Next is making a huge change to checkouts to avoid hiking prices but it will leave shoppers divided
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NEXT is set to introduce self-service checkout tills from next month in a bid to cut extra staffing costs from the Budget. The comments came as the chain warned it would have to raise shop prices by 1% this year to cover the impact from the Budget’s tax raid.
![[Next will trial self-service checkouts in stores]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sign-hangs-next-retail-store-961101360.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson told The Sun that shoppers would not have faced higher prices had it not been for the Budget. “It is 1% on what would have been zero”, he said. He revealed that the retail giant was going to start trialling the tills in February or March as part of its efforts to cut costs and reduce the need to raise prices even higher.
The Next boss did not reveal how many stores, or which shops would be selected, but confirmed that if the trial was successful they would be rolled out nationally within the next six months. Lord Wolfson said: “We always start off with a small trial because if things go wrong you can sort it and it doesn't cause too much damage.
"But if it's successful we would want to aim to roll it out quite quickly, you know within six months.". Lord Wolfson said that Next would not be making redundancies but would not be replacing staff or hiring as many as it would have before the Budget’s business tax raid.
Next revealed that it was facing a total £73million increase in wage costs to its £900million annual wage bill as a result of the Budget. The increase in the national living wage adds £21million to its payroll costs while it faces a £20million hit from the change to employers’ national insurance contributions and a further £6million increase from the increase to national insurance.
