Marks and Spencer

Queues are to be banished at Marks & Spencer supermarkets with the launch of new self-service tills. The tills, which will enable shoppers to avoid the tedium of queuing endlessly to pay for their shopping, will be tested in stores at Uxbridge and Oxford before being installed in 312 M&S outlets across the country.

The checkouts - called Scot, or Self Checkout Tills - have a touch-sensitive computer screen. The shopper passes products over the barcode scanner before placing them in bags. A picture of the product appears on the screen each time it is passed over the scanner, to reassure the shopper that it is the correct item. The shopper then pays the total amount into the machine. The till also weighs fruit and vegetables.

The system is designed to ensure people do not shoplift or add up amounts incorrectly. Shopping is also weighed after it is added up, to ensure the weight tallies with the products scanned. M&S says the facilities will reduce queues for shoppers while freeing staff to work elsewhere in the store. "It's a really fun way of shopping" a spokesman said. "We believe this gives customers extra choice and we are keen to find out if they agree." At least 55 per cent of shoppers would be likely to opt for the self-service scanner, according to a poll carried out by an American manufacturer. [ The system is already employed by more than 30 retailers across the US. Shoppers in the US are choosing to go to stores that offer this system rather than to shops that do not ]

Self-service checkouts are already used in a number of Waitrose and Safeway shops. In these stores, shoppers pick up a hand-held scanner, running it over the barcode of each product before placing it in their trolley. The list is then downloaded from the scanner at the tills, where payment is made. There are spot checks to ensure that people do not fail to scan their items.

M&S's announcement of the new technology comes two days after a turnaround was announced in its retail performance. The group was named the top clothes retailer in Europe, showing how its recovery plans are starting to pay off. A report revealed how M&S is back in fashion due to its increasingly popular clothes line, and to a new childrenswear collection designed by David Beckham. And despite mixed fortunes, the High Street giant remains the biggest womenswear retailer in the country.

Source : Evening Standard Thursday, September 12, 2002

Vocabulary
the tedium : la contrainte
an outlet : un point de vente
to tally with : correspondre à
a turnaround : un renversement de tendance
a recovery plan : un plan de relance

1 - Que vont mettre en place les magasins Marks and Spencer ?
2 - Décrivez les trois étapes du fonctionnement des caisses Scot.
3 - En quoi ce système est-il fiable ?
4 - Quels sont les deux principaux avantages de ces nouvelles caisses ?
5 - Ces caisses ont-elles de bonnes chances d'être adoptées par la clientèle ?
6 - Comment le système fonctionne-t-il dans les magasins Waitrose et Safeway ?

De "The system is already..." à "... that do not"

1 - Self-service tills (to install) in 312 M&S outlets next year.
2 - The products must (to pass) over the scanner.
3 - Fruit and vegetables (to weigh) by the new tills.
4 - Long queues will disappear when the new tills (to install).
5 - You can't get out without (to pay) at the till.
6 - This system (to use) by US stores for a few years.
7 - These new tills (to test) for the first time in 2000.
8 - In the future shoplifters (to prosecute) more easily.