[bluejellybean]

I can recall people saying similar things about grocery store checkouts. Lines were quicker if you went through the self-checkout, but people still stood around to have a person do the work and socialize. At some point in the last last few years that seems to have completely flipped, there are rarely people going through the human lines with the bulk doing self-checkout.

[dlp211]

My hypothesis is that self-checkout created a new way to shop for groceries, that is, less more frequently. I'm certainly guilty of doing this, picking up odds and ends, but I still use a human to check me out if I need to use a cart to shop that day.