I always use self-checkout and vastly prefer it. My music, book, or podcast never has to stop, I can scan and bag faster than most employees, and the lines are

I always use self-checkout and vastly prefer it. My music, book, or podcast never has to stop, I can scan and bag faster than most employees, and the lines are normally short or non-existent. I regularly walk up to a self-checkout and process 10x items compared to the person next to me and I’m walking out while they are still working through their handful of items. The only thing that I hate is how the person they do staff is normally MIA or not paying attention. Too often I get “assistance is on the way” which really means “you need to flag down someone”. For everything from “you skipped bagging too many items” (sorry I was buying 4 cases of water), to “you tripped the weight sensors too many times” (again, sorry I’m fast at this and your system is slow/buggy), to “you are buying alcohol or meds that are restricted” (totally understand but pay attention and come over when that happens please). But if I don’t hit one of the cases above (which I don’t in 80-90%+ of my trips) then it’s way better. Even having to wait 20-30 seconds for an assistant isn’t the end of the world and better than waiting in line.m and make small talk while an uninterested kid puts your bread under cans in a bag. Whoever though self-checkout = no staff was a moron from the start _but_ it does mean fewer staff. You can have 1 employee supervising 4-6 stations and if they are halfway competent they can bounce between them checking IDs and the like. Lastly I wish more self-checkout stations had the spinning bag carousels and more space to put stuff. That’s my only other gripe. Sometimes they have like 2-4 bags stations/holders and I often need more than that.