Sainsbury’s to launch app which helps customers avoid checkout queues

Sainsbury’s are about to end the checkout queue with a new app designed to save shoppers time in store.

With the average lunch break lasting just 28 minutes, every minute counts when it comes to the midday rush to pick up your meal deal.

But thanks to a new app which allows customers to scan and pay using their phone, queues could soon be a thing of the past.

Still in its early stages, Sainsbury’s are currently testing the app at their London Euston Station store meaning that shoppers can buy the £3 ‘On the Go’ meal deal by simply scanning the products and paying using their phone.

As soon as payment is confirmed, customers are free to leave the store without the hassle of time-consuming queues.

“Experimenting with a checkout-free experience is a first for Sainsbury’s and for many of our customers, so we are keen to understand how we can take the concept and develop an offering that is a genuinely useful for those who shop with us,” said Natalie Dunn from Sainsbury’s.

“We may be some way off from rolling this out – but we’re excited to have taken the first step.”

However, some fear that the technology will be bad news for supermarket’s workforce and affect customer experience.

“We know that many customers really value one to one personal interaction they receive from shop workers and there has been research showing that often it is quicker to go through a staffed checkout,” David Williams, spokesman for shopworker’s union Usdaw told the Mirror.

“Reduced staffing can cause customer frustration and it is generally shop workers who bear the brunt of any resulting abuse.”

While Sainsbury’s has already received positive feedback from its most recent trials, the chain aren’t yet sure when the scheme will be rolled out to other stores.

That being said, shoppers can already skip queues in large supermarkets using a portable barcode scanner to log items as they add them to their shopping bags.