Can we hear the faint first toll of the death knell for the self-service supermarket checkout?
Waitrose appeared to be the first to break ranks with the trend towards them by announcing the removal of the do-it-yourself tills from a store in Milton Keynes
This came days after the revelation that shoplifting by users of self–service checkout was now running at epidemic proportions. A report estimated that £1.6 billion worth of goods bypassed the scanners and went straight into shopping bags at the tills across the UK every year. While some shoppers prefer queuing for the past of the 'personal touch' of a conveyor belt checkout operator, I will go for the DIY option every time finding it a much faster route to the door.
I will be miffed if this substantial improvement on the endurance test of visiting a supermarket is reversed because a minority of fellow travellers through life can't resist the temptations of kleptomania. Surely there is a technological solution to this problem?
The supermarkets should be making the self checkout process work, not stripping it out. Computer connected cameras on the roads are being used to read number plates, catch drivers in bus lanes and work out if cars are doing and 69 mph or 73 mph from 100 yards away. Cameras in vehicles are being used to identify pedestrians on the pavement and support dashboard mounted processors to work out if they are about to step out into the road. Surely computer connected cameras at self checkout can be used to detect a tin of tuna that skips the scanner?
