"Nobody cares about the man in the box." (The Prestige)

I love the Self-Checkout at grocery stores. Zip-Zing done. Only 3 or 4 items? Swipe, swipe, punch, bag. The ultimate convenience when you only have a few items. Or if you happen to need to buy certain products and don't feel right going through a regular checkstand. Like Crunchy Corn Bran, prunes, prune juice, and a box of Ex-Lax.

However, the Self-Checkout only works WHEN YOU CAN USE IT! Why do stores put them in, only to limit the access time where more than one is open? Obvious answer: not enough staffing to monitor the stations, to deter theft. But really, is that such a burden considering these checkouts are right next to the door?! Good planning and execution.

So now we have a convienence feature in a store that has now created an ever greater inconvienence. Not only am I forced to move to a different line because the patrons at the only Self-Checkout are typing and scanning their 14 different vegtables (these products take the longest amount of time to purchase) and having a hard time comprehending the alphabetical-push button interface, but my time is wasted. And time is the only thing you can't make more of.

A solution: allow patrons to enter in a payment method first (a debit/credit/patron card), the patron's zipcode or phone number, and allow them access to the Self-Checkout. Or just require patron card holders to be able to use the lanes w/o live monitoring.