Aussie rips into Coles and Woolworths over major change to supermarkets trends now

A Coles trial of making one of its supermarkets entirely self-service by removing all the conventional checkouts has outraged a rival local grocery chain in South Australia.

The trial at a Coles outlet in Northpark, Adelaide, has been slammed by John-Paul Drake, director of Drakes Supermarkets, who said its shops will not follow suit.

'I don't know why anyone would want to put a whole shopping load through a self-scanner. There's no way I'd want to do that,' he told 7NEWS.

'We are definitely not even thinking about going 100 per cent self-scanners.'

Mr Drake, who has worked in the family business for more than three decades, said his chain wants to keep a personal connection between shoppers and staff.

He said what he calls the 'front end team' are the people who have the last point of contact with the customer and that communication is vital.

'When you go and speak to a checkout, it really doesn't do anything other than beep, beep, beep … does it?'

But a Coles spokeswoman said the supermarket giant made the change to help customers 'check out more quickly'.

'Self-service check-outs are a great option for customers because they offer convenience and efficiency when shopping in our stores,' she told the Advertiser.

She added that nobody would lose their job over the change.

Shoppers given no choice but self-service at Northpark were less convinced about the lack of choice, though.

Dennis Galea, 76, from Clearview tried it out, but was not happy with the outcome.

'It's confusing and I don't know how to do it ... I don't think I'll come back.'

Woolworths, too, has been has recently come under fire for checkout technology that's 'treating every customer as a suspect'. 

Its self-service system uses cameras and

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