Woolworths continues to reduce their cash tills

Woolworths appears to have extended its move away from cash transactions, reducing the number of tills accepting cash at its supermarkets.

According to Moneyweb, about three-quarters of the tills at Woolworths are now labelled as ‘cashless’. This means that tills only accommodate card payments, while specific tills handle both cash and cards.

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To emphasise a faster checkout experience at the cashless tills, Woolworths Food stores have introduced promotional signage.

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK FROM WOOLWORTHS CUSTOMERS

In stores in smaller neighbourhoods, approximately one out of three or four open tills accept cash. Larger stores on the other hand have two or three cash-accepting tills out of around 10.

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The single-queue system in Woolworths stores has meant that customers paying in cash are having to wait at the front for a suitable till.

This has sparked negative feedback on social media. Some customers have expressed confusion about the changes, assuming the supermarkets no longer accept cash at all.

However, many retailers in South Africa have already implemented cashless payment systems, as reported by The South African in January.

Initially, Woolworths implemented ‘cards only’ tills during peak times. The overall shift is said to be the retailer’s goal of managing safety and security within store, and not just addressing the high costs of processing cash.

In other words, minimising the cash float and streamlining cash-ups by having fewer tills that accept cash.

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CHECKERS CONTINUES TO GROW MARKET SHARE

With Checkers targeting the affluent market, competition between the two retailers continues. Woolworths reported an 8.4% sales increase at its Foods unit in the second half of 2023, with underlying product inflation averaging 9.1%.

Checkers saw a 13.1% increase in sales at Checkers and Checkers Hyper during this same period.