Campaigners are waging a war against self-checkout tills in supermarkets (Image: Getty)
were first introduced in the UK in the early 2000s, with major supermarket chains such as , Sainsbury’s, and Asda rolling them out to improve efficiency and reduce queues.
The technology allows customers to scan, bag, and pay for their items without the assistance of a cashier, relying on barcode scanning and weight sensors to verify purchases.
They were, in short, touted as a way to speed up shopping in an increasingly fast world.
Over the years, self-checkouts have become a common fixture in supermarkets, convenience stores, and even some fast-food outlets.
Some Britons, however, are getting fed up. They have rolled up their sleeves and decided to take the fight directly to the machines, one long queue at a time.
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The self-checkout: a beacon of convenience for some, a fixture of an anti-social world for others (Image: Getty)
None is this more evident at the Marks & Spencer store in Bridgwater. “If there’s someone on the till, I would rather wait four or five minutes to have a conversation,” Antony James, a 59-year-old local resident, told .
His preference reflects a broader sentiment in Bridgwater, where the town’s Senior Citizens’ Forum has launched a campaign against the increasing reliance on automated checkouts.
“The face-to-face checkout tills might be the only conversation some people have all day,” Glen Burrows, a member of the forum leading the boycott, said.
Burrows, 75, said she now gets applause from checkout workers when she chooses a staffed till. However, her primary motivation for launching the campaign in January was to highlight the importance of job security. “I went into Asda and found there was nobody on the tills,” she explained.
The group, comprising around 20 pensioners aged 70 to 90, plans to distribute leaflets and raise awareness through word of mouth. Campaigners argue that automated checkouts are leading to job losses in Bridgwater, a working-class town with a strong industrial history. Once home to British Cellophane, the area saw the loss of 200 jobs when the company shut down in 2005.
The town hosts multiple major supermarket chains, including , Sainsbury’s, and Marks & Spencer, where self-checkout technology is becoming increasingly prevalent. For many residents, the shift away from staffed tills is about more than just convenience—it’s about community.
Ken Jones, 81, a retired shop owner and the campaign’s co-chair, finds human interaction at the checkout particularly valuable after losing his wife three years ago.
“Isolation is a disease,” he told The Telegraph. “Meeting someone behind the till makes you feel as if you met a fellow human being. It’s not AI. You’re talking to someone, smiling. Just saying ‘hello, good morning’ to somebody makes you feel better – and surely that’s got no price.”
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Campaigners say self-checkouts have taken away the human element of shopping (Image: Getty)
His concerns are shared by Dave Chapple, a 73-year-old former postman who has lived in Bridgwater for 38 years.
“Self-checkouts are perhaps increasingly popular, but that’s largely because staff checkouts are less and less available,” he told The Telegraph. “In a lot of the supermarkets there are six, seven or eight potential staff checkouts and sometimes there’s only one or two people at them.”
Campaigners argue that reducing manned checkouts directly affects employment. Concerns over are well-founded. In 2024, nearly 170,000 retail jobs were lost across the UK—a 42% increase from 2023 and the highest annual figure since the -19 lockdowns.
Bridgwater, with a population of around 42,000, faces high unemployment rates. Census data shows nearly 40% of its residents are unemployed, while youth unemployment in the South West stands at 14.6%, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Notably, it’s not just older generations pushing back against automation—teenagers in the town are also joining the movement.
Eighteen-year-old Ajay Barrow has seen firsthand how self-checkouts impact employment. “Quite a lot of my mates have lost their jobs as a result of self-checkouts,” he said. “One of my mates who is also 18 was [working at a supermarket] for quite a while, but they’ve kept the adults and kicked out the younger ones due to the self-checkouts. She hasn’t found another job.”
Meanwhile, Becky Mathews, 43, a personal trainer at a gym near Asda, believes that self-checkouts deprive young people of valuable work experience.
While some argue that self-checkouts improve efficiency, others believe they fall short of delivering good customer service.
“The expansion of self-service checkouts is a response to changing consumer behaviours, which show many people prioritising speed and convenience,” said Kris Hamer, director of insight at the British Retail Consortium. “Many retailers provide manned and unmanned checkouts as they work to deliver great service for their customers.”
Some supermarkets are already responding to the backlash. In August, Asda announced plans to increase the number of staffed checkouts. “I think we have reached a where we feel that works best for our customers, and we feel we’ve got the balance just about right,” said Michael Gleeson, the supermarket’s chief financial officer.
Other retailers have made similar admissions. That same month, Rami Baitieh, chief executive of Morrisons, acknowledged that the company had “gone a bit too far” with self-checkouts. Northern grocer Booths has taken an even bolder step, scrapping them altogether in favour of staffed tills.
The resistance to automation isn’t limited to the UK. In the US, proposed legislation would require supermarkets to keep at least one staffed checkout lane open at all times. Retail giants such as Walmart, Target, and Costco have already begun restricting or eliminating self-checkouts.