Booths to scrap self-service tills in Knutsford store

The supermarket has 27 stores in the north west and 25 of those will see staff return to checkouts.

Booths stores in Keswick and Windermere are the two not making the change.

The Knutsford store will see the change roll out as the supermarket responds to feedback from customers, the BBC reports.

Cheshire and Lancashire Booths stores to see major change to checkouts

"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," the company said.

Booths has 15 stores in Lancashire (Image: Google Maps)

When speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, Booths managing director Nigel Murray, said: "Our customers have told us this over time, that the self-scan machines that we've got in our stores they can be slow, they can be unreliable, they're obviously impersonal.

"We stock quite a lot of loose items - fruit and veg and bakery - and as soon as you go to a self-scan with those you've got to get a visual verification on them, and some customers don't know one different apple versus another for example."

He added: "There's all sorts of fussing about with that and then the minute you put any alcohol in your basket somebody's got to come and check that you're of the right age."

Mr Murray went on to say: "We are a business that prides ourselves on the high standards and high levels of warm, personal care.

"We like to talk to people and we're really proud that we're moving largely to a place where our customers are served by people, by human beings, so rather than artificial intelligence, we're going for actual intelligence."

The company said since 1847 its philosophy has been to "sell the best goods available, in attractive stores, staffed with first class assistants".

The firm which, according to the BBC, has been described as a northern Waitrose, added: "Delighting customers with our warm northern welcome is part of our DNA and we continue to invest in our people to ensure we remain true to that ethos."

When were self-checkouts invented?

In 1967, the automated teller machine was created and a few decades later, David R Humble invented the self-service till after standing in a long queue at a grocery shop in south Florida in 1984, the BBC reports.

In the 1990s, this type of till became popular and by 2013, more than 200,000 were located in stores across the world.

By 2021, their numbers reached 325,000.