I made a stop at the WestShore Save on Foods today to get some avocado for dinner. After grabbing two of them, I headed up to pay. I was shocked to see the new self serve checkouts. I wanted to pay cash and didn’t feel like trying them out today so I headed for the express line up.

Shock number 2 was the discovery that there were no longer any express lines.

I was wanting to pay cash and wasn’t sure if the self check lines could handle that. I was about to ask someone when I saw the slot for inserting cash. Cool. I proceeded with my transaction and paid for my items without a problem.

Then it struck me. There was approximately 6-8 machines and one clerk running around trying to help everyone. They are really relying on honest people to use them. For instance, the avocados I bought were organic and on sale, making them cheaper than non-organic. They were smaller though. What if I had keyed in 1 avocado and non organic?

I know those systems use weight to verify you are actually buying what you say you are buying, but it wouldn’t be hard to fake them out. I know that doing so is technically shoplifting and could land you in a lot of hot water, but I was through the self-serve checkout machine in 2 minutes. The lone clerk was nowhere near me.

Nice option to have though.