yes, reading this article as European (that never visited the US) was a weirding experience. I lived in 4 different countries in Europe, and that's exactly how every supermarket work.
And to be fair, I thought that every supermarket in the world worked like that...
Can you imagine when the Americans will find automatic counters instead of cashiers? :)
Self check-out seems even more common in the US than in many European countries.
No offense, but it sounds like you need to travel more if you assume that businesses everywhere work like in a few European countries. Consider the vast differences in many Asian countries, to start.
If the automatic checkout counters even look like they have a scale I won't waste my time. Not once have I made it out without the machine requiring an override, no matter how carefully I place and scan items. Thankfully it seems the scales are becoming less common.
If I'm physically able to do it, would otherwise need to wait longer to get through a cashier line, and don't have anything else to do with my time while waiting in the cashier line it seems like it's to my benefit to use the self-checkout on principle. It saves me time and costs me virtually nothing.
And to be fair, I thought that every supermarket in the world worked like that...
Can you imagine when the Americans will find automatic counters instead of cashiers? :)