[Gigachad]

It seems that in general, the US lags behind in retail technology.

In Australia, close to all supermarkets are majority if not entirely self checkout. Even a lot of retail brands like hardware stores and clothing stores are self checkout.

The ones like Uniqlo where you just drop the items in and it instantly scans them all are incredibly nice to use.

[shric]

The ones in Australia aren't perfect though. I use Coles and Woolworths mostly in the Sydney CBD:

- bad touch screens that lag.

- even more lag when you're trying to pay.

- frequent (about 60% of visits) requirement for staff because it disagrees that I've put something in the bagging area, or some other reason

- unnecessary and slow modal dialogs about rewards programmes, receipt etc. I wish there was just a "leave me alone and let me pay by card" button that just lets me tap and pay.

I still use them most of the time because there is almost never a queue, but if the human checkout lines are empty or almost empty I'll use them instead, it's much faster.

[scme0]

My wife and I have found that the self checkouts at Coles that have the conveyor belt (like the manned checkout lanes) are the best as they don't have a scale so you can scan stuff fast and it won't make you wait for it to check the weight for each item. The smaller self checkouts are horrible though. Only ok if you're just grabbing a few items.

[govg]

Data point of just 1, but even in a small college town in the Midwest US, 50% or more counters at the grocery stores I've visited have been self checkout. Some places are almost entirely self checkout, to the point where if you need assistance it's hard to find an actual person employed by the store.

[wholinator2]

Same experience in a _very_ small college town in Midwest US. Though, the walmart did just "upgrade" their self checkouts. They improved nothing! They added a bunch more cameras and apparently the thing now has some predictive visual algorithm that will not allow you to scan multiple identical items at a time. They still haven't added the tap to the card terminal! Just let me tap! Everyone else does, crazy they haven't figured that out yet. They also have started making their greeters check receipts, which is insane knowing the culture of the again incredibly small town. I just walk right past them. Check my receipt in hell, nice old lady or wheelchair bound man, i got places to be!

[vintermann]

On a trip to a sparsely populated part of Norway I hadn't been to before, I ran into my first unstaffed grocery store. You checked in with a bank card (they did that thing with reserving a 0.50 transcation) and it was self-service in there. Presumably someone would be in from time to time to restock the shelves.