Tesco replaces ‘bossy’ female checkout voice

The new voice would be friendlier and would thank customers for shopping at Tesco, the company said
The new voice would be friendlier and would thank customers for shopping at Tesco, the company said
PA:PRESS ASSOCIATION

Her shrill tone will be all too familiar to shoppers at Britain’s biggest supermarket, but now the irritating voice of Tesco’s self-service checkouts is to disappear having upset too many customers.

The supermarket chain has announced that the female voice will be phased out and replaced by a softer, friendlier male version after shoppers complained they found her messages “shouty” and annoying.

Tesco introduced self-service tills in 2003 and now has more than 12,000 of the machines handling millions of purchases every day.

The voice, recorded by Helena Breck, an actress who appeared in EastEnders in the 1990s, tells shoppers that there is an “unexpected item in bagging area” and to “remove this item before continuing”.

Customers who were trying to buy a sandwich or