Morrisons upgrades self-checkouts nationwide

Morrisons has begun replacing older self-checkout machines across its UK stores, a rollout the retailer says started in May 2025 and is due to finish “very soon”. According to The Independent, shoppers in Swindon described the new tills as “sleeker and thinner” than the old ones, with at least one saying barcode scanning seemed improved.

The checkout refresh arrives in a retail environment where “efficiency” is doing double duty. For the customer it means shorter queues and fewer “unexpected item in bagging area” interruptions. For the supermarket it means labour savings, a more standardised front end, and a store layout that can be monitored and tuned like a production line. Self-service lanes also shift the point of friction: the shopper becomes the cashier, while staff are reallocated to supervision, age checks, and intervention when the machine flags an exception.

That exception-handling is where the modern supermarket’s priorities become visible. The same technology stack that makes scanning faster also makes it easier to enforce rules—whether it is ID checks, item verification, or loss-prevention prompts. Retailers rarely advertise that side of the system; the language is “service” and “customer experience”, while the operational goal is fewer unpriced items leaving the store.

In the same week, Morrisons said it had upgraded accessible toilets across England, Scotland and Wales to be “stoma-friendly”, adding features such as hooks, a shelf for supplies, a bin for discreet disposal and a mirror for appliance checks. The company said the changes followed customer feedback and advice from Colostomy UK, and it credited campaigning by MSP Edward Mountain, who wrote to the retailer after living with a stoma following bowel cancer surgery.

Taken together, the announcements show how large chains bundle very different interventions into a single narrative of modernisation. Some changes remove barriers for customers with specific medical needs. Others reduce staffing costs and tighten process control at the checkout. Both are presented as upgrades to “efficiency”, and both rely on the same corporate ability to standardise thousands of identical touchpoints—from tills to toilets—across a national footprint.

Morrisons says the new tills are being installed across “all of our stores”, and that the toilet changes now cover its accessible facilities nationwide.