[DirtyCalvinist]

I've thought about that and I still don't have a good answer. My guess is that it is only marginally more theft-prone than the self checkout stations. It probably helps that the store is in an affluent suburb. They won't be setting up such a system in Baltimore where I live any time soon.

When I lived in the area I only used the system once because it just took too long. My mom stopped using it because she found on one trip she had effectively stolen two items by forgetting to scan them and was so horribly embarrassed she gave up on it.