As Debi Evans stood in the checkout queue at Asda, she captured a silent protest.
Despite the self-service and Scan&Go checkouts being completely empty, every single customer waited to be served at one of the two tills manned by staff.
The queues were so long, in fact, they disappeared back into their aisles – it was a revolt against technology.
‘Well done to everyone who decided to wait patiently and queue like I did,’ Debi, an NHS retiree from Truro, said on X.
‘And, as a bonus, I had some lovely conversations with others whilst I waited. Win win.’
She added the hashtag #TakeBackControl and branded supermarket tech a ‘digital prison’ in a defiant move against self-checkouts, which have been implemented by major supermarkets.
But it’s not that she hates this technology or struggles to use it, she simply wants balance.
‘Many people prefer to use manned checkouts, I don’t have anything against self-checkouts because I understand some people are on a time crunch, all I’m asking for is a balance of as many self-service tills as there are self-service,’ Debi tells Metro.
‘Every time I’ve used self service I’ve had to call someone to help or something hasn’t scanned – there’s always a problem with it, so I prefer to queue.’
Her post on X hit more than 3.6 million views, and many agreed with 67-year-old Debi.
‘If a shop I go into only has self serve and refuses to put on a checkout, I leave my groceries behind and walk out,’ wrote one.
‘Supermarkets forgot old people still shop there they have no desire in using self checkouts,’ added another.
One even called for a boycott of self-service tills while others also encouraged Debi to pay in cash, in response to a lot of self-serve tills being card only.
(Picture: @DebiEvansMatron)
But some slammed Debi for being old and not moving with the times. ‘I was completely shocked,’ she says. ‘People just want to see a cashier at the end of a checkout.’
‘I respect the youngsters for wanting to get in and out quickly and use their tech,’ Debi adds. ‘But what I’m saying is just have the choice, and please consider other people.’
She feels that self-service tills are ‘wiping out’ a sense of community and human contact, something which some people depend on if they’re lonely.
Other supermarkets are under pressure
But the Cornwall local isn’t the only one doing something about tech in supermarkets. In February this year the Bridgewater Senior Citizens Forum claimed self-service tills were ‘alienating’ shoppers in the Somerset town.
The group formed a leaflet campaign targeting the supermarkets in town –Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, M&S, Food Warehouse, Aldi and Lidl – to highlight the ‘disadvantages of using self-checkouts’ to shoppers upon entering the store.
‘We want shopping to be a social experience,’ Glen Burrows, co-chair of the forum, told The Grocer. ‘There’s an assumption that because you’re an elderly person you are somehow incapable of using self-checkouts.’
She explained it wasn’t about being ‘anti-tech’ but rather more choice should be offered in supermarkets for human interaction.
In 2022, a petition to ban self-service checkouts completely in an effort to save jobs was rejected by the government because ‘decisions about using self-service check-out machines are operational decisions for individual businesses’.
Self-service tills with conveyor belts were met with distaste from M&S customers, when a wider roll out was announced in 2024.
In a post on X, David Oliver wrote that he was disappointed by the changes at the M&S branch he regularly buys his lunch from, adding that he usually chats to the ‘long-serving’ staff on his daily visits.
‘Went today and they have automated all the checkouts,’ he wrote. ‘Staff now only there to supervise self-checkout users. Sad to see.’
Anne Bradley added: ‘Never use them in supermarkets, would rather queue for half an hour.’ And Craig Skayman agreed, writing: ‘I refuse to use self service checkouts until I have to.’
Booths are leading the charge
While our major supermarket chains have embraced the Big-Brother style surveillance at sometimes temperamental self-checkouts, there’s one grocer bucking the trend.
In November 2023, Booths embarked on a mission to remove self-checkout tills from the majority of its 26 stores.
According to its director, this move has led to a rise in customer satisfaction, a reduction in theft, less shrinkage, and other benefits.
Murray was also ‘absolutely convinced’ that Booths had seen an uptick in custom due to the coverage surrounding the move.
‘At the time, it was very much that our customers were telling us they didn’t really like them’, Murray said. While the move was predominantly made with customer experience in mind, a reduction in theft was also described as a ‘happy consequence’, as so-called ‘middle-class’ shoplifters incorrectly scanning, weighing, or simply avoiding paying for goods had been a rising problem.
Morrisons confessed it had gone ‘too far’ with self-checkouts in 2024 and has since been reducing its self-service lanes. In mid-2024, Asda also promised more manned tills.
Debi, hopes her viral X post will help create some real change, replicating her local Aldi which has no self-serve checkouts at all (and no queues).
‘Just listen to the customers,’ Debi implores supermarkets. ‘Read the room and bring back human contact.’
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