I started using grocery self-checkouts during COVID, but I've kept using them because there's rarely a line (and I'm a misanthrope). I'd probably go back to using regular human checkouts if I had to dig through all my crap to prove what I bought.
Having said that, I've noticed myself making mistakes. I've accidentally failed to scan an item, and I've accidentally entered incorrect codes for produce. When I notice, I fix them, but I've probably missed a few.
I guess the easiest answer is for grocery chains to reinvest some of those windfall profits and hire more cashiers.
Any time I’m buying more than 3 items, I typically just go straight to a human-operated register.
The grocery store near me has the most annoying security feature on their self-checkout machines. After you scan your item, it must be placed on the checkout shelf before you can do anything else. If the weight is “unexpected”, you’re stuck asking for help. If you have a full cart of items, you can’t parallelize tasks because of this deadlock; the machine refuses to scan the next item until your current purchase is on the checkout shelf and verified.
After you scan your
item, it must be placed on the checkout shelf before you can
do anything else. If the weight is "unexpected", you're stuck
asking for help.
My grocery store had this when there were only a couple of self-checkout machines. When COVID got and they built a bunch more, the new machines didn't verify the weight.
Removing the weight verification would make me reconsider self-checkout machines. There are other stores that I frequent where the weight verification is off, but my grocery store seems to be the only one to keep it enabled.
The part that grinds my gears is if I don’t allow the machine to verify the weight and scan the next item, I have to sit through the entire TTS message that explains what I’m doing wrong before I can correct my mistake and move on.