MARKS and Spencer is equipping its changing rooms with self-checkouts to avoid customers having to queue twice.
The retail giant plans to roll out self-service checkouts in 180 of its clothing stores by early 2028.
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The Marks and Spencer store in Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford, LondonCredit: Getty
This is despite warnings from M&S chairman Archie Norman that theft is “creeping” among middle-class shoppers due to poor self-checkouts.
The retailer’s operations director, Sacha Berendji, insisted that staff will be present in the fitting rooms to ensure customers do not leave without paying for their items.
He told it The Telegraph: “We want customers to be able to walk into the fitting room without a queue, try on what they have chosen, pay there and simply walk out…”
He added: ‘Shoplifting is a major problem in the Netherlands this countrybut there are things we are all doing to mitigate some of those losses.”
The new kiosks have already been introduced in 28 recently renovated stores.
Similar ones are used elsewhere in the world, including Australia.
Melbourne department store Kmart Southland is testing technology that identifies clothes brought into a fitting room and displays them on a screen, reports the Sidney Morning Herald.
Customers can then scan a QR code for details and price.
It also offers customers the opportunity to request different sizes or colors of their changing room.
Over the past 18 months, M&S has opened 31 new stores, while also spending tens of millions of pounds on refurbishing 45 existing stores in London and the South West.
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Larger self-service checkouts on the conveyor belt operated by staff will also feature self-scanning technology for trolley stores.
At the Fosse Park store, four of the ten employee-operated conveyor belt checkouts have already been replaced with six new self-service versions.
Self-checkout stations are being installed throughout shopping streets retail shops, with Marks & Spencer, Primark And Zara some of the first adopters, The Telegraph previously reported.
That despite supermarkets, including Guard rose, Morrisons and Asda, who reigns in their usage.
In the US, self-service checkouts are removing them Goal stores due to concerns about shoplifting.
M&S is opening the first store of its kind as part of a new trial
MARKS and Spencer is making a huge change by opening a unique store as part of a new trial.
The iconic British retailer opens its first-ever clothing store in the United States Autumn.
For almost 100 years MADAM has sold both clothing and fresh produce.
While MADAM has operated standalone food stores since 1987, but has never sold clothing in standalone stores.
However, a recent surge in fashion sales has prompted the company to try its first clothing store.
The store will be located in London’s Battersea power station and will open to shoppers in November.
The new store will offer a curated selection of women’s and men’s clothing, with an emphasis on premium lines and beauty products.
M&S chief executive Stuart Machin said the pilot store would “display case the best of M&S clothing and beauty at an excellent price”.
The store will feature items such as lingerie, £99 cashmere jumpers and pieces from the trendy Autograph line.
The new M&S store in Battersea is expected to create an estimated 30 new jobs, with recruitment due to start in September.
If this trial proves successful, M&S plans to open more clothing and beauty stores in the UK.
The new store will sit next to M&S’s existing food hall in the Power Station, which opened in 2022.