SteveC: Self-Checkout Not Our Friend

Let’s be honest: We are — all of us — about one electronic glitch away from being in serious trouble, be it from identity theft to tax fraud. So these self-checkout counters that abound in grocery stores nowadays make me pretty danged nervous. It’s essentially an electronic nanny system, programmed to catch you cheating. Yet it’s worse: The technology not only assumes dishonesty; it assumes competence. Bad, bad idea. See, the weight tallied on the bagging scale is checked to allow the customer to proceed if — an only if — the observed and expected weights match. If they don’t, a disembodied female voice stops you in your tracks. “Unexpected item in the bagging area”/ Steve Crump , Twin Falls Times-News. More here .

Question: Do you feel comfortable enough with your computer competency to use the self-checkout counters in various grocery and retail stores?