Residents in one Somerset town have declared war on self-service checkouts, and are organising a campaign to discourage shoppers from using the technology while they shop.
The Bridgwater Senior Citizens Forum, which represents the interests of older residents in the market town of Bridgwater, are concerned that the rollout of the technology has come at a cost to retail jobs, and is also “alienating” many shoppers in the town and beyond.
“We want shopping to be a social experience,” Glen Burrows, co-chair of the forum, told The Grocer. Following a meeting on Thursday, the group is now planning a leaflet campaign targeting supermarkets in the town, in order to highlight the “disadvantages of using self-service checkouts” to shoppers before they enter the store. The group may also launch an online petition calling for supermarkets to put more manned tills back in stores.
“We’re going to be gentle because we love our local shops, we just want people to be aware, which I don’t think they are at the moment,” Burrows said, adding the campaign would use persuasion rather than direct action.
Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Food Warehouse and M&S, along with discounters Aldi and Lidl, all have stores in the town.
The campaign offers a snapshot into the divisive nature of self-service checkouts, as supermarkets have accelerated their rollout of the technology. Although every supermarket still offers manned tills, and have committed to continue to do so, the vast majority have been replaced with self-service systems in most stores. Although some, like Morrisons, Asda and Booths have admitted that the rollout has gone too far.
The Grocer’s own recent research has found that a majority (53%) of shoppers say they prefer self-checkouts. However nearly a third of those polled said they would rather use a manned till if the option was available. Being impersonal, technical issues and a slower service were among the issues highlighted by shoppers when using self-service tills.
Older shoppers not ‘anti-tech’
Far from being “anti-tech” Burrows, a former rail worker, said the group wanted to fight back against what she claimed could be “patronising attitudes” towards older shoppers in stores.
“There’s this assumption that because you’re an elderly person you are somehow incapable of using self-checkouts,” she said. “Some of us like technology, some of us don’t.”
The group is not calling for a total boycott or ban of self-service checkouts, which Burrows acknowledged had some advantages, but wants supermarkets to “alter the balance” and offer more choice to all shoppers.
“We want them to acknowledge that for many people shopping is an experience where they want interaction,” Burrows said. “Shopping should be part of the community getting together. Imagine if they did it in pubs, that would change the whole ethos.”
She also highlighted BRC data from December that the number of people employed in retail had fallen by 225,000 over the past five years as evidence of the tech’s negative impact on jobs in communities across the UK.
Burrows, 75, described Bridgwater as a “rebel town”, highlighting its history of political activism.
The Monmouth Rebellion against King Charles II was crushed nearby, at the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1685. Bridgwater also hosts an annual Guy Fawkes Carnival to commemorate the gunpowder plot. More recently, in 2009, residents occupied a local swimming pool in order to stop the opening of a Tesco supermarket on the site. They eventually succeeded.
Burrows insisted that Bridgwater was not anti-supermarket.
“We’re not interested in attacking stores, but in changing people’s attitudes so they think more about why it’s important to keep people’s jobs in stores and to have that human interaction.”
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