Sainsbury’s pulls plug on till-free store trial

Sainsbury's has ended its ‘no cash, no cards’ mobile self-checkout store experiment at Holborn Circus Local in London, admitting that some of its customers were not big fans.

A trial launched in April, tapping its SmartShop technology. “Take-up was as we had expected – at peak times better than we’d expected – and it’s clear that not all our customers are ready for a totally till-free store,” the retailer said in a statement. 

Some customers preferred to pay with cash and card, which sometimes meant they were queuing to use the helpdesk, particularly at peak times of day, it noted. “This is why we’ve added a manned till and two self-checkouts back into the store so those looking to pay by cash and card can do so quickly and conveniently. We want to be the most inclusive retailer where people love to work and shop, so it’s really important to us that our customers can pay how they want to.”

“Till-free shopping is still available in the Holborn Circus store, as well as eight other convenience stores across London,” it added. “We’ll take the learnings from this experiment to develop our technology even further to help make shopping easier and more convenient for all our customers.”

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