It's one of the biggest changes to the supermarket shopping experience of recent years. The days of patiently waiting in line at a staffed checkout had, for many, been fading into history. Instead, people now make a bee-line to the self-service tills to pay for their shopping by scanning their mobile phones, using contactless cards or maybe, in retro fashion, by putting in some of that paper or metal 'money' stuff into slots. But the self-checkout revolution has stalled in Cheltenham as B&Q reverts purely to having human beings scan customers’ shopping. While supermarket chain Waitrose has introduced self-scanning tills at its revamped Cheltenham town centre store, at the other end of town in Hatherley, they have been stripped out at the town’s B&Q. Where once people could access one of a number of self-scanners at the DIY store in the Golden Valley Retail Park, the only checkouts there now have a person behind them. Customers have been told the decision was taken centrally as people struggled with the self-service tills. It meant lengthy queues on Saturday as customers bemoaned the loss of their shopping independence as they waited patiently in the human-operated checkouts. There have been signs the self-service expansion has slowed, with B&Q is in the process of removing all self-service tills from its stores. While Sainsbury’s has reintroduced tills at a central London branch in Holborne that went fully automatic (apart from a helpdesk). It has also been reported that Morrisons has paused the roll-out of more self-service tills. But as people get more used to click-and-collect, self-service, scan-and-shop, it is unclear if any other major retailer would follow the example of B&Q. And Lidl and Aldi, which had traditionally kept to the human-at-the-till model, have been introducing self-checkouts at some of their UK stores. poll loading With as little human interaction as possible I always 'go human' if I can What do you think of self-checkouts? Have they made the process of shopping simpler - especially if you are grabbing a sandwich or a newspaper. Or do you regret the loss of jobs and face-to-face contact with the checkout operators. You can have your say in the poll above, in the comment section below, or via our social media channels. The issue of self-service checkouts became part of viral clip of BBC dystopian drama, Years and Years, written by Russell T Davies and broadcast earlier this year. The six-part series followed Britain's political and moral decline into the future and at one point, family matriarch Murial Lyons (Anne Ried) launches into a powerful speech to her family that's been dubbed one of TV's greatest monologues. The 'It's our fault. It's your fault' speech includes a line about supermarkets. She says: "I saw it all going wrong when it began, in the supermarkets, when they replaced all the women on the till with those automated checkouts.... "Twenty years ago, when they first popped up, did you walk out? Did you shop elsewhere? Nooo. "You huffed and your puffed and you put up with it." At B&Q, however, maybe they are fighting back against this nightmare vision. For the latest news and breaking news visit our news channel Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you. Follow us on Twitter @GlosLiveOnline - the official Gloucestershire Live account – for real news in real time. We're also on facebook.com/GlosLiveOnline - your must-see news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day.
Cheltenham has decided to reinstall staffed checkouts at its B&Q store after customers struggled with self-service checkouts. Morrisions has also paused the roll-out of more self-service tills in its stores, while Lidl and Aldi which had resisted removing humans from its tils have been introducing self-checkouts at some of their UK stores.