Discount clothing retailer Best & Less isn't rushing down the aisle to install self-service checkouts.
Best & Less chief executive Rodney Orrock said retailers shouldn't rely on customers to do the work traditionally done by shop assistants.
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Shoplifting at self-service checkouts
The DIY machines are clearly a convenient option for many, especially light-fingered supermarket customers.
"If I go into a Woolworths to do grocery shopping ... if there's somebody available to do my checkout, I'll go there, right, because I think they'll do it faster and quicker and I don't have to concentrate. And sometimes at 6 o'clock in the morning that's important," Mr Orrock said.
"But I think in terms of the number of things that retailers may expect customers to be doing for them, yeah, I think that there's things that retailers should be doing and there's things that customers don't necessarily need to do."
Mr Orrock said supermarkets had led the way on self-service checkouts, but that didn't mean other retailers ought to follow suit.
This was especially the case when people were shopping for clothes or only buying a small number of items, he said.
"One thing we try very hard not to do is you get to a particular level in your business where it would be very easy to take wages out of front line," he said.Â
"But ... that's not a great decision because then you can't provide the level of service that you need to be providing.
"If you look at a supermarket, and what people have got in an average basket there, versus what they'd have in an average basket within an apparel business, you would need a lot more volume going through to make that financially make sense at the moment."
At Best & Less, the average shopper is the "Australian mother" and the average basket size for women's outerwear is $11. It's even less for underwear purchases.
Stephen Kulmar, the founder of retail consultancy Retail Oasis, said people under the age of 40 had taken to self-service checkout, while older people have resisted.
But he said retailers that have performed strongly, such as Best & Less' rival Kmart, had invested heavily in self-service, enabling them to put staff on the floor and cut checkout queues.
Mr Kulmar said resistance to self-service checkouts was "very old-fashioned."
Best & Less has 196 stores, employing about 3300 people. Established in 1965, it is now owned by the Frankfurt listed Steinhoff International, which also owns discount department store Harris Scarfe in Australia.
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