Self-checkouts are becoming near ubiquitous in supermarkets across the UK and beyond but are they the solution the retail world thinks they are. What are the benefits and drawbacks for both the businesses utilising them and the customers scanning their shopping?

The first self checkout machines came into existence in 1986 and within a couple of decades were commonplace in most supermarkets with other businesses taking them up more recently (such as Poundland, Primark and late adopter Aldi).

They were hailed as benefitting consumers due to the increased convenience, shorter queues and for limiting contact with others (crucial in the pandemic).

However, customer opinion is split on self checkouts with a survey from the Retail Gazette showing customers slightly preferred the self checkout with 52% voting in favour.

Although, this sample is unlikely to reflect the elderly population who are most affected by the move to self checkouts with many choosing their supermarkets by whether they can make purchases via a human rather than a technical device.

Many are upset by the rise of self-checkout with serious backlash emerging from Tesco’s recent decision to remove more manned tills in favour of self checkouts in their stores citing a customer need to continue distancing themselves from others.

In reality, bosses at Tesco and other supermarkets are more likely focused on the benefits moving to self service will bring to their businesses.

The obvious benefit is that using self service reduces the amount of staff needed. Typically, a bank of self checkouts only needs one employee compared to one person per manned till. This significantly reduces costs in a market where wages are increasing as fewer staff are needed per store making supermarkets more profitable.

Self checkouts also increase efficiency to an exams as supermarkets can serve more customers in the same space, in the same time frame further reducing staff costs and potentially increasing sales as customers are less likely to abandon their shopping in the face of a long queue and are more likely to come more often due to convenience.

However, operating self checkouts does bring some drawbacks for businesses. For smaller (perhaps independent) shops, the capital outlay purchasing the self checkouts themselves can be too great and may take time to generate a profit hence why you only see self service in larger stores.

In addition, self checkouts (if not policed properly or with adequate systems) could bring about an increase in shoplifting which eats into the profits of the supermarkets.

Furthermore, solely using self checkouts could deter some customers (especially the elderly population) and cause them to switch to a competitor meaning supermarkets could lose as many sales as they gain negating the benefits with a 2017 survey of elderly shoppers saying that self-checkouts puts a quarter of them off shopping altogether.

Despite the drawbacks, the retail world is moving towards an increased uptake of self checkouts with some urban stores solely using self service tills or just doing away with checkouts altogether (see Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out). I can see a future where stores only have a single manned till but I think we are a long way off that yet.

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