I would think that an ad for something would paint that thing in a favorable light, not make it look gross and weird and unappealing.

So we're having a conversation about the Wal-Mart style self checkouts, which you've not only never experienced, but apparently can't even imagine.

To borrow from an earlier comment of yours, we're in an "alternate reality," so your conversation should be grounded in that understanding.

Your entire comment seems premised on the mistaken assumption that every self checkout system is implemented in the exact same way.

I use self checkout at certain stores, and avoid it at others.

And the store that this whole post is about, Wal-Mart, is definitely one of the stores I'll avoid self checkout at. Their system sucks.

Also over here cashiers don't bag your items for you, so you have to do that anyway

I'm a lot faster at bagging when I'm not also scanning. The human cashier divides the labor to two people, which makes it faster.

In the name of theft prevention and legal compliance, they do not give self checkout customers the same powers as actual cashier employees:

• Self checkout customers cannot verify their own age for age-restricted items.
• Self checkout customers cannot scan something and report the number of duplicates (e.g., scan a can and punch in that you're buying 8 of them).
• In most stores, self checkout customers are policed by the system to make sure that each item is placed onto a scale that weighs everything, and stops the process if weights don't match up.
• The ergonomics and flow of self checkout doesn't allow for a conveyor belt style rapid scanning, because a self checkout station is a tighter space and tends to require bagging as you scan, instead of scanning and bagging separately and independently.
• The frequency of produce code entries means that customers tend to be much slower to enter foods that don't have bar codes.

As a result, self checkout tends to be slower for customers who have more than 20 items. That might be offset if there's a longer line for regular cashier, but if there's no line the employee cashier is much faster.

There's a literal character already named Shu Mai.