Simon Roberts, the chief executive, told The Grocer earlier this year: “As an industry, we can’t say we can’t become more efficient. In a 3pc margin business, with the cost pressures we face, we have to find efficiencies.”
He said Sainsbury’s would keep “at least one” manned checkout within all stores.
The trial puts Sainsbury’s at odds with other supermarkets that have been reducing self-checkout numbers or pausing rollouts in response to customer apathy.
Over the past five years, the number of self-checkout machines in UK supermarkets has risen from 53,000 to 80,000
However, some grocery chiefs have suggested recently that growth may have come to an end. Asda said it would be putting more staff back on checkouts in August, after admitting it had reached its limit on how many of the machines its customers wanted in stores.
Meanwhile, Morrisons boss Rami Baitiéh told The Telegraph earlier this year that it had gone “a bit too far” on self-checkouts and was reviewing the balance within its stores, removing some of the tills.
In the US, Dollar General earlier this year said it was removing self-checkouts from 300 shops to combat theft.
Booths, an upmarket chain described as the Waitrose of the North, removed self-checkouts from its shops last year to improve customer service and maintain its “warm northern welcome”.
A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said: “We are always exploring new ways to offer our customers the best possible choice and convenience. Our trial in Cobham and Witney is the latest example of that and we are listening to colleague and customer feedback.”