Morrisons is updating its self-service checkouts so that they use a "cheerier" voice over the Christmas period.
The grocer is updating its self-service checkouts across all stores by the end of November. It has used the opportunity to add the voice of actor Ben Whitehead, dubbed "Festive Fred" to the checkouts. His voice was chosen because Morrisons felt it contained elements of Brian Blessed, Terry Wogan, Miranda Hart and Keith Chegwin.
Morrisons has said it wants the voice to be more cheery and festival to ease the stress of customers during the busiest time of the year.
Rather than the much-hated "unexpected item in the bagging area", Morrisons' self-service checkouts will tell customers not to "get their tinsel in a tangle".
Gary Mills, Retail Director said: “We know the Christmas shop can be stressful and we want our customers to leave our stores feeling festive. We hope Fred, along with everything else we do, puts a smile on our shoppers’ faces.”
Self-service checkouts have invited customer fury in the past. In July, Tesco changed its 12,000 machines to feature a "more helpful and less talkative voice". While customers were pleased that some of the checkout's most annoying phrases were no longer used, they were quick to notice that the old "talkative" voice had been female, while the new "helpful" voice was male.
