Booths, with stores in St. Anne’s and Lytham,  is stripping out self-service checkouts as it seeks to enhance its reputation for customer service and premium store experience.

The supermarket says it is in the process of removing the technology from all but two of its 27 supermarkets. However, to ensure speed of checkout, Booths is planning to increase the number of manned checkouts and pay points as part of its ongoing store renovation programme.

Booths MD Nigel Murray explained that the supermarket first began introducing self-checkouts into its stores six years ago as a way of helping to manage its wage bill and increase efficiency. He told The Grocer magazine that the self-service checkout technology could be problematic and it detracted from the enjoyment of shopping at Booths. Customers having to wait for a store colleague to visually ID them when buying alcohol, or issues with checkouts registering the correct items or weights were some of the downsides to the technology he gave. Booths MD Murray added, ‘We’re not great fans of self-checkouts. We pride ourselves on great customer service and you can’t do that through a robot.’