Checkers self-checkout trolley here to stay? International experience shows human oversight still needed

CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit speaks to Brandon de Kock, Director of Storytelling at BrandMapp.

Listen below: 

Checkers is testing self-checkout trolleys in Cape Town, letting shoppers scan, bag, and pay without standing in line.

RELATED: New Checkers smart trolleys help you speed run your grocery checkout

WATCH: Rolling into the future? Checkers trials South Africa's first-ever 'smart trolley'

De Kock believes retail staff are essential despite stores introducing technology to advance shopping solutions and expand their digital footprint.

While technology offers new experiences for retailers, reports from international grocers show that there's still an issue with customer service.

"It's a really interesting experiment. I am fascinated to see how things turn out," says De Kock.

"The international experience, with the exception of grocery, people are saying that the customer experience was lacking... customers just preferred to have a human interaction, and it wasn't always obvious that it actually was saving time... things can go wrong, even with robots. There's definitely pros to it, but the cons always seem to outweigh the pros... that seems to be the international experience."

- Brandon de Kock, Director of Storytelling - BrandMapp

"You have to give Checkers kudos for being an innovative retailer... it is an international idea and it hasn't really been tried to any extent in South Africa. If nothing else, they're just making a statement about their core philosophy as a retailer - try everything you can to change, enhance or improve the shopping experience, and it seems to be what they've done so far."

- Brandon de Kock, Director of Storytelling - BrandMapp

"Almost a third of shoppers will tell you that the service they get at a grocery store is the primary reason they shop most often at that store... especially older people who like the engagement they get at that store."

- Brandon de Kock, Director of Storytelling - BrandMapp

Scroll up to the audio player for more.