Supermarket self-checkouts

At Price Chopper's Burlington store, eight of 19 checkout lanes are equipped with automated "Easy Scan Checkout" machines. Each of the two sets, known as "quads," has four automated checkout stations and one employee to verify age for alcohol purchases, witness credit card transactions and assist shoppers.The rest of the duties are left to customers: punching produce codes, weighing vegetables, scanning for prices and bagging food. To pay, shoppers feed cash into the machine or swipe a credit or debit card."They are embracing the opportunity to participate in a process that will help them move faster," Price Chopper spokeswoman Mona Golub said of the shoppers, adding that those who ring-up their own purchases experience "a sense of accomplishment."

Source: coolbusinessideas.comAdded: 29 March 2007