>Most of the time it does take about 30 seconds, also you don't have to get your stuff out of your bag and you know all along how much you're going to pay.
And this latter has an interesting side effect.
At the time these readers were introduced the "message" to the public was "your convenience, faster checkout" (while actually the reason was "let us reduce the number of cashiers").
What was soon found out was that the "poor man's average shopping" was raised by some 10-15%.
Imagine you go to the supermarket and you only have in your pocket a single 50 Euro (or 50 dollars) note.
You put things in your basket making a mental calculation of the total amount in order to avoid, when you checkout, if the total is more than 50, to have to leave some item (and also to avoid the "social shame").
With the new method, where you can see your progressive total, that kind of shopping has raised from 42-45 to 48-50, i.e. people use "all they have" without risking to "look bad".
And this latter has an interesting side effect.
At the time these readers were introduced the "message" to the public was "your convenience, faster checkout" (while actually the reason was "let us reduce the number of cashiers").
What was soon found out was that the "poor man's average shopping" was raised by some 10-15%.
Imagine you go to the supermarket and you only have in your pocket a single 50 Euro (or 50 dollars) note.
You put things in your basket making a mental calculation of the total amount in order to avoid, when you checkout, if the total is more than 50, to have to leave some item (and also to avoid the "social shame").
With the new method, where you can see your progressive total, that kind of shopping has raised from 42-45 to 48-50, i.e. people use "all they have" without risking to "look bad".