkets to follow suit, with one saying: ‘Self checkouts are c**p, especially the ones in Sainsburys, every second item scanned requires an assistant. It takes you twice as long to check out.’
A further reader wrote: ‘Always have to wait ages for staff in Sainsburys as they are nowhere to be seen. Often, I see three or four other customers with flashing red lights above their checkout standing there like lemmings.’
LANCASHIRE
CUMBRIA
YORKSHIRE
CHESHIRE
Two Booths stores that continue to have self-checkouts, both in Cumbria:
And another said: ‘I wish many of the others would follow suit. I actually enjoy speaking to staff rather than being one and putting through my own goods.’
It comes after Mr Murray revealed that the change by Lancashire-based Booths has brought a reduction in theft and a faster checkout experience.
And he told The Grocer of their customer satisfaction rating: ‘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.
‘But when you look at things like service, into the ‘promise of things to come’ section, we’ve scored brilliantly.’
He added: ‘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.
‘Over the last year, where we’ve put more self checkouts in, we’re always making sure that the traditional kind of belted checkout is there.’
Booths was founded in 1847 by Edwin Henry Booth and has remained a family owned and run business ever since. It now employs around 3,000 people.
As for its competitors, Tesco last month continued to rollout further self-checkout measures with their new Scan As You Shop (SAYS) measure.
While some were delighted with the advanced new system, many likened it to airport security, and some thought the move was a step ‘too far’ from traditional, staffed tills and described it as ‘dystopian’.
Shoppers using SAYS pick up a scanning device when they enter the store, and then they scan each item as they put it in their trolley or basket.
When they have finished, they can pay for all their items without having to scan them through the staffed or self-serve checkouts.
Upon paying, SAYS customers may be randomly selected for a ‘service check’ where a staff member makes sure each item has been processed correctly.
The new checkouts are said to weigh the trolleys of those using SAYS to ensure the weight is the same as the items scanned.
Meanwhile, last year Sainsbury’s claimed its shoppers love their self checkout machines and value the ‘speedy checkout’.
Boss Simon Roberts said that Sainsbury’s had invested in more self checkouts in recent years but was committed to having non-automated belt checkouts as well.
Discussing the importance of self checkouts in April last year, Mr Roberts said: ‘If you visit one of our supermarkets, what you’ll see is definitely more self checkouts than a number of years ago, because actually a lot of customers like the speedy checkout.
‘Over the last year, where we’ve put more self checkouts in, we’re always making sure that the traditional kind of belted checkout is there.’
Other supermarket chains in the UK, including Amazon Fresh use ‘Just Walk Out’ technology which uses cameras, sensors and AI to track what customers have picked up and bought.
It allows customers to walk out with their items without using a self-checkout or a fully-staffed till.