Tesco opens first self checkout store in UK
The supermarket giant has opened the first shop using only self-service tills in the UK. The Kingsley Park Terrace Tesco Store in Northampton has one member of staff monitoring the checkout but no manned tills.
Tesco has described the service to the Daily Mail as a way to streamline efficiency and make shopping trips quicker for customers.
This innovation has received mixed reaction from both customers and critics over potential job losses and meeting the needs of elderly customers.
A Tesco spokesperson reported:
Customers like the fact that there are five checkouts available. Before, you could have four manned checkouts but only one person working the till. We have had no negative feedback so far.
ASDA however plans not to follow:
Hell would probably freeze over before we had a store with no customer interaction on the checkouts.
You get to have a bit of a chat with some human interaction and that’s very important for a lot of people.
British Retail Consortium’s Richard Dodd thinks this could be start of technological trend that will benefit both shoppers and stores:
We could well see the end of staffed checkouts for ever…
…Customers are interested in how quickly they can pay for their goods and get out and retailers are constantly focused on improving that.
Tesco also made clear it has no plans to implement self checkout only in any of their large supermarkets, the Northampton Tesco Express store is a trial.
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