M&S puts self checkouts in CHANGING ROOMS despite warnings of 'major' shoplifting scourge

Sacha Berendji, M&S's operations director, said: "We'd like customers to be able to walk straight into the fitting room with no queue, try on what they've chosen, then pay there and just walk out."

He added that the brand is in the process of adding one self checkout per changing room area - but it would add more based on demand from customers.

But his plans fly in the face of warnings from within M&S itself.

The supermarket's chairman Archie Norman has said that theft by middle-class customers was "creeping in" - and has blamed faulty self checkouts for the furore.

But Berendji counselled that M&S would have its staff "hosting" changing rooms to make sure customers paid before leaving.

He added: "Shoplifting is a major problem in this country, but there are things that we're all doing to make sure we can mitigate some of those losses.

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"This is all about choice. If you want to be served by a colleague, that's absolutely OK and you always can be.

"But if people want to serve themselves, they can do that instead."

The changes are part of a wider overhaul across the M&S empire - over the past 18 months, it has opened 31 new stores and spent tens of millions of pounds refurbishing 45 of its existing stores in London and the South West, with a further £32million investment slated for branches in the Midlands.

As part of the refurb, M&S is also adding larger self-service conveyor belt checkouts to its food halls, which look similar to typical staff-operated conveyor belt checkouts - but with self-scanning technology - which are meant to be used for larger grocery shops.

Meanwhile, Sainsbury's has also been trialling larger self-service checkouts in an efficiency drive - but other retailers have been reviewing how many they have in store, with some shoppers losing patience with them.

In August, Morrisons had told The Telegraph it was removing some of the checkouts from its branches as it admitted it had "gone a bit too far" with them.

But Berendji said: "Where some companies may be scaling back, maybe they feel they need to offer more choice to customers. But we've never gone down a full self-checkout route apart from in some railway stations."