Self-service check-outs

I had my first dealings with one of these at Tesco yesterday and found them to be an absolute nuisance. They may be convenient if you've only got a small amount of shopping to do but otherwise they're best avoided.

Firstly, you have to put every item you've scanned in the "bag area" (which is touch-sensitive) as the machine won't allow you to scan any other items until it senses some extra weight there. If you've brought a large bag of your own which won't fit in this bag area, you end up either not using it or having to pack everything twice.

Everything has to be scanned individually, even multipacks - very time-consuming when it comes to cans of drink bound together with those plastic hoops, which then won't fit back on.

And that's before you consider the old problem of barcodes which won't scan ...