It’s the debate that continues to rage even 20 years on. Supermarket self-serve checkouts, are they friend or foe?
They have been an increasingly common sight in supermarkets since they first appeared in Woolworths and Coles stores in the noughties. Most Aussies now probably can’t remember a time when they weren’t bagging their own groceries.
They’ve remained a controversial subject ever since, with shoppers either praising or loathing the technology, which is ever-evolving.
People have even applauded select stores for bucking the trend.
Despite the pushback from some, a spokesperson for Coles told Yahoo News Australia earlier this week that its self-serve checkouts are a popular choice for “more than 75 per cent of customers” due to their “convenience and efficiency”.
And that figure is only continuing to increase, they said, noting the vast majority of Coles stores now have a mix of manned and self-service checkouts.
“Over the past three years, we have seen greater customer satisfaction and uptake in our self-service options — including our larger self-service checkouts with a conveyor belt,” the spokesperson added.
“Of course, if customers prefer to be served by a team member, someone will always be available in the service area to serve them.”
Last year, Coles shoppers praised the supermarket’s conveyor belt self-service checkout (right). Source: Getty/Facebook/OhSoBusyMum
Shoppers say they’re being forced to use self-serve checkouts
However, not everyone agrees.
In response to the claim, shoppers who reached out to Yahoo said that they feel forced to use self-serve checkouts because there is often only one manned alternative.
“I personally do not like them, but when you walk into a supermarket and there are no manned checkouts, what choice do you have?” a man named Darren asked, arguing that it’s also costing people jobs.
“Even yesterday I went into a Woolworths supermarket. Not one register was open, just self-serve, yet there were three staff standing in self-serve doing nothing. Some customers were actually quite irate at having to put a trolley load through by themselves.”
Ian, from Queensland, agreed.
“I believe that the consumers are definitely being forced to use self-service,” he told Yahoo.
And on top of that, he said, if something “goes wrong the unsuspecting customer is often treated as either being very ignorant or trying to rip off the business”.
Critics have long argued that self-serve checkouts cost workers their jobs, increase instances of theft or make shoppers feel like criminals themselves.
While others have praised them for being faster and more convenient, especially for small purchases.
A Yahoo Australia poll of more than 14,000 people found that 66 per cent prefer staffed checkouts so they can speak to someone.
Self-serve checkout trend shows no signs of slowing down
In spite of the ongoing debate, the trend shows no signs of slowing down, with Woolworths revealing to Yahoo that self-serve checkouts have been rolled out to 98 per cent of their supermarkets.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Aldi Australia told Yahoo News that the chain “has self-serve checkouts in over 400 stores of more than 600 stores across Australia”.
However, at this stage, it does not have plans to roll out the technology to additional supermarkets, other than new store openings.
Late last year Aldi Australia confirmed it had no plans to remove self-serve checkouts across its network, after it emerged that several of its international stores would no longer be offering the service.
There’s no coming back from the rampant checkout trend, Nitika Garg, consumer behaviour expert and professor of marketing from UNSW, previously told Yahoo Finance.
In fact, shoppers will likely see far fewer humans in retail in general in the future, she warned.
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