Mostly because if you have to rearrange the bags at all, it sets off the weight sensor, and you cannot proceed until an attendant comes over and overrides it.
Never had a problem with that myself - though I admittedly haven’t ‘rearranged’ the bags much beyond sliding them from one area of the sensor platform to another to make room for the next thing.
I have been informed (and was surprised to discover was true) that, while you can’t pick things up from the scale and put them back on, you can remove them from the sensor entirely once they’ve been on it (and been acknowledged by the system as having been on it). So if you wanted to do something like double-bagging, you could take the bag, grab a second bag, and once the double-bagging has been completed you could put the bag on the floor next to the sensor, not on it. This should avoid confusing the sensor.
Or, if you anticipate wanting to double bag (and you should), then you can just pull off the extra bag and put it inside the other bag first, before you put any items into either bag. This way you won’t have to shuffle things at all, other than to get them out of the way.
In the same cart you used to get them to the register.
I almost always use baskets myself.
Still not seeing how it’s harder or slower to bag things and put the bags into the cart, but ymmv, one supposes.
So when you use the self-checkout, there is never anyone behind you in line? I find that hard to believe.
I only use it when there are no people waiting. If there are people in line for the self check-out, I’ll go wait in line in a lane.
Most of the time, especially down at the pharmacy side, there is no one waiting at all. 6 machines and maybe 2 people at them.
“For your convenience additional towels are available upon your request”
-Seen at every single hotel with only a solitary towel next to the bath.
I typically have two problems with self-checkout. One, no registers are open, so a bunch of people that have never used it before are in front of me, slowly puzzling their way through the process for the first time.
Two, produce. I buy lots and almost always somehow select some weird expensive version of a perfectly ordinary food. Last week I bought a pound of seedless grapes that rang up for ~$9. Turns out the system thought I bought something called Moon Drop Grapes, despite the fact Kroger doesn’t sell them because damn near no one in KY would buy grapes that cost $8 a pound. I’ve had similar issues with bananas, apples, plums, potatoes - key in what produce it is, get a couple of icons that all just say banana and some number, touch one, and discover I’ve actually selected Organic Peruvian Jumping Plantains that are $10/lb and not even available. Then someone has to come over and void it and tell me to select Bananas/4022 rather than Bananas/4023 next time, because everyone should know that.
Short term interest free credit cards
I really hate this one, especially because there’s no filter to exclude these Prime Pantry items. If I check the ‘Prime’ selection in the filter, it’ll show me real Prime items…and also the Prime Pantry stuff. Wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t exclude them from the search when I want to search for things that are just Prime.
As for the self-checkouts, they piss me off for two reasons. One, they’re very noticeably slower than the normal checkouts. At the normal checkout, the cashier scans items quickly, sometimes no more than a second apart, and they register properly. At the self checkout, I have to scan an item, then wait a second for it to register that, then put it on the weight thing, and only then will it scan the next item.
And of course two, the whole weight thing. Not only is it part of what’s slowing the thing down (I’m pretty sure the entire system is just plain slower, maybe on purpose even, than the one real cashiers get, for some reason, but the weight check thing just makes it worse), but it’s also the number one cause of hassle and problems when using the self checkout.
You know what a good self-checkout would be? A completely normal goddamn checkout system, with some interface adjustments for user-friendliness, and customer-facing. There, simple, done! No games with some nonsensical scale/bagging area, no intentional slowness, and no forced delay between scanning items. I want to have a dozen cans and be able to scan them in with the same beep-beep-beep-beep that a cashier does at the normal checkouts, quickly scanning one thing with one hand while my other is dropping the first thing in the bag and so on. I’m starting to gravitate back toward normal checkout lanes because of the self-checkouts being obviously inferior because of all these limitations they seem to put on them.
Pretty much anything a windows computer does to try and make things “easier” for you. Windows 10 is a pain in that way. Don’t try to be helpful, just sit there like a good computer until I tell you what to do.
On the other hand, I confess that both Google pay and contactless cards in general have been very convenient indeed, some of the comments on here notwithstanding. I’ve never had a problem and here in the UK (and in Hong Kong and Australia where I recently spent a couple of weeks) their use seems widespread and hassle-free.
The best is the self-scan system. You just scan the items as you shop, pack your bags perfectly as you go and then breeze through the payment aisle, takes about a minute. No human interaction needed at all…bliss!
Never seen this, ever. What kind of hotels are you staying in?
I’ve seen the sign that you should place towels on the floor to be replaced or hung up if you are going to reuse them, but I don’t remember being in a hotel with only one towel, let alone one that has such a sign.
I generally prefer the self-checkout at the grocery store. Many of you have been talking about weighing each and every item… really? I’ve never used a self-checkout that requires this (Portland, Oregon area). The only things I have to actually weigh are things that are sold by the pound, mostly produce. Everything else, scan and drop in the bagging area…
…And this is where I find most of the problems arise. Sometimes it goes smoothly, other times every third item I scan and drop gets me the “unexpected item in bagging area, please wait for assistance” message from the machine. Or I open up a new plastic bag to put stuff in, and suddenly the checkout thinks there’s a foreign object there. Or it will suddenly start yelling at me for removing an item from the bagging area, when I have done no such thing.
You don’t have to weigh every item–that is not what people are saying. The “bagging area” secretly weighs every item. That is why you get the “unexpected item in bagging area” message if you put something there that you didn’t scan first, or if you pick something up from the bagging area before you have checked out.
Dynamic Currency Conversion
Spend more, sometimes a lot more, just to pay in ‘dollars’ overseas.
That’s a great idea (I’m going to stop listening to all those other "GaryM"s…).
I love self-checkout, because I dislike people. Or at least having to chat* with them as I’m checking out.
*Trader Joe’s (where I’m a daily shopper) is the worst:
*“So, looks like you’re grilling out tonight.” *
“Good guess, IF I weren’t a RawPorkchop-itarian…”
“You’re a… c’mon…”
“Naah, I’d admit I’m grilling out, IF it were ANY of your business…” (exaggerated raised eyebrow)
“Ha, ha – touchée! Stay away from that trichinosis!”
I had a hard time with self-checkouts when they first started using them around here, in the early to mid '00s, IIRC. Every time I used one, there’d be at least one hangup, if not more. But either they’ve improved, or I’ve adapted, because I rarely have a problem with them now, and using them is usually a good deal faster than waiting in line for a checkout clerk.
The PLU for the apples I usually buy is 4131. What kind of apples do I buy? 
Just found out the last time through the grocery store that I can punch in that code, instead of trying to find it in the produce menu. That was about the only remaining issue I had with the self-checkouts (and it was a minor one at that), and now it’s gone.
The one genuine problem with self-checkouts is that the bagging areas at many stores are pretty small. And if you have a lot of stuff, you can easily overwhelm that tiny space.
All the self-checkouts I’m familiar with, there’s never anyone behind ME. They’re waiting in line for the next self-checkout machine that becomes available, out of usually 4-8 machines.
I’ll let the free market find a solution to this ‘problem.’