Morrisons boss Rami Baitiéh admitted the supermarket “went a bit too far” with self-checkouts as it looks to pull back on the technology.
The chief executive told The Telegraph that the business is “reviewing the balance between self-checkouts and manned tills” and is looking to remove some from its stores after installing too many.
He said: “Morrisons went a bit too far with the self-checkout. This had the advantage of driving some productivity. However, some shoppers dislike it, mainly when they have a full trolley.”
Baitiéh claimed the rise of self-checkouts had also driven more shoplifting at its supermarkets.
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His comments come after Morrisons conducted an analysis of self-checkouts across its store estate and found around 20 stores needed to pull back on the number of terminals.
Baitiéh said the retailer’s supermarket in Brough in Yorkshire had recently removed some of its self-checkouts and added four manned tills instead, which saw “colleagues and customers very satisfied with the change”.
Morrisons is not the only supermarket to review and pull back on the self-checkout technology.
Asda chief financial officer Michael Gleeson told the publication that the grocery chain had reached its limit with the technology as it announced a £30m investment into putting more staff on tills.
He said: “We have invested additional hours in manned checkouts and that’s been within the existing physical infrastructure [of the stores]. It’s not more checkouts, it’s more colleagues on checkouts.”
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