Tesco trials giant trolley scales in Gateshead

Giant trolley scales are being trialled at a Tesco store in Gateshead sparking a mixed reaction from shoppers.

Trolleys are weighed before checkout to identify any items customers who have used Scan as you Shop might have missed or scanned twice.

But some shoppers are unsure whether the new technology will take off with some likening it to airport security. “Am I at border control or Tesco?” one Reddit user posted, while another joked “No clubcard? Deported!”

Others questioned whether the scales were aimed at cracking down on self-scan shoplifters or cutting back on checkout staff. Tesco declined to comment.

Tesco Clubcard members already have the option to use Scan as you Shop handsets as they fill their trolleys then check out and pay at the end.

Now in the Gateshead Trinity Square Extra store, shoppers can push their trolley on to the scales and if the weight matches the items they’ve scanned they pay as normal. If there is a discrepancy a staff member will do a manual rescan of the whole trolley.

Although some Reddit users who commented on the photo of the scales were positive with one saying “they are 10x more convenient and faster”, many were more critical of their introduction.

“More and more the honest shopper is treated like a thief,” one said, while another wrote “the point of all this is to save on staff”.

Business retail consultant Ged Futter told the BBC this was about loss prevention and staffing costs.

“There is no way this is about making it quicker for the shopper. It’s supposed to be scan and go – this is scan and stop while your trolley is weighed.”

He said self-scan had increased the rate of shoplifting but instead of putting staff back on tills, supermarkets were trying to use even more technology to stop thefts.

“This is supermarkets saying, ‘we know there are thefts so what we are going to do is treat every customer in exactly the same way to reduce theft’.

“They’re forgetting that trust is the most important thing for all of the retailers and it works both ways. If customers don’t feel trusted or think they’re being treated like thieves they will go somewhere else.”

The British Retail Consortium has said shoplifting is “out of control” after its annual crime survey found incidents of customer theft reported by retailers in the UK rose by 3.7 million to 20.4 million, and cost retailers £2bn.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics revealed shoplifting offences reported by police in England and Wales rose by 23% to more than 492,000 over the same period.

That is the highest figure since current recording practices began in 2003.

Retail criminologist Prof Emmeline Taylor told the BBC she had seen similar trolley scales used in European supermarkets and there was “definitely an element of trying to control loss” but added “let’s not forget a lot of scan and go loss can be accidental”.

A random audit of 20,000 scan and go baskets found 43% had at least one error, a 2022 global study on self-checkout found.

Prof Taylor said Tesco’s scales were “quite foreboding and reminiscent of security scanners”.

“They don’t want to give the impression that they are pointing the finger at their honest customer,” she said.

“They will need to balance how they respond when there is a weight discrepancy because you can lose a customer for life if they feel they’ve been wrongly accused of something.”

She said she could see customers getting frustrated using the scales.

“You’ve left your handbag in the trolley, you’ve got to take your child out of the seat, you might be queueing behind someone who has been stopped and you can’t get through so the trial needs to focus on minimising friction points in the customer experience.”

The scales are the latest example of supermarkets turning to technology to streamline time and costs. The ratio of self-scan to staffed tills continues to be fiercely debated. Some shoppers love the speed and convenience while others are fed up of hearing “unexpected item in the bagging area”.

In August upmarket north of England supermarket chain Booths got rid of self-scan altogether, while Asda and Morrisons said they would put more staff back on manned tills.