Like them or hate them, the self-service tills revolution shows no signs of going away. Since they were first introduced by Tesco in 2003, they have divided opinion, with some shoppers liking the idea of scanning and getting on their way while others bemoaning the loss of personal touch.
But now some shoppers are revolting against the automated tills, with over 218,000 frustrated customers signing a petition calling for the supermarket to stop adding the self-service checkouts to their stores. The petition, on change.org, was started by London customer Pat McCarthy earlier this year, when she became frustrated after, she claims, two thirds of the tills at her local store were turned over to self-service, and she is calling on Tesco to redress the balance.
Mrs McCarthy's petition argues that the tills – which are often card-only – are not accessible for many shoppers on a budget and also states that that older people and those with disabilities are less likely to be able to use self-checkouts and the lack of staffed tills was leading to long queues for those who couldn’t use the self-service tills. She has asked people to support the campaign on social media and message Tesco directly, using the hashtag #TescoVeryLittleHelps.
