A supermarket has become the first in the UK to go back to fully-staffed checkouts, axing almost all its self-service tills. All but two of Booths’ 28 stores will see staff back on the tills the firm, which trades in northern England, said. The exceptions are two of its seven shops in Cumbria.
The firm, which has 16 stores in Lancashire as well as outlets in Yorkshire and Cheshire, said it was responding to customer feedback.
“We believe colleagues serving customers delivers a better customer experience and therefore we have taken the decision to remove self-checkouts in the majority of our stores,” a spokesman said. “We have based this not only on what we feel is the right thing to do but also having received feedback from our customers. We will retain self-checkouts in two of our stores in the Lake District in order to meet the needs of our customers during very busy periods.”
In 1863, he added the sale of wines and spirits, and branches were opened in Lytham in 1879 and Blackburn in 1884. The business was incorporated as a private limited company in 1896.
Edwin’s son, John, opened cafes in the stores in 1902 and invited all staff to become shareholders in 1920. It has remained owned by the Booth family and staff ever since, comprising over 250 shareholders in 2011 and with no individual having more than 12% of the total shares. The current chairman, Edwin J. Booth, is the fifth generation.
I always use the manned tills because Booths staff are always friendly and helpful so I hope that my persistence made a contribution to this excellent decision …
I like self service tills. I find it really annoying when the shopping is scanned too quickly by a till operative who is under pressure to reduce the queue. You have to dive for the shopping sometimes to get it into the bag as fast as they are firing it at you.
IME, Booths till operators don’t do that. Queues are usually short and if they build up then a new till checkout is opened … or, if you have just a few items, you are directed to the “cigarettes & miscellaneous” counter.
In other supermarkets, if the till operator starts “firing” then I start “fumbling” …
Don’t they bag the goods for you? They do here (except Aldi)
I like the self service checkouts too, there is never a queue and avocados are much better value when checked as potatoes. I leave the checkout chicks to the infirm and elderly
I always use the self-service tills, I prefer using them to having to queue to use manned tills. I find that I can whizz around the store to get my groceries and then get out quickly by using the self-service tills. I really dislike shopping so this suits me.
Only in some shops I think they help the elderly if they ask for assistance. But in general definitely not. Most people have their own bags here too so they might not want shop assistants handling their bags. Well I don’t like it myself if strangers touch my personal things. Some bedbug eggs might rub off and then mites will crawl out of my handbag at home weeks later.
Not a single store would bag things for you over here. Walmart tried to introduce it once and thoroughly failed.
Self-service tills are still rather an exception and only offered by larger supermarkets. I normally use them because there are usually long queues caused by people doing their family shopping.
