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Checkout girls and boys at the grocery store could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a roll-out of self-serve checkouts by a major supermarket chain in Down Under.

Melbourne, Apr 21 : Checkout girls and boys at the grocery store could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a roll-out of self-serve checkouts by a major supermarket chain in Down Under.

Woolworths and Safeway supermarkets has announced that it intends to have self-service checkouts at more than 70 of its stores around Australia by the end of June this year.

Woolworths spokesman Marty Hamnett said that to prevent shoplifting, people would be prevented from bagging items without scanning them through technology that tallied the weight of products.

If the bag weight does not match weight calculations based on product barcodes, staff would be alerted.

He said that this method was already proving to be extremely popular.

"It is so popular that approximately 20 per cent of transactions go through the self-serve checkouts," News.com.au quoted him, as telling the AAP.

"Of course, they will never fully replace standard or express checkouts but they are certainly a handy alternative for the busy shopper."

He added that the new system did not mean that manned checkouts would become absolute.

"This is not the death knell of manned checkouts ... and any change in staffing will be absorbed throughout other parts of the store. Unions have been consulted throughout (the system's) development," Mr Hamnett said.

ANI