Not even that, really. There’s always a cashier or two who needs to hover over my shoulder to check an eye or protect against shoplifting or help with a malfunctioning device. The change is in their role. Cashiers are no longer helpfully bagging your groceries, they’re just functioning as underpaid rent-a-cops.
It would be fun to have worked on this tech and then see it helping others by failing or being sabotaged, lol.
The original check-out lanes were already incredibly efficient. Self-checkout is comparatively clunky and time-consuming, which is why you’re encouraged to use lanes for more than 15 items.
I wouldn’t call it particularly helpful, even from a labor standpoint. Everyone is functionally more miserable than they were ten years ago. What we’ve got with this technology is a sunk cost that businesses are loathe to write off as a failure.