Hot take: the express lane self checkout beats the regular line almost every time and I finally have the numbers | Checkout Lane Confessions

Morgan Fox · 2026-09-15T12:05:05.393964+00:00

I started actually timing my grocery runs at the Kroger on Elm Street about two months ago, just for fun at first. For six trips I used the regular lane with a cashier, and my average wait plus checkout was 11 minutes and 40 seconds. Then I switched to the self checkout with 15 items or less, and that same trip dropped to 5 minutes and 12 seconds on average. The big thing was not scanning faster, it was that the regular line had a lady with a full cart and a price check that held everyone up for 8 minutes. I know self checkout gets a bad rap for the robot voice yelling at you, but for a quick run with like 10 things it is not even close. Has anyone else tracked this or am I the only weirdo with a stopwatch in the produce aisle?

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Hot take: the express lane self checkout beats the regular line almost every time and I finally have the numbers | Checkout Lane Confessions - Opinions Matter