[TSUTiger]

They do that at Circle K[0] today using the same tech from Mashgin. It's meant to be a self-checkout, but you literally have one employee standing and watching this one checkout (sometimes 2-3, but usually 1-2). It's not always accurate, requires some hand-holding at times, and slows down the already slow lines at Circle K. It's a bit faster than the article implies and does not require a staff member, but still slower than a human would be.

Meanwhile over at QuikTrip, there's one person checking out two people at a time. Suffice to say, if both stores are available, I will always choose the QT.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c1kbWAttus

[kulahan]

I use circle-K because it's like 3 blocks from me. The self-checkout seems to work fine. I buy alcohol on the rare occasion I drink, and even then the cashier just steps to the side for one moment to check my ID, presses a button, and then goes back to what he's doing with someone/something else. It never overcharges me, at least, and it always seems to pick things up in just a couple moments. I suppose I take the time to space them out a bit, but I always seem to have a perfectly reasonable experience.

That being said, I see the same one-person-two-registers thing at 7-eleven, and it's very, very fast.

[rsynnott]

... In what possible way is this better than a normal self-checkout machine with a barcode reader, of the sort that's been around since the 90s?