Self-checkout systems are driving me crazy, says LEE BOYCE…I’m on a crusade to let retailers know how infuriating they are

It’s lunchtime on High Street Kensington, one of the busiest shopping streets in London… and perhaps the country.

I’m inside H&M, buying some clothes for the winter period two weeks before Christmas on my break. But to buy them I will have to wait in line.

Alright. After all, queuing is in our DNA. However, the tail barely moves. Soon, there are nearly 20 shoppers behind me, weaving toward the center of the store. Some abandon it out of frustration. I’m tempted to join them.

Others tap their feet, look at their watches, sigh. Not exactly the shopping experience you’d expect from one of the largest clothing retailers on the planet.

H&M bosses decided some time ago to reduce the number of cash registers in this store. Now, on the ground floor, there are only two, with four self-checkouts next to them.

On my frustrating outing, three of the self-checkout systems, powered by Fujitsu, are not activated for some reason, and the one that is has a bewildered casual customer.

No staff assist at self-checkout and the few customers brave enough to accept it are expected to remove security tags and fold items in their bag.

Staffed checkouts also handle returns, adding to the pain of a man simply looking to grab a pair of jeans and a shirt and then move on with his life.

Finally I get to the box. No apology for the wait, much less an acknowledgment that I exist. In fact, the staff member spends much of the transaction talking to his colleague about lunch breaks.

“Excuse me,” I ask. ‘Will your bosses put more cash registers in this store next year? The lines seem crazy every time I walk in now. It never used to be like this.’

The staff member mistook me for blaming her. I don’t blame her at all. I would be exhausted trying to deal with this huge queue.

I took the shrug as, “Probably not.”

To get an answer, I reached out to H&M directly to ask what they do. Do you want clients? Are you monitoring the queues? Why have automatic payments if they are not activated?

And most importantly, will you listen and reinstall a couple more staffed cash registers?

A spokesperson said: ‘At H&M we constantly strive to offer the best possible experience to our customers.

‘We use a combination of self-checkouts and staffed checkouts to provide customers with a faster, more convenient shopping experience, and we tailor our approach to each store.

‘Any future changes will be based on customer feedback and operational efficiency and our main objective is to improve customer satisfaction.

“We’ve seen a very positive response from our customers, with approximately 40 to 50 percent choosing the self-checkout option when available.”

That doesn’t mimic my experience. Are half of shoppers happy to blindly use self-checkout systems now?

It seems more and more stores have upped the ante with automatic checkouts since the summer, and perhaps it’s all coming home in the run-up to Christmas.

On Saturday, I undertook a task I rarely do these days… I went to a giant supermarket early to make a purchase with full carts and no children.

These days I’ve been under pressure to get an online delivery pass, but I wanted to get some in-store inspiration before Christmas. Also, I almost always forget some crucial items in the online store.

When I finished the mammoth task, I reached the boxes and found… that there were no manned ones available.

That’s right, one of the largest supermarket chains in the country had no checkout staff. I certainly wasn’t going to scan a £200+ store myself.

I was in some sort of weird Mexican standoff with a staff member, who kept calling me “mate,” while I was trying to harass her into opening a box.

Soon, a handful of other buyers were with me, waiting for further instructions. What a strange experience, all simply to pay for my purchases at a supermarket that I have chosen to personalize.

In the end two registers were opened and queues formed. Half of this store’s staffed checkouts have disappeared this year.

Everything is getting out of hand. Last year I argued that while self-checkout systems are fine for some basket purchases, they are driving us more online and I think shoppers are getting fed up. It only seems to have gotten worse.

Is it because self-checkouts don’t have to pay National Insurance contributions? Pension plans? A salary?

That was what the head of the Itsu fast food chain recently hinted at.

In my opinion, customer service at big box retailers has gone down the drain this year. It’s a real shame.

Now I’m on a one-man campaign to bring retailers to their senses. Don’t abandon self-checkouts completely, but don’t abandon staffed checkouts for something bosses think is cheaper…and say it’s more convenient. Sometimes it is, often it isn’t.

So tell me your horror stories: lee.boyce@thisismoney.co.uk. I will take them to the retailers in question…