  Self-checkout and self-importance  Bookmark and Share Monday,
Jul 31, 2006  Ever since I first encountered a self-checkout
line, at a deeply dysfunctional Pathmark on Greys Ferry Avenue
in Philadelphia, I’ve despised them with an intensity that even
I’ll admit is entirely unfounded. So I was cheered by this
Consumerist item airing one of my fundamental complaints about
them—rather than getting service you pay for, you do the
company’s job for them, for nothing. I don’t think it makes
sense to discount the prices for those who check themselves out,
though, to answer the Consumerist’s poll. I just think the self-
checkout lines are like those panic buttons mounted on
stoplights at busy intersections that have no effect other than
to mollify the impatient pedestrian. The self-checkout is
basically a giant pacifier for people who can’t stand the
enfeebling passivity waiting in line forces on them—standing in
line, after all, is what the Commies made you do. Of course, the
intolerant who hate lines are probably t