Booths removes almost all self-service checkouts and puts staff back behind tills as experts say move will cut shoplifting: 'We listen to our customers - they want to speak to a real human'

A supermarket chain has become Britain's first to return to fully-staffed checkouts after axing most of its self-service tills after its boss said: 'We like to talk to people.' Booths - which has 27 stores in the North across Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Cheshire - has been finding the machines to be'slow, unreliable and impersonal' and decided that'rather than artificial intelligence, we're going for actual intelligence'. Staff at the upmarket firm, dubbed the'northern Waitrose', added that they wanted to ensure customers were served by people with'high levels of warm, personal care'. The move by Booths, which was founded in 1847, has provoked much debate on the benefits of self-checkouts as retailers continue to battle a shoplifting epidemic. The British Independent Retailers Association said there could be a'reality check with the current level of retail theft and self-service tills becoming an expensive risk'. All but two Booths stores will put staff back on the tills - with the exceptions being in the Lake District at Keswick and Windermere which can become very busy at times. Booths managing director Nigel Murray said staff at the northern chain'like to talk to people' Booths managing director Nigel Murray told BBC Radio Lancashire today: 'Our customers have told us this over time, that the self-scan machines that we've got in our stores they can be slow, they can be unreliable, they're obviously impersonal.