Tesco introduces ‘magic tills’ to speed up checkout process for customers

Tesco has introduced ‘magic tills’ to help speed up the checkout process for customers, meaning there’ll be no more ‘UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA’ drama...

Find out how Tesco's GetGo shops - which function in a similar way - work:

In many ways, shopping in the modern age is an enjoyably tech-savvy experience, like when you’re able to pay with the click of the side button on your phone, or going for the ultimate move of just buying your entire weekly shop online from the comfort of your sofa.

But in other senses, it sometimes feels like we’re stuck in the stuck in the dark ages – as anyone will know if they’ve had to contend with those pesky scales at self-checkout tills, which often become confused by anything that goes near them.

But popular supermarket chain Tesco may have found a solution to all your woes, having introduced special new tills, which simplify the process by removing the need to scan individual items.

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Instead, shoppers just pop their haul down at the till, and everything suddenly appears on the screen in front of you.

The Sunday Times explains how cameras detect when a customer walks into the store, assigning them a ‘random series of dots and lines’ to create a stick figure that is tracked while they walk around doing their shopping.

Unlike Amazon Fresh stores, people don’t need to download an app, while each individual’s identity is also not known.

Sarah Quiggin, Head of Store Customer Experience, said: "This is about cutting out some of the challenges around scanning.

"Sometimes there can be issues with certain barcodes and products.

"The alert for an 'unexpected item in the bagging area' is a classic one that customers get frustrated about, understandably.

"With the 'no-scan' tills, you turn up to the checkout and you pay."

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Staff have to make sure they’re restocking shelves with total accuracy for the new approach to work, as if something is placed in the wrong area of the shop, the technology will assume they have picked up what is supposed to be there.

The system has been introduced in Hammersmith, London, at a shop located beneath a set of luxury apartments.

Shopper Carol was among the first to trial it, telling the Sunday Times: “I want to be in and out when I’m shopping, so it’s great it can scan itself. The self-checkouts never work anyway.”

The Sun also reports that Tesco opened a first 'GetGo' store - which works slightly differently, as it sees customers check in via an app - in central London back in 2021, and currently has four shops in the capital: Aston University, Chiswell Streeet, Fulham and High Holborn.