NEXT is set to introduce self-service checkout tills from next month in a bid to cut extra staffing costs from the Budget.
The comments came as the chain warned it would have to raise shop prices by 1% this year to cover the impact from the Budget’s tax raid.
Chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson told The Sun that shoppers would not have faced higher prices had it not been for the Budget.
“It is 1% on what would have been zero”, he said.
He revealed that the retail giant was going to start trialling the tills in February or March as part of its efforts to cut costs and reduce the need to raise prices even higher.
The Next boss did not reveal how many stores, or which shops would be selected, but confirmed that if the trial was successful they would be rolled out nationally within the next six months.
Lord Wolfson said: “We always start off with a small trial because if things go wrong you can sort it and it doesn’t cause too much damage.
“But if it’s successful we would want to aim to roll it out quite quickly, you know within six months.”
Lord Wolfson said that Next would not be making redundancies but would not be replacing staff or hiring as many as it would have before the Budget’s business tax raid.
Next revealed that it was facing a total £73million increase in wage costs to its £900million annual wage bill as a result of the Budget.
The increase in the national living wage adds £21million to its payroll costs while it faces a £20million hit from the change to employers’ national insurance contributions and a further £6million increase from the increase to national insurance.
Lord Wolfson said that the higher staffing costs hit high street retailers harder than online retailers, who employ fewer people.
Next is just one of a number of retailers that has warned over the fallout from the Government’s Budget.
From April, employer National Insurance contributions will be hiked from 13.8% to 15%, with a number of businesses saying this will be passed on to shoppers.
Greggs, Halfords and Sainsbury’s have all said prices may be hiked to cover the additional costs incurred from the tax raid.
Meanwhile, New Look is reported to be accelerating plans for mass store closures following the Government’s Budget.
Next joins a host of retailers who have launched self-service checkouts in recent years in a bid to reduce staffing costs.
But the tills often spark fury among customers struggling to scan items through.
Data previously published by The Grocer revealed customer service satisfaction has dropped as much as 8% due self-service tills.
Lidl, Tesco, Sainsbury’s all offer self-service checkouts at stores as well as fashion retailers like Primark and Uniqlo.
M&S and Sainsbury’s have also both started experimenting with large-scale self checkouts that let shoppers pay for bigger shops.
Morrisons, though, announced last year it would scale back the number of self-checkout kiosks in stores.
In an interview with The Telegraph, chief executive Rami Baitiéh said the retailer had gone “a bit too far” with the concept, admitting some shoppers “dislike it, mainly when they have a full trolley”.
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