If self checkout is optional, yes it's great for small order quick shops. However too many stores are moving to 100% self checkout with just a single lane or two for full service and that's when it becomes a problem.
Grandma's got a cart full of clothes, no computer experience, and all day to scan and fold each item one at a time...
Lol, you're right. I was thinking how the single lane is usually the service desk, where they are also dealing with returns, online orders, customer issues, etc, I hardly consider it a dedicated lane experience. It becomes clear the intention is 100% self checkout while that lane is for exceptions.
Plus there are some items that are genuinely easier to deal with with an actual human, like anything really light or anything with purchasing age restrictions. If you try and go through a self check with a birthday card and a box of cold medicine it's pretty much a guaranteed bad time.
Nah, self checkout is WAY faster when there's no line, but self checkout waiting behind a line of those goobers would be WAY slower. One time I scanned, bagged, paid, and loaded up an entire cart of groceries in the time it took the dude next to me to scan like a handful of items.