I wandered through a major supermarket on the weekend with a couple of last minute staples and eight guests due to arrive at my house in a matter of minutes. I needed to get in, and get out, without any extra stress while the mental checklist was in overdrive. The last thing I could handle was a robot telling me I’d removed an item from the bagging area while a pixelated, frazzled reflection of myself reached boiling point.

In the whole supermarket however, there were only two (2) actual human cashiers, countered by about 20 self-service counters. It was a bridge too far for this hostess with the mostess and I planted myself in line and waited patiently as my groceries glided down the conveyor belt to Andrea.

Andrea was lovely and greeted me with a genuine smile. We had a brief chat about our respective weekend plans and she deftly packed my purchases into my bags. I don’t live alone but I can well-imagine for those that do, it could have been a real highlight.

No blaring robotics, no flashing red lights, not one unexpected item in the bagging area and no waiting for the one attendant to come scan a little pass and reassure the machine that I’m not a grand larcenist.

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All things considered, this was a pretty good end to a shopping trip, something I put purely down to manageable cortisol levels by avoiding the self-checkout. The self-service was rolled out in Australia from 2008 as a means of cutting costs and allegedly, to increase efficiency. Less staff means lower overheads for supermarkets and, one would assume, bigger savings for shoppers. 

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, many shoppers felt more comfortable using a self-checkout in order to avoid close interactions with other people, and we even started bagging our own groceries when we did opt for cashiers. But now that we’ve returned to business as usual, is it time to nix the self-service? 

According to a study released in September 2023 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, unemployment rates in Australia are forecast to rise until at least 2028, and with the automation of supermarket jobs like this it seems an obvious fix is being missed. 

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Increased unease with surveillance, including overhead anti-theft cameras, combined with inflated prices and billion-dollar profits during an economic crisis has left many of us questioning what exactly we’re paying for. The inflated prices are being blamed on supply issues and fuel costs due to tensions in Europe and the Middle East – despite global data illustrating that the price of oil is the lowest it’s been in months. Make it make sense.

In the UK, upmarket supermarket chain Booths has made the decision to axe self-service checkouts from all but two of its 28 stores in response to customer feedback. Nigel Murray, managing director of Booths, told BBC Radio Lancashire that customers had told the firm that its self-scan machines can be slow and were unreliable and impersonal.

“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,” he said.

There’s no perfect solution to this problem but I have to believe that we would all be a bit happier without the constant shrinking of options and mustering into self-service checkouts. I wonder if perhaps an express self-checkout or even a more balanced ratio of cashiers to self-service booths is the answer. I also wonder how Andrea’s hen’s party went.

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