The Economist takes a look at self-service.
In a study commissioned by NCR (a maker of ATMs and other kiosks), IDC, a market-research firm, found that nearly 70% of customers in five different countries said they were willing to use self-check-out. In America, the figure was 78%. That would suit the supermarket chains just fine, since a kiosk can handle the workload of two-and-a-half employees at a fraction of the cost.