That’s because the supermarket has revealed it has gone cashless at self-service tills in some of its UK stores.

Customers have noticed signs have been put up confirming the self-checkouts no longer take cash.

The signs read: “Self-checkouts are now card only. You can still use cash at the till.”

Lidl first introduced its self-service checkouts in the UK in 2017 which initially accepted card and cash payments but not all stores have them.

Martin Quinn, a leading advocate for cash usage and founder of Campaign for Cash shared a photo of the sign with The Sun, which was taken at his local shop.

He explained: “This is a huge misstep from Lidl.

“By moving away from cash, it’s as if they don’t understand their customers, many of whom use cash to budget and control their spending.

Brat summer is over. It’s officially air fryer autumn.

— @LidlGB (@LidlGB) September 10, 2024

“Lidl’s demographic includes people on lower incomes who prefer using cash. Why are they being penalised?

“This change will mean longer waits at the few remaining staffed checkouts for cash users.”

Those who want to continue paying for their shopping with cash will need to use Lidl’s manned tills.

Lidl said: “It’s always our aim to ensure that our shoppers have the most positive shopping experience when visiting one of our stores.

“That’s why we pay really close attention to what they want and how they like to shop.

“Whilst the self-checkouts across our estate are a mix of card only and cash/card, we make sure that in stores where there is a clear customer preference for paying cash, we have that option available for them.

“At the same time, all of our manned tills take cash and in stores with card only self-checkouts, we will always have a manned till available with colleagues on hand to support.”

Recommended reading:

Morrisons to ‘cut back’ on self-service tills in some stores

It comes as other supermarkets such as Morrisons confirmed it would be removing some self-service checkouts as it will be “cutting back” the technology across some of its stores.

Chief executive Rami Baitiéh previously told The Telegraph that Morrisons is “reviewing the balance between self-checkouts and manned tills” and is removing some from stores after “installing too many”.

He explained: “Morrisons went a bit too far with the self-checkout. This had the advantage of driving some productivity. However, some shoppers dislike it, mainly when they have a full trolley.”