Morrisons 'went too far' with self-checkouts

Supermarket Morrisons “went a bit too far” with self-checkouts, its chief executive Rami Baitiéh has admitted, suggesting that rise of self-checkouts had also driven more shoplifting in the supermarket outlets.

Baitiéh said that it is “reviewing the balance between self-checkouts and manned tills” and removing some from stores after installing too many.

“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," he said, adding that the rise of self-checkouts had also driven more shoplifting.

Baitiéh said, “We reviewed the whole estate and it appeared that 20 stores must balance the number of self-checkouts versus the number of tills.”

Baitiéh, who joined Morrisons in November last year, has kicked off a turnaround plan at the Bradford-headquartered supermarket in a bid to restore it to prominence, after it was overtaken by the German discounter Aldi in market share terms in 2022. Part of this has been a pledge to listen more closely to customers.

The supermarket is already in process of removing self-checkout tills from some of its stores. Like in Brough in Yorkshire, Morrisons had removed some of its self-checkouts and added four manned tills instead.

He said, “Colleagues and customers are very satisfied with the change."

Morrisons has also been pushing to open more convenience stores, with plans to run 2,000 across the UK by 2025.

This comes about a week after Asda’s chief financial officer, Michael Gleeson, told The Telegraph that the Leeds-based chain believed the technology had now reached its limit, announcing a £30m investment into putting more staff on tills.

Gleeson said, “We have invested additional hours in manned checkouts and that’s been within the existing physical infrastructure [of the stores]. It’s not more checkouts, it’s more colleagues on checkouts.”

Northern grocer Booths ditched almost all of its self-checkouts last year, arguing that they cannot provide the right level of customer service while Marks & Spencer last year blamed self-checkouts for a rise in “middle-class shoplifting”, amid a broader rise in retail crime.