A leading commercial property supermarket has imposed new time targets for checkout staff in an attempt to cut queues at the tills.
Commercial property supermarket chain Morrisons has told cashiers they must scan one item every three seconds to get shoppers’ goods through quickly.
Store managers are given a weekly report of individual checkout staff speeds, and staff who consistently fail to meet the targets-which the commercial property retailer said were ‘modest’-could be moved to other departments.
The commercial property supermarket, which has 420 stores across Britain, said the measure was about improving service and ‘providing the right speed for our customers’.
However one MP criticised the move. Tory MP for Harlow, Essex, Robert Halfon, said: “The targets are outrageous. Checkout staff already work incredibly long hours. They should be treated as decent human beings, not as robots.”
He further added: “This will put horrible pressure on staff and add to the stress of already large workloads. What Morrison’s seems to be doing is turning supermarkets into a battery hen farm”.
The Mail on Sunday put commercial property supermarket chain Morrison’s to the test against five of its rival supermarkets-Tesco, Asda, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and the Co-op.
The Sunday newspaper bought a typical basket of 20 items, including baked beans, washing powder and tea bags, at each. As far as possible, the shopping lists were the same.
Asda in Ipswich, Suffolk was the fastest of all the commercial property supermarkets, taking just 35 seconds, meaning each item took 1.75 seconds.
Morrisons at Braintree, Essex, came second, at 37 seconds. This far exceeded its new target at 1.85 seconds per item.
Staff at commercial property supermarket Waitrose in Altrincham, Cheshire, took one minute, 25 seconds, averaging 4.25 seconds an item. The slowest checkout staff were at the Co-op in Fulham, West London, taking one minute, 58 seconds-5.9 seconds an item.
Based on the investigation by the Sunday newspaper, it would take a family doing a typical weekly shop of 100 items a total of two minutes, 55 seconds to have all their products scanned at commercial property store Asda, but nine minutes, 50 seconds at the Co-op. To break it down further, in a year, a family shopping once a week would spend an additional six hours at the Co-op checkouts.
Commercial property chain Tesco said its staff were trained to work effectively while helping customers with individual needs, but did not wish to comment further.
Waitrose also declined to comment, while the Co-op said: “All our till staff undertake a rigorous training programme. The majority of branches are small to medium-sized convenience stores, so many of our tills aren’t set up in the same way as the larger supermarkets”.
Sainsbury’s would not confirm whether it had targets but said: “Speed is one part of the service but our colleagues focus on ensuring shoppers receive a friendly, efficient service at the checkout.” Whilst Asda would not confirm or deny the targets either, saying only: “Our customers tell us that a friendly hello and a chat about the weather is as important as a speedy exit.”
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I would prefer friendly customer service rather than have to deal with staff who are under so much pressure they can’t even raise a smile 🙁
Our sentiments exactly Bernard. We did an article in May about training staff to be more friendlier. Have a read 🙂