Asda to put more staff on checkouts as self-service reaches limit

Asda is going to put more staff on checkouts after admitting it has reached a limit with self-service tills.

The supermarket said while self-checkouts work well for customers, it wants to invest additional hours into having manned checkouts.

“We know that our customers like to have the choice of how they complete their shop which is why we have self-checkouts, manned checkouts and scan and go at most of our larger stores.

“Customers can be assured that colleagues will always be on hand to help however they choose to complete their shop,” an Asda spokesperson said.

Michael Gleeson, Asda’s chief financial officer, admitted that a threshold had been reached in terms of how many self-checkouts the brand feels works well.

“I think we have reached a level of self-checkouts and scan and go where we feel that works best for our customers, and we feel we’ve got the balance just about right.

“We have invested additional hours in manned checkouts and that’s been within the existing physical infrastructure [of the stores],” Mr Gleeson said.

He added that the move is not about more checkouts but said “it’s more colleagues on checkouts”.