Originally Posted by
Reindeerflame
The OP started out with a discussion about a cashier not knowing the difference between say, zucchini and cucumbers.
Aren't there some possibilities here when self checkout is used?
For example, if one produce item costs 60 cents per pound, and another costs $4.00 per pound, suppose a poor flustered confused consumer presses the wrong button and ends up buying the $4.00 item for 60 cents? Because even professional cashiers are easily confused by the multitude of produce items, I can see how it would be reasonable for an ordinary consumer to also be confused.
There would appear to be no enforcement mechanism here because the only "check" is the weight of the item...and of course a pound of feathers has the same weight as a pound of lead.
Self-checkouts aren't completely unmanned. In every store I've seen that has them, there is 1 cashier assigned to all of them (4 or 6 or however many there are) that checks IDs for alcohol purchases, scans coupons, etc. S/he has a computer at his/her little station that tracks everything going on at all of the self-checkouts, and they are (sometimes) paying enough attention that they'd be able to tell if you try to buy shiitake mushrooms for the price of lettuce or something like that.