‘Booths’ return to ‘Bods not bots’
Published: 21 Nov. 2023, 20:11
AHN CHAK-HEE
The author is the head of the global cooperation team at the JoongAng Ilbo.
A customer pushes a shopping cart, scans items and pays at the self-checkout counter. This has become common scene around the world. Supermarkets are increasingly introducing self-checkout systems in order to reduce cashiers and save space.
Despite the trend, a mid-sized English supermarket chain has announced that it will be the first in its industry to remove all self-checkout counters and return to the system of employees directly serving the customers.
The company, which seems to be going back in time, is Booths. It operates 27 luxury supermarkets in northwestern England. Having opened its first store in 1847, Booths has been garnering attention with the promotional slogan “Bods, not Bots.” Based on customer complaints and internal evaluations, the company determined that labor cuts and the impact of the saved time from the self-checkout system had not met expectations.
People ended up spending more time checking out after having to call employees over for corrections or approval if they’d scanned items incorrectly or an ID check was required to purchase alcoholic beverages or medicine. Many have complained on social media about these issues.
On the other hand, Amazon Go, a supermarket in the United States, doesn’t even have a checkout counter. Numerous cameras and scanners installed in the store automatically aggregate items that customers put in shopping bags, and payment is processed automatically. Shoppers can just pick up items and walk out. Compared to Amazon Go, Booths is going back to the past.
Nevertheless, this 176-year old company knows its industry’s trends well. And it believes that a better purchasing experience is achieved when a person is serving a person. Some customers say that grocery shopping is the only chance to talk to others during the day. That is understandable. After all, the U.K. is a country with a Minister of Loneliness.
Booths’ removal of the self-checkout system may not be welcomed among customers who are reluctant to interact with others. It is yet to be seen whether it was the right decision or a failure to go against technological trends.
But one thing needs to be addressed. We need to closely watch whether the members of society who are not comfortable using the increasingly fast kiosks, or have physical restrictions that make it difficult to use unmanned systems, are neglected.
The author is the head of the global cooperation team at the JoongAng Ilbo.
A customer pushes a shopping cart, scans items and pays at the self-checkout counter. This has become common scene around the world. Supermarkets are increasingly introducing self-checkout systems in order to reduce cashiers and save space.
Despite the trend, a mid-sized English supermarket chain has announced that it will be the first in its industry to remove all self-checkout counters and return to the system of employees directly serving the customers.
The company, which seems to be going back in time, is Booths. It operates 27 luxury supermarkets in northwestern England. Having opened its first store in 1847, Booths has been garnering attention with the promotional slogan “Bods, not Bots.” Based on customer complaints and internal evaluations, the company determined that labor cuts and the impact of the saved time from the self-checkout system had not met expectations.
People ended up spending more time checking out after having to call employees over for corrections or approval if they’d scanned items incorrectly or an ID check was required to purchase alcoholic beverages or medicine. Many have complained on social media about these issues.
On the other hand, Amazon Go, a supermarket in the United States, doesn’t even have a checkout counter. Numerous cameras and scanners installed in the store automatically aggregate items that customers put in shopping bags, and payment is processed automatically. Shoppers can just pick up items and walk out. Compared to Amazon Go, Booths is going back to the past.
Nevertheless, this 176-year old company knows its industry’s trends well. And it believes that a better purchasing experience is achieved when a person is serving a person. Some customers say that grocery shopping is the only chance to talk to others during the day. That is understandable. After all, the U.K. is a country with a Minister of Loneliness.
Booths’ removal of the self-checkout system may not be welcomed among customers who are reluctant to interact with others. It is yet to be seen whether it was the right decision or a failure to go against technological trends.
But one thing needs to be addressed. We need to closely watch whether the members of society who are not comfortable using the increasingly fast kiosks, or have physical restrictions that make it difficult to use unmanned systems, are neglected.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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