Outraged Sainsbury's customers threaten to 'boycott' supermarket over 'awful' change
A popular Sainsbury's has slashed the number of employee-operated checkouts with customers forced to use the self service checkouts causing "longer queues" and warnings of a "boycott".
A Sainsbury's located at its Bath Road store in Chippenham has increased the number of self-service checkouts in order to “meet customer demand”.
But this decision has caused much angst for their customers who complain of longer queues and an awful experience calling for more manned tills to come back.
“I get why they’re doing it…but it's now a very annoying and poor experience,” said customer Andy Bowman.
Bowman has been a Chippenham Sainsbury’s customer for over 33 years but is now “seriously thinking of going somewhere else.”
“I will not use the self-checkouts - I prefer dealing with people, not machines.”
His dismay has even led him to consider shopping somewhere else in the future, halting his allegiance with Sainsbury’s and turning to Tesco, Morrison or Asda instead, Birmingham Live reports.
Steven Pope echoed Bowman’s dismay of not having a person helping at the tills and said: “Just been to Sainsburys in Chippenham… half the tills have been removed to install self-scan tills, big queues at every place to pay.”
“It’s awful,” added customer Jo Linzinger.
“I went there the other day for a big shop, the queues were down the aisles for the manned tills. It’s definitely not a great experience in there now.”
Other customers were less bothered by the amount of self-service checkouts present in store.
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Anna Maloney said: “I'm fine with the mix. Often I have a really limited time to shop and if I have a trolley I have to use the manned checkouts which can be slow as understandably people like to chat. Now I can use the self-scan tills and go at my own pace.”
The Chippenham Sainsbury is one of many other stores that’s decided to reduce the number of employee-operated checkouts and increase their self-service checkouts.
One store in Warlingham, Surrey now only operates just five checkout old-style manned tills, a move that has negatively affected customers particularly among the elderly.
Donna Farrier, 67, from Whyteleafe in Surrey, said: "As a senior citizen I find it extremely difficult to use a self-checkout till to pay for a trolley load of items.
"It is clear Sainsbury’s is not concerned with the discomfort of their customers; they're just after increased profits."
Campaigners Silver Voices, the independent organisation for senior citizens, warned that retail giants are “shooting themselves in the foot” as they’re removing the human touch from shopping, adding that it's a “dehumanisation of retail."
“Older people in particular want a friendly helping hand from the till assistant, a chat and a smile as the goods are clicked through and probably help with payments and vouchers,” added Dennis Reed.