[looki]

I live in the Ruhr area. They're definitely still relatively rare (I haven't seen them in the most common stores like Aldi, Rewe), so it's not too surprising you've missed them. I guess that will change within the next couple of years.

I have a pretty good experiencce with O2 also, but I'm aware that it can be completely unusable in rural areas. Luckily, I don't really leave the city boundaries much.

EDIT: I just remembered, I used to live in Karlsruhe, and the Real there also had a self-checkout. I haven't lived there since 2016, for what it's worth. Yeah, not sure why it's confined to larger stores. Perhaps not popular enough to warrant sacrificing cash register real estate in smaller stores for it. Germans don't like new things after all.

[lucb1e]

Ruhr area is not very far from here. I will be on the lookout for self-registers next time I'm in Essen!

As for mobile networks, I think all of them are frequently unusable in rural areas. Between Aachen and Cologne (I most frequently travel there), which is not a quiet route, I think at least half the time there is 2G or nothing at all. I should measure that some time. My work phone (Telekom) doesn't have better reception than mine (Dutch network using O2). Without measuring, I would actually estimate that O2 is the better deal around here.