[mattmaroon]

Sounds like the issue in your area is lack of competition. I live near a lot of grocery stores (coincidentally can walk to two of them in under five minutes and I don’t live in a walkable city) and it would be hard for me to give that up.

[taylodl]

I also live near a lot of grocery stores, all different chains, and what the OP describes is the reality at all of them. I always choose a human cashier when available because it's almost always faster.

Honestly, I think the issue may be more due to labor shortage than penny-pinching.

[SOLAR_FIELDS]

Isn't labor shortage a factor of penny-pinching? I'm pretty confident that if said cashiers were being offered double the rate that they are currently being offered that there would be no labor shortage problem.