Morrisons brings humans back on to its checkouts
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Version 0 of 1. Morrisons is set to install 1,000 manned checkouts after thousands of customers complained about self-service machines, in what could be the beginning of the end of shoppers hearing “unexpected item in bagging area”. David Potts, the supermarket’s new boss, revealed 96 per cent of his customers prefer staffed checkouts, while two-thirds of shoppers are worried they will hold up queues in store as they wait for staff to override machines spouting warnings or being unable to scan a product. “We’re listening hard to our customers and responding quickly wherever possible,” Mr Potts said. “If customers from time to time do smaller shops, they want to get in and out of our stores quickly.” The chain will open 1,000 10-items-or-fewer lanes. “Not everyone wants to be herded towards the self-scanning checkouts and not everyone has a full trolley.” It comes just a month after Morrisons ditched its computerised queue-management system, which would tell staff when to open extra checkout lanes. Instead staff will decide when to open and close checkouts as they see fit. Morrisons found only one in three of their customers use self-service checkouts, with just one in four saying they would like to use them. |