Asda, advocating a balanced approach to customer service, is enhancing the presence of staff at checkouts. This decision comes in response to the limitations of self-service options.
- Investment in more human-operated tills without increasing their number.
- Customer feedback highlights difficulties with self-service tills.
- A trend among retailers towards prioritising personal customer service.
- Unrelated to recent shoplifting concerns in the UK.
While acknowledging the convenience self-checkouts offer to many customers, Asda is committing additional hours to manned checkouts. Asda’s chief financial officer, Michael Gleeson, articulated that the retailer has found an optimal balance between self-service and traditional checkout options. “I think we have reached a level of self-checkouts and Scan and Go where we feel that works best for our customers, and we feel we’ve got the balance just about right,” Gleeson stated.
Importantly, this initiative is not about increasing the number of checkouts but enhancing the availability of staff to support existing manned tills. This move is indicative of a broader industry trend, noted specifically by the northern supermarket chain Booths, which has significantly reduced its self-service tills. A representative from Booths emphasised, “colleagues serving customers delivers a better customer experience.”
Highlighting customer feedback, Asda notes that individuals with disabilities often encounter challenges with self-service options. Pennie Orger, who is registered blind, shared her difficulties, saying, “I am severely sight impaired – registered blind – so, self-service tills are a non-starter. My guide dog is clever, but not that clever.” Deaf shoppers also face obstacles with tills that rely on verbal instructions.
Asda is quick to clarify that this strategy is not a reaction to rising shoplifting incidents, despite a significant increase in theft across England and Wales. Last year saw 430,000 shoplifting incidents, the highest number in two decades.
The deployment of self-service checkouts can be traced back to the introduction of ATMs in 1967, with the first self-service tills appearing in the 1980s. Over the subsequent decades, their popularity soared, with 325,000 units installed globally by 2021, including approximately 80,000 in UK supermarkets.
As Asda implements this change, customers can anticipate enhanced support and a more personalised shopping experience.
