Sainsbury’s introduces new self-service checkout rule at store as customers threaten to boycott

SAINSBURY’S has provoked customer backlash after making a major change at one of its stores.

One of the UK’s biggest retailers has added more self-service checkouts at its branch in Chippenham, Wiltshire.

A spokesperson for the supermarket chain said it had made the change to meet “customer demand”.

But some customers on Facebook have been left fuming, saying the move has made the manned tills backlogged.

Some have gone as far to say they won’t shop at the branch again.

One said: “It’s awful. I went there the other day for a big shop, the queues were down the aisles for the manned tills so we were forced to use the new trolley self scanner.”

Another added: “I went yesterday there is no room at the self scanners especially if everyone has trolleys, think they will lose a lot of customers.”

A third chimed in: “I get why they’re doing it – I was told people walked out with £4K of shopping a few weeks ago but it’s now a very annoying and poor experience going there

“I will not use the self-checkouts – I prefer dealing with people not machines.”

Meanwhile, a fourth commented: “I won’t use the self checkout, I expect human service when (I am) spending my hard earned money in their stores and if they won’t serve me I am happy to leave my trolley and go somewhere else.”

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We regularly review the services available in our stores to make sure we offer the most convenient experience for our customers.  

“We have slightly increased the number of self-service checkouts at our Chippenham store so that we can meet customer demand for this service.

“Our colleagues are on hand to help anyone who may need support using them and we continue to offer serviced checkouts for our customers who wish to use them.”

Sainsbury’s is not the first supermarket to have made a change to self-checkout rules in recent months to customer frustration.

Asda introduced “self-checkout only hours” at one of its branches earlier this year, restricting customers to automated tills only at certain times of the day.

Signs in the Bournemouth store showed customers that from 7am to 8am Monday to Saturday, customers can use just self-scan checkouts.

From 8pm to 11pm on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and from 7pm to 11pm on Wednesday, all manned tills are closed.

Asda told The Sun the move was a “temporary decision” made during quieter shopping hours and not a company-wide policy.

However, the supermarket chain, also said earlier this year that it will put more staff on tills in a bid to get more shoppers back in stores.

Over the past decade, supermarket bosses have invested in self-scanning tills, convinced customers prefer the speedier style of shopping.

But the move to automated tills has seen some shoppers left feeling left behind and dissatisfied.

Some supermarkets, like Asda, have rowed back on plans to increase the number of self-scan checkouts in stores though.

In August, Rami Baitiéh, the chief executive of Morrisons, announced the supermarket would scale back the number of self-checkouts in stores.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Baitiéh said the company was “reviewing the balance between self-checkouts and manned tills”.

High-end supermarket chain Booths, based in the North of England, abandoned the technology after discovering customers had a more enjoyable experience when interacting with a cashier.

This move aligns with data previously published by The Grocer which reveals service satisfaction has declined by as much as 8% due to the use of self-checkout machines.

If you want to avoid self-checkouts in your local supermarket or retailer branch, you could try scan-as-you-go tech.

They let you scan as you browse, either using their smartphone or a handheld device then checkout in a different area from other shoppers.

You often can bag your groceries as you wander around too, saving even more time.