Love them or loathe them, automated checkouts are a typical feature of almost every supermarket these days.

But while they are perfect for a basket store if you have one the load of the stroller of shopping, you still have to stand in line at a manned house.

To solve the problem, girl release larger hybrids self-checkouts which have conveyor belts.

These are similar to regular manned houses where you put all your food, but without cashiers. Shoppers scan their own items as usual at self-service.

Known as a ‘belt assisted home’, they will take up the same amount of space as a staffed home and have been added to 45 food halls, with more to come.

The launch comes after M&S followed hybrid homes in 2022 in the M&S London Colney store.

But it’s a change that may not be welcomed by all buyers.

In a post on X, David Oliver wrote that he was disappointed by the changes at the M&S branch where he regularly buys his lunch, adding that he usually chats to “long-serving” staff on his daily visits.

“I went today and they automated all the orders,” he wrote. “Staff are now only available to supervise self-checkout users. It’s sad to see.

Another shopper lamented the “loss of friendly interactions”, adding: “is it worth it?” And Lucy Pollock said the introduction of motorhomes was “such a shame”.

Others say they are boycotting all vending machines. At X, Anne Bradley said: “You never use them in supermarkets, you’d rather stand in the queue for half an hour.” And Craig Skayman agreed, writing: “I refuse to use self-service till I have to.”

Continued pick-up by machines could also cause an increase in shoplifting. A survey by market research company, Ipsos, found that 13% of adults (out of 1,099) admit to choosing a cheaper item on a self service up to than what they were buying, while 8% said they had taken something to the value of £10 from a shop without paying.

And online, some anonymously confessed they were part of the problem: “My local station, M&S, took all their houses and replaced them with self-service, probably more people lost their jobs.

“Now I regularly steal sandwiches from them because”S super easy now no one oversees self service and i don’t pay those prices.

The news comes as Sainsbury’s also followed suit as part of the retailer’s ‘Next Level’ strategy, which aims to make the supermarket the UK’s first choice for food shopping.

The Sainsbury’s store in Cobham, Surrey is one of the locations being used as a ‘laboratory’ for the new strategy, with more than 100 ‘experiments’ being tested there.

As well as self-service hybrid checkouts and touchscreens, the Cobham-based supermarket has also used smart shelves in its alcohol section in a bid to tackle shoplifting. If someone simultaneously removes several bottles of wine from the shelf, an alert is sent to colleagues.

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