Tesco is seemingly moving away from traditional manned checkouts in its stores and moving towards more self-serve checkouts in the future.

Britain’s most popular grocer has said the move is due to a “lack of customer demand”.

The supermarket has said larger self-checkout areas have been a success allowing areas for trolleys and creating space to pack up to six bags at once.

However, the move will anger many customers who have signed a petition on change.org calling on Tesco to stop adding more self-service checkouts and bring back staff. So far more than 230,000 customers have signed the petition.

A spokeswoman for Tesco told The Grocer: “We are proud to offer customers choice when it comes to checkouts, and after successful trials we are introducing new trolley-accessible self-service checkouts in some of our stores, which have more room and are easier to use for larger shops.

“Our colleagues and the friendly service they provide are absolutely vital to our stores – they will always be on hand to help our customers, and will continue to operate attended checkouts so that customers can choose the option they prefer.”

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Speaking to The Grocer Steve Dresser, chief executive at Grocery Insider said the move was in-line with current supermarket trends.

He said: “[Supermarkets] are moving to dedicated checkouts rather than empty manned checkouts, which naturally are linked to the hours given to the front end.

“Of course, there are savings to be made losing the manned checkouts, but the reality is, you rarely see checkouts open these days en masse anyway, so it’s underutilised space. It’s not always positive for customers, however, as some may feel forced into self-service options.”