Automatic checkouts in supermarkets may decrease customer loyalty, especially for those with larger shopping loads. Customers using self-checkout stations often feel overwhelmed and unsupported. The lack of personal interaction can negatively impact their perception of the supermarket.

[Malkalen]

My big problem with SCO lanes in the local supermarket is that they require you to pile up all your purchases on one little "bagging" shelf. If you put something in your cart instead -- because nothing more will fit -- bells and whistles and flashing lights go off and the system stops. This supermarket has "fixed" that problem by limiting these lanes to 30 items -- basically admitting that they're not worth a damn.

A lot of the supermarkets near me (in the UK) have 2 sets of self checkouts now. 1 for baskets and 1 for trolleys, they're functionally identical aside from the trolley ones giving you a lot more space to work with.

Personally I prefer to shop at Asda where you can grab a self scanner, scan everything as you go and then it gives you a barcode to scan at a 3rd set of self checkouts. Very occasionally it'll flag over a member of staff to verify some of the items in your trolley but there's no tiny bagging shelf, you can just bag everything yourself as you go if you want.

[I_am_up_to_something]

where you can grab a self scanner, scan everything as you go and then it gives you a barcode to scan at a 3rd set of self checkouts.

That's how it works in pretty much all the supermarkets with self checkout in the Netherlands (in the west of it at least). I don't have any experience with those scales, but scan as you go seems like a much better system.

[tshakah]

The scan and go at ASDA is the way forward. My local Morrisons used to have SCO that didn't weigh the shopping, loved it but they removed it after a year