As the M&S boss blames self-service tills for a rise in shoplifting, I have a simple solution

According to Marks & Spencer’s chairman, self-service checkouts are leading “good, honest people” to shoplift.

Archie Norman has argued that self-service technology needs to be “easier for people to use” to help avoid rising rates of shoplifting at unmanned checkouts, which has broken the “human link” between retailers and shoppers.

Here’s a better idea Mr Norman, try scrapping the constantly bleeping robots altogether.

The past few years have seen retailers strip out banks of manned tills in favour of their robotised alternatives.

I doubt I am alone in fearing that the march of the machines may have gone too far.

The past few years have seen major retailers strip out banks of manned tills in favour of their robotised alternatives. The revolution has been spreading to smaller convenience outlets, and non-food stores, with some shops offering no alternative to the self-scan checkout.

Marks & Sparks itself has gone down this route for its busy branches at railway stations such as Haymarket and Waverley in Edinburgh.

Advocates for this tech revolution will point to their ease of use, particularly when paying by contactless card or mobile, and note that the rollout has accelerated as a result of the pandemic, and some people’s fear of close personal contact.

But do they actually speed things up? Not judging by the length of the queues seen snaking towards them, often resulting not from choice, but from a lack of manned till options. Pity the poor store worker darting between a dozen machines authorising alcohol purchases and dealing with the multiple tech gremlins.

As M&S’s chairman alludes to, the machine era has also triggered a surge in “stock shrinkage” - in plain terms theft - as certain individuals simply avoid scanning items or walk straight through. The tech has led to yet more tech in the shape of multiple cameras, piercing alarms and other security measures.

Surely having a row of manned tills that every person has to pass through provides a better line of defence?

Ah, but we are told that freeing staff from operating manned checkouts will improve other aspects of the store, chiefly shelf stacking. Few if any job losses will result. This is not about cost-cutting, etc, etc.

Speak to some of the harassed workers remaining and you will find that is simply not the case. Departing and retiring colleagues are not being replaced.

And the human cost of this relentless tech invasion extends to the lack of interaction that many older, single and home-working people now have to endure on what can be the only chance of a daily face-to-face.

There have been some glimmers of hope for refuseniks such as myself. Morrisons has said it may remove some self-scan tills after admitting the technology had gone a “bit too far”, while Booths, the quite posh north-of-England supermarket chain, has opted to remain predominantly human-focused.

Official crime data earlier this week showed there were 509,566 incidents of shoplifting last year and I’m certain faceless stores with their banks of machines are making some chancers more brazen.

M&S’s Mr Norman says retailers do not have to bring back in-person checkouts, but he argues that “it does mean you’ve got to make the technology easier for people to use”.

Fair dos, it might suit some, but while an alternative to having to do the job yourself still exists, I call on shoppers to resist, resist, resist.