retrograde step, it is measure of civilisation to be able to manage self check out
You are supposed to run the whole payment process yourself. Become an expert yourself over time how to navigate all the issues and fineries of the system. You are doing a cashiers job. But no advantage for you.
Human tills have been removed and only because of that the queues on the self checkout are shorter. I am sure for some tasks self-checkout can actually be quicker but more often than not there is no difference or it can be longer.
So now you are standing there and have been good and done their job, for no reward. And once a food price crisis comes up, will the supermarket remember your unpaid contribution to reduce their cost?
Really, don’t do other people’s job.
Where do you draw the line here? Do you put your own gas into your own car? Because up until recently and still in one or two places that's someone else's job. ah you have an EV... ok do you buy your own clothes? That's the job of a personal shopper. do you prepare your own food? That's the job of a chef or a cook. Do you dress yourself in the morning? That's the job of a valet, hard t. Do you park your own car? That's the job of a valet, silent t. Do you locate your table and seat yourself in restaurants, cafes or at the cinema? That's the job... etc.
It's poor form to invite someone to dinner at your house, then make them cook it when they arrive.
That's where the line is drawn. Not having a personal valet-silent-t isn't doing someone else's job. It was never a position to begin with.
I'm trying, but I can't fathom what point you think you're making comparing the living standards of plebes to the Queen of England's unless you were born to landowners during apartheid or are a current member of the Saudi royal family.
https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2010/03/gas-pump_fire_that...
https://content.nfpa.org/-/media/Project/Storefront/Catalog/...
My reward is not having to stand in a long line. I avoid cashiers like the plague, except in the case where a register just happens to open up near me and I'm the first or second one on line.
Not to mention that self-checkout lets me decide what goes in what bag without having to put it on the conveyor belt in a specific order.
Self checkout is just all-around far better than cashiers.
Even with lines, usually faster in the human-run checkout.
If you want faster lines, find one with only men in it. Men usually aren't the main grocery shopper in the family, so they're usually buying less, and usually aren't dealing with rambunctious kids, so they can focus on unloading and loading groceries. No purses either, so the credit card is usually in the machine right away.
I've pointed this out to my wife a few times and she simultaneously curses her fellow women and grudgingly accepts that I'm right and uses the logic. She's quite efficient, but I have to admit that if I saw her in line I probably wouldn't get behind her if she was smiling. (If she was wearing her resting bitch face, probably fine - typical sign of professional women who aren't inclined to spend any more time than necessary in the grocery. You find a woman in a pantsuit, she's probably faster than most men.)
We also have an upscale local grocery chain in town with baggers that will take your stuff out to your car if you want, but I hate it because it simply takes too long. Never go there unless I only need a few items, or something that only they carry. Their olive oil is sublime!
I like self-checkouts at the grocery store because: (1) It is one less person touching my groceries. A cashier has touched everyone else's stuff, which has been touched by everyone else. (2) I'm at least as fast as the cashiers at the stores I go to, and generally faster. And at the stores I go to, there is almost always a open self-checkout, so I don't wait in line. (3) I want certain things in certain bags, because the bags will go into different-sized coolers in my car. (4) Some cashiers don't bag things very well - heavy things bagged with bread or chips, cans on top of easily bruised fruit, cold stuff not put together, and so on.
But not everyone is as picky as I am. :-)
To add to this: in any of the stores that have self-checkouts I walk straight past the person tasked with "checking the receipt against your (now paid-for) goods" at the exit. (looking at you, Wal-Mart).
For years, these retailers have insisted "No we're not treating you like a criminal after spending a couple hundred dollars in our store, we're just making sure the cashier rang you out properly wink wink". Well, you don't get to fire your trained cashiers and expect me to subject myself to that any more.