Supermarket self-service tills: who likes them? How can they possibly replace the human interaction of a checkout assistant, someone who understands the situation and can remedy any problems almost immediately (although some of the assistants I've encountered this might not apply to).
It's one of those inventions that works perfectly on paper, which is genius only in theory. In practice, it's a whole lotta hassle. Is it actually possible to get through a whole transaction without a hitch?
Those dreaded words: "Unexpected item in the bagging area". Why the hell is it unexpected? I've only just scanned it and you've only just charged me for it! Surely it's the most expected item possible?
"Please hold and wait for assistance" is another one. Some poor, flustered assistant has to waddle over and wave a magic swipe card in the air to rectify any hang-ups the machine has with your 'so light they don't register on the scales' crisps, and apologise for the hold-up before sliding off to the next mini-crisis. These poor devils are slaves to the red flashing lights above the self-service tills, running hither and thither like an epileptic in a disco.
Worst of all is when you're buying alcohol, particularly if you're buying more than one bottle or can, and the repeated "approval needed", which basically translates as: "Look over here, there's an alky".
And sometimes you get the smartypants assistant who will regard you carefully, then ask: "Are you over 18?" before deigning to swipe their card for approval.
Idiots.
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