"You Can't Speak To Machines": Woman's Petition Against Self-Checkout Kiosks

At a time when digital payment technology is making rapid progress, a woman in London has launched an online petition which says "stop replacing people with machines". The petition on change.org is against self-service automated kiosks at Tesco.

“You can't speak to a machine,” 69-year-old Pat McCarthy told the BBC.

There are many like Ms McCarthy who say the new self-service tills are too slow, and her petition has been signed by more than 100,000 people.

“These new tills are not accessible for people who don't have credit cards and can only use cash or those with little confidence to use these self-service card-only tills - myself included,” Ms McCarthy's petition says, adding that the automated system make up 3/4 of the tills now at Tesco.

Ms McCarthy further says in the petition that she loves chatting with the staff as she lives on her own, but “now that experience has been taken away from me”.

A Tesco spokesperson told the BBC that the human staff is “absolutely vital to our stores” and that they “will always be on hand to help our customers”.

People who have shared the petition on Twitter are using the hashtag #BringBackTescoStaff.

Meanwhile, a number of retailers are installing advance system to make payments hassle free and quick. Leading financial services corporation Mastercard is testing a technology in Brazil that will only require a smile or a wave of customers' hand for checkout.

Last month, another company came out with an innovative idea to embed a chip in your hand that you could use to pay by swiping your hand over a receiver.

The company called Walletmor uses Near-Field Communication or NFC, the technology being used by smartphones for years.