Whoever designed the Waitrose self-checkout was a master in the art of annoying one's customers. Not only there's a camera pointed at you, the machine will urge you to bag an item "or press finish and pay" as soon as you take a few extra seconds e.g. to solve a Backpack Problem with a can of sardines and a packet of pasta etc. And they're supposed to be the up-market chain?

The large Asda near me does this, too. Not happy about it but not sure what can be done to stop it. Probably needs either Scottish Parliament or Westminster to enact a privacy law and I can’t see that happening.

Perhaps it’s already covered under the European convention on human rights, but I don’t know if that still applies.

That's the second reason I avoid self-checkouts whenever possible, honestly. The odds of me being hassled because of some sort of surveillance messup or because I did something wrong at the checkout are substantially lower if an employee is the one ringing up my purchases.

Just make sure you pocket stuff before reaching the checkout then.