If you’ve been through a self-checkout lane at a supermarket or department store, you’ve probably concluded that “self” is more aspiration than reality. Something always seems to go wrong, prompting the self-checkout machine to inform you an attendant is on the way to help.

Perhaps the scanner can’t scan a coupon or an item’s bar-code. Or the option for yellow onions doesn’t appear to be available, though the monitor is telling you it will take Vidalia, Bermuda, pearl, Maui, red, green – just about any onion but the ones you have.

Then the station keeps insisting you place your two items in a bag even if you don’t want to. The conveyor belt kicks into reverse, and your items are back at the scanner. The time you were supposed to save at self-checkout just turned into a five-minute battle of wills with a machine self-checkout, that only a human equipped with an override key can arbitrate. If human intervention is unavoidable, then what’s the point?

So much for expediency! You go through this once or twice, and next time you decide to take your chances at a regular checkout. A smile and thank you from a cashier beats a frustrating experience with automation any time.

Unplanned Results

Retail organizations started installing self-checkouts about a decade ago to expedite the process and save money on employee compensation. Things haven’t always worked out as planned. While some retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot continue using self-checkouts, others have given up. Big Y Foods, Costco and Albertsons in the U.S., and Morrisons in the U.K have all uninstalled self-checkouts

When surveyed customers about self-checkouts, they found 60 percent of people prefer dealing with a human when paying for their purchases. Many shoppers in Morrisons said they “preferred staffed checkouts because they liked to chat with the cashiers or share a joke,” Progressive Grocer reported.

So the supermarket chain pulled the self-checkouts and, instead, “installed 1,000 staffed express checkouts in its stores in response to shopper demand for fast but personalized service.”

Increased Theft

Customer frustration isn’t the only self-checkout drawback. Theft at self-checkouts is 122 percent higher than at staffed lanes. And the funny thing is, a lot of if is unintentional. As a recent study University of Leicester, U.K., study revealed, there is “an increase in non-malicious ‘thefts’ due to non-scans… the shopper is being asked to do too many things at once.”

Theft and scanning problems were the reasons Big Y scrapped its self-checkouts, according to Progressive Grocer.

Checkout Alternatives

Clearly, the viability of the self-checkout is somewhat doubtful at his point. Some retailers have started leveraging NFC-enabled payments such as Google Wallet and Apple Pay as a more expedient alternative, but the consumer adoption rate for these payment methods is sluggish.

Another alternative is to install Intelligent Cash Drawers and automated cash recyclers, which accelerate the checkout process while providing the human contact that most shoppers still prefer.

Overall, you can’t beat the personal level of service provided by a cashier. A friendly conversation or smile will always go a long way.