Marks and Spencer has begun rolling out self-checkouts with conveyor belts to some of its stores.
The new "assisted belted checkouts" technology is designed to be spacious enough for larger trolley shops. M&S shoppers will find them in 45 of the supermarket's Food Halls - and there are plans to install them in other locations in the future.
It follows a trial in the M&S London Colney store back in 2022. An M&S spokesperson said shoppers will still be able to use manned tills if they wish. Self-checkouts have proved controversially generally, with charities and campaigners warning that they can be problematic for vulnerable shoppers and people with disabilities.
An M&S spokesperson told The Grocer: "We help our customers shop when, where, and how they want by providing a choice of manned checkouts and self-service tills. We always have a colleague on hand to help customers with their shopping."
It comes after M&S announced plans to hire 11,000 members of staff for the busy Christmas period. M&S is hiring for new customer assistants, who will help serve customers on the shop floor, as well as restocking shelves. M&S increased pay for UK customer assistants across its food and clothing shops from £10.90 an hour to £12 an hour from April 1.
For staff working in London, minimum hourly wages rose from £12.05 an hour to £13.15. Other UK retailers have announced pay rises for shop workers in recent months. But the boss of M&S recently issued a warning over a £120million hit from the Budget - and said there may be price rises to offset extra costs.
The rate of National Insurance paid by employers will rise from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025, while the earnings threshold for when employers start paying National Insurance will also be lowered from £9,100 per year to £5,000. Stuart Machin, chief executive of M&S, said the group would do “everything we can” to avoid passing on the extra costs to customers through price hikes - but admitted there will be challenges ahead.
Mr Machin said: “We’ll do everything we can to make sure that cost is not passed on to consumers. It’s not easy but that’s our ambition.” M&S reported underlying pre-tax profits up 17.2% to £407.8million for the six months to September 28. Like-for-like sales rose 7.5% across its food business and increased 5.3% in its clothing and home division, after a bounce back in demand for fashion ranges in the second quarter thanks to more seasonal weather.
M&S said: “During the first half of the year, cost inflation has continued to be elevated, running well ahead of price inflation and the consumer environment has been uncertain. Despite this, the business has traded well, growing volume and value market share. As we enter the second half, we expect this backdrop to persist.”