[lexszero_]

Here in Finland one retail chain (of the whole multitude of two that operate nationwide) is experimenting with scan-as-you-go approach in a few of their largest stores, and it's awesome. You scan your bonus/discount/client card at the terminal near the entrance, which then lets you take one of barcode scanners from a charging stand (it's only for customers that have said card, but most households have at least one already). Then you put your reusable shopping bag(s) into a cart or basket, and go collect your items and throw them straight into your bags after beeping with the scanner. The carts even have a nice holder for the scanner so your hands can stay free. When you're done, return the scanner to another charging stand near the exit, go to the self-checkout terminal and pay - it will match you using the same client card, which in my case is also linked to my primary bank account (yep, the retail chain runs its own bank, it's a standard Visa and works with GPay). If there are age-restricted items, it will take about 20 seconds for the store employee to come look at my ID and beep their card to allow the purchase to go through (there are also a few other common non-error cases when a human is called). Once in a blue moon they can do a spot check, beeping a few random items from the top of my bag, though that happened to me just twice in two years of shopping there weekly, one of the occasions was at 4AM when I was the only customer in the entire store.

The biggest convenience for me is that I only have to handle the items twice: when I pick them from the shelves, and when I unpack the bags at home. Going to any other store that doesn't have this system now feels like there is a lot of redundant and unergonomic operations.