Booths supermarket puts staff back behind its tills

Image source, Alamy

Booths, which was founded in Blackpool in 1847, says the move is the right thing to do

A supermarket chain has become the first in the UK to go back to fully-staffed checkouts, axing almost all its self-service tills.

All but two of Booths' 28 stores will see staff back on the tills, the firm, which trades in northern England, said.

The exceptions are two of its seven shops in Cumbria.

The firm, which has 16 stores in Lancashire as well as outlets in Yorkshire and Cheshire, said it was responding to customer feedback.

"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," a spokesman said.

"We have based this not only on what we feel is the right thing to do but also having received feedback from our customers.

"We will retain self-checkouts in two of our stores in the Lake District in order to meet the needs of our customers during very busy periods."

The company, which has been described as a northern Waitrose, said its philosophy since 1847 is to "sell the best goods available, in attractive stores, staffed with first class assistants".

"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," the firm added.

Image source, Getty Images

The self-service till began to become popular in the 1990s

The origin of the self-service checkout began with the invention of the automated teller machine in in 1967.

A few decades later, the self-service till was invented by David R Humble, inspired by standing in a long grocery checkout line in south Florida in 1984.

The tills became popular in the 1990s and by 2013, there were over 200,000 in stores throughout the world and their numbers hit 325,000 by 2021.