Thank you ADA. One of the great progressive legal breakthroughs in the US. Maybe one day we can have a legal environment where we can make progress like that again.

It depends on the reason why they're stopping you. If they actually think you are stealing, then no, they can stop you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopkeeper's_privilege

You've never been to a CVS, Walgreens, or RiteAid?

Technically I go to a CVS pharmacy in a Target. RiteAids are not near where I live. And have been in Walgreens a few times.

Also Ross, CVS, Walgreens, Kohls, Dicks, Ulta, Burlington, Sephora, most clothing stores, many large gas stations.

I bet it works better for Costco because they don't stock any items with weights low enough not to be registered by the scale.

Also, the last time I went to my local Costco, you were no longer permitted to check yourself out at the self-checkouts. They didn't remove them, but they had started using them as cashier-staffed checkouts.

Mine still lets you scan your own items. I bet they only have employees scan items at stores with higher loss rates.

I don't condone theft... but I do remember a day before self checkouts existed, and stores had to hire enough cashiers to be faster than their competitors. Those dozens of checkout lanes at the front of big-box stores weren't always decorative, they used to all be staffed during busy periods.

Yup, the speed has not gotten better, it's just that it's on me to be speedy as opposed to somebody that gets paid for it.

It's a lousy deal for everyone except the business.

They are individually slow but highly multithreaded. The single cashier that stores hire these days may have a 10% higher clock speed, but their queue length is high.

Sounds like the problem is that we aren't hiring enough cashiers.

Using a Kroger self-checkout is tantamount to waterboarding. Hesitate for a quarter of a second before placing your item on the scale? Angry prompt. Put an item on the scanner (which itself is another scale) but it doesn't scan within half a second? Angry prompt. Get three angry prompts? Now you get a fourth angry prompt, except this one can only be dismissed by a staff member, and we've already established that they're few and far between.

I've given up on actually bagging my items while checking out. I can't rearrange anything in the bags, or move the bags, without the checkout machine throwing a hissy fit. So no, it's not actually faster, because I have to bag everything after paying for it. It totally breaks the pipeline of the checkout.

There are a few problems.

- Real estate: Self-checkout takes minimal floor space. Stores can fit ~10 stations in the area of 2 cashier lanes. Even if you hire more cashiers, there’s no room to add lanes.

- Demand vs. staffing: Checkout demand is dynamic, staffing is static. You can’t instantly add cashiers during a rush, and you don’t want them idle when it’s slow. Self-checkout stations are basically ~free to run.

- Cart size: Trader Joe’s works without self-checkout because their stores are small, carts are tiny, and checkouts max ~20 items. Their cashier lanes are smaller but occupy a bigger share of store space than Walmart or Kroger. In big stores with huge carts, no one wants to be stuck behind a full cart. Once you pick a lane, you’re locked in even if another line moves faster, whereas self checkout lanes are serviced by all machines.

But in the big stores with huge inventories, no one wants to wait behind a person with a huge cart and once you commit to a lane, you're stuck, even if someone else finishes faster.

Shops could have trusted fast self checkouts become add hoc cashiers .

Depends on where you are at. Shrinkage runs around 1.6% on average in the US, but it can vary quite a bit by location. If you are in a rich quiet suburb, you will probably not see it. If you are in a rough neighborhood, or a very dense urban area, you probably will.

I have lived in neighborhoods where theft is unheard of, and I have lived in neighborhoods where I checked to make sure each item hadn't been opened before putting them in my cart.

Whatever is more conventional depends on the convention for whatever the plate is called in the respective location.

> Every other live service manages with non-gambling skins.

Most games that are that old, don't survive.

Arms Deal came out in 2013 [0]. 1.6 came out in 2000, so that is 13 years (not considering CSS came out in 2004, and CS:GO was in 2012, without any monetization).

Fortnite is coming onto 8 years old now. The idea of it being around for 5 years longer is not particularly alien.

[0]: https://blog.counter-strike.net/2013/08/7425/

e: Actually, I should really be focusing on the time from Arms Deal to the present, which is 12 years. So, Fortnite has even less time to catch up to CS' current lifespan with gambling.