M&S boss issues stark warning over self-checkouts in all UK stores

What's On Shopping Marks & Spencer Archie Norman has warned self-checkouts are contributing to a rise in shoplifting. 06:44, 24 Apr 2026 A Marks and Spencer boss has issued a stark self-checkout warning for all shoppers. M&S chair Archie Norman has warned self-checkouts are contributing to a rise in shoplifting. ‌ Norman, who has served as chairman of the retail group since 2017, warned technology in supermarkets has severed the "human link" between store and consumer. ‌ Norman said: "When normally good, honest people come in, and they’re buying their shopping, and it doesn’t scan, and there’s nobody manning the checkouts, they’re saying: ‘It’s not my fault and I don’t have much time so if I can’t get my strawberries through, I’ll just put them in my basket’." ‌ READ MORE FCDO issues new warning for ALL UK tourists with summer holiday booked Supermarkets do not "have to bring back in-person checkouts" to reduce shop lifting, Norman went on to say. Despite this, the M&S chairman said: "It does mean you’ve got to make the technology easier for people to use." ‌ Norman told The Telegraph M&S has added hundreds of self-service machines across its stores. Thinus Keeve, the M&S retail director, criticised Sir Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, for failing to get a grip on crime in the capital, claiming the situation was “getting worse, not better”. Mr Norman blamed uncooperative police forces for failing to intervene against more prolific shoplifters, who he said were “clearing shelves to feed a habit”. ‌ Mr Norman said: “When you have gangs of kids coming in and sweeping the shelves, that’s a police event and it requires an active police response. “When something like that starts to become common it says to everybody, including ordinary citizens, that it’s not safe.” Lucy Whing, at the British Retail Consortium, said the rise in organised crime was “particularly worrying as gangs systematically target one store after another across the country”. Article continues below Lord Richard Walker, the Iceland chairman, told LBC that the rise in shoplifting was fuelling the cost of living crisis by eating into workers’ wages and “investment in lowering prices”. He also called on the Information Commissioner’s Office to “be on our side” by making greater use of facial recognition technology. Choose Birmingham Live as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value. ‌ Marks & Spencer