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Comment by serge2k | Hacker News Reader

I hate those self checkout machines. They are slow and constantly try to error out and alert a human to help me. I'm capable of bagging groceries, just let me do it.

still, there is rarely a line.

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They are incredibly simple to use if you follow the 3 instructions. But hey, people can't even signal when turning reliable, of course a lot of people are going to have problems with these machines.

WORKS4ME, bug report marked CLOSED

I assure you, I can reliably signal turn. I also assure you that any time an item fails to scan on the first swipe, it accuses me of being either an idiot, or a thief.

Really? Mine just say scan and put item in bag.

You have some might fine AI machines ;)

As a former cashier I can certainly bag and scan efficiently. I actually like the machines because it reminds me - but they do get in the way. I'm maybe a quarter as efficient on them as I was on a proper register.

I have a special hatred for self-checkout machines that attempt to monitor your bagging without an escape mechanism. Let loss prevention do their damn job and let me give you my money already. At least I can still vote with my feet and always go to a cashier in these places. Someday I probably won't be able to.

That sounds like hell. A buggy machine talking down to me hits quite a few of my buttons, but at least it doesn't interrupt my checkout process when it thinks I'm stealing groceries. (And given how often the alarm goes off, the loss prevention guys just ignore it.)

There was a Planet Money segment about these. (I think it was Planet Money.) Apparently, there's a setting on these machines for the balance between convenience and loss prevention. It's up to the stores to set it where they want.

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