Tesco begins self checkout trial
Spencer last year, Tesco has become the latest British food
retailer to investigate the self-scanning option. The company will
trial an ACM 700 machine from PSI at one store in Norfolk.
Tesco, the UK's leading supermarket operator, is to become the second chain in the country to trial a new self-service checkout which allows its customers to scan and pay for their shopping without any intervention from supermarket staff.
Last year, Marks & Spencer announced that it was to begin trials of what it dubbed the SCOT or Self Checkout Till, a system created by US company NCR. Now Tesco is to introduce a similar system, this time from Productivity Solutions (PSI), at its superstore in East Dereham, Norfolk.
Tesco claims that its system will be the first to offer shoppers in Britain a self checkout solution that handles both large and small orders any time of day - presumably on the assumption that Marks & Spencers' system was for small orders only.
Richard Dodd, strategic programme manager at Tesco, said: "We are the first UK retailer to embrace the concept of self checkout as an option for everyone to use at any time of day. We choose to work with PSI because of their commitment to any size order and their solution's flexibility to handle both large and small orders equally well.
"Response by both customers and staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Customers are telling us that the ACM self checkout is simple to use and they are using it for both large and small orders. Our staff is telling us it's exciting, fun and they welcome the increased opportunity to interact with customers."
The ACM or Automated Checkout Machine from PSI is a modular product line which offers retailers both conveyor-based and scan and bag self checkout solutions, designed to fit all retail store formats and sizes, regardless of volume. The ACM 700, the unit Tesco is trialling, has a patented conveyor-based lane design which closely resembles a conventional checkout lane but which incorporates a full-colour touch-screen to make it customer friendly and easy to use, PSI said.
"This patented lane design also provides the flexibility to accommodate shoppers with full or express size orders, which means the 700 can handle significantly more sales and more items than regular checkout lanes and competing self checkout solutions," claimed Michael Persky, president of PSI.
Tesco did not say how long the system would be trialled in the Norfolk store, or whether there were plans to extend the trial to any of its other 730 UK stores.
