There aren’t a lot of stores in my area offering self-checkout lines, much to my chagrin. In fact, I’ve only used them a few times, mostly when travelling in Minnesota. But I love them, problems and all.

Fact is, few things annoy me as much as shopping. It’s not just the crowds I despise — although despise them I do — or the crowded aisles, the poor layout or even the annoying muzak. It’s the lines I hate, and even more than that, the sluggish clerks who cause them.

So I’ll put up with the occasional nagging electronic voice that instructs me to “put the item in the bag,” even when I already have. (Hello, packets of taco seasoning don’t weigh anything!) And I’ll flip and turn produce around looking for that little sticker with the number on it (although an alphanumeric keyboard would be rather simple to add to the checkout machine). I’ll bag my own purchases — more stores are expecting customers to do that these days, anyway — and I’ll swipe my own debit card.

I’ll still get out of there faster than many of the folks waiting in line for a real, live cashier. And that’s the sad part, because what it boils down to is the fact that stores are training and paying employees who are demonstrably slower than folks just walking in off the street.

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