‘I struggle to buy food because self-checkouts aren’t designed for wheelchair users’

A woman who uses a wheelchair says she’s often unable to pay for her weekly food shop because of supermarket self-checkouts.

Toyin Fabusiwa, 26, posted a video of her struggling to scan her groceries at a Lidl in Croydon, south London, earlier this month.

She said on TikTok: ‘Don’t blame me if I accidentally don’t pay for something, blame the inaccessible self-checkouts.’

Toyin told Metro that she can’t reach the card machine when she hears the robotic voice say ‘finish and pay’ as it’s simply too high.

She said: ‘Most times when I go out, I try to pay for things with self-checkout, and it’s quite hard to scan things because of the angle.’

Same goes for using the touch-screen monitor to buy a plastic carrier bag or input an item that has no barcode, like loose fruit and vegetables.

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As famed as Lidl is for the sound barrier-breaking speeds cashiers can scan items, Toyin says she struggles to pay at manned checkouts, too.

She said: ‘When it says, “insert PIN”, I can’t insert the pin because the machine doesn’t come down, not just in Lidl, in other shops as well.

‘The machine won’t come down, so when it says insert PIN, I can’t do that, so I can’t pay for my stuff.’

This is despite how many of the TikTok users commenting on her viral video suggested she just avoid paying at the self-service lanes.

Toyin recalled how, when popping into Greggs recently, the card machine was too high up for her to see the keypad to type her PIN.

‘And I was like to [to the cashier], “There anything you can do? Like to bring a movable machine so I can insert the PIN?”

‘She was like: “There’s nothing I can do about it”.’

‘The majority of the world is able-bodied’

Outside of ringing up her stuff at the tills, Toyin often struggles to reach stock on the higher shelves or open freezer section doors.

Most staff members have been ‘uncaring’ when Toyin flags these issues to them.

The difficulties have only become even more common in the three years since Toyin started to do her shopping instead of her mum.

‘I do think about the future – what if I go shopping without my mum or sister, how am I going to access this? I go to the tills, the machine won’t come down, so I have to go home,’ she said.

‘Sometimes, I don’t want to have to ask for help. I should be able to do it myself.

‘When an employee is dealing with 10 other people, I don’t want to be like, “Hey, can you help me?”‘

Self-checkouts have been on the rise for the last 20 years – there were 80,000 of them in British supermarkets in 2023, up from 53,000 in 2018, according to analytics platform RBR Data Services.

The idea is simple: shoppers scan and bag their goods, pay and get out of the store without so much as a ‘Have a nice day’.

Nearly every person in the UK has used a self-service till in the past six months, according to a poll by The Grocer. Around 54% prefer them to staffed checkouts.

Alison Kerry, head of communications at the charity Scope, told Metro that businesses need to work with disabled people to build accessible systems.

‘This shows just how much our society and environment are set up in a way which excludes disabled people,’ she said of Toyin’s experiences.

‘Disabled people come up against a multitude of barriers every day, from inaccessible places to discrimination and negative attitudes.

‘We all need to work together to break down these barriers.’

But shoppers and supermarket bosses alike have expressed fatigue at self-service tech, with some shops like Booths scrapping them altogether.

It’s not just people getting sick of hearing ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’. Some feel the machines can be slow and unreliable, while low-income and elderly shoppers want more chances to use cash.

A petition calling for a ‘fair number of cash-accepting tills’ launched last year was signed by nearly 72,000 people.

For Toyin, all she wants to do is pay for her weekly food shop.

‘We’re not asking for the world, just one or two accessible self-checkouts, or tools where the machine can go down,’ she said.

‘Then I’d be able to shop independently and wouldn’t have to ask people for help.’

Lidl and Greggs have been approached for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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