[jglauche]

I remember the pre-barcode times at Aldi in the late 1980s in Germany. The cashiers would type in numbers into the cash register like crazy. They knew every price of every product and had to put it into the machine. It was at least thrice as fast as every other shop at that time.

It felt like barcodes didn't make it that much faster, but Aldi ones are still around the fastest ones.

While the speed is impressive, it also adds a lot to stress because the cashiers require you to get away as fast as possible.