The barcode scanners seem slower and more finicky than what the staff use. Plus the extra delay while the machine wants to ensure I put an item into the receiving zone.

The ones at my usual store have accent lights that turn green when it's willing to take the next scan. The machines register scans perfectly if I wait for the light and dont even try if I don't wait, which used to look like being flaky until I noticed what the lights did.

Are the self-checkout isles busy taking pictures of me from every angle before they approve the swipe?

I'm pretty sure it recognized my bananas the second-most-recent time without me having to find them in the menus. But then the most recent time I had to look them up again...

There was also a time that another customer whose station happened to be facing towards the waiting line needed staff assistance with something, and it made the (clearly impatient) staff person watch a video of the person scanning things before letting them do whatever it was they needed to do.