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Those self checkouts aren't automated. Those are having human customer do the checkout work.

Automated would I walk out the door and rfid or whatever senses what I'm carrying and charges my account.

Or, I don't go to the store at all and shit just shows up on my doorstep, periodically or whenever I hit a button.

I feel like a lot of people miss this point. The technology has existed for years although clearly the cost to implement a touch screen console has also plummeted.Even accounting for that most self-service checkouts are just a tilled turned around.

I wonder how much of this is super markets jumping on to the fact people are conflating automation with using a machine and assuming self-service checkouts are proof of a technological revolution. At the end of the day the same amount of work is being done at the till as if a cashier was working but it is now being done for free and a company won't miss a chance to capitalise on an opportunity like that.

Amazon Prime Pantry seems to do the latter. We've been getting some of our stuff delivered that way the past few months.

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