Self-Service Checkouts

Locally Home Depot has had self-service checkouts for a few years, the local Safeway just added them within the past year. I tend to like them because I have control, even though the checkout clerk is faster.  But here's a post on a chain possibly removing such checkouts, with an interesting comment from Sweden:

Are all self-checkout aisles set up like this in the US? Reason I ask is because where I live (Sweden) we use a slightly different approach. When you go into the store you grab a hand scanner on the way in. As you go through the store you scan each item before putting it in your bag. Items that needs to be weighed are weighed where you pick them up and scanned right away. So, when you're done you simply go to the self-checkout aisle, "upload" your purchase and pay.

 Makes sense to me. Another commenter says people would take the scanners, but tagging them like department stores do clothes should handle that.  I suspect there's two reasons for the US version: path dependency--that's the way things happened to develop and, perhaps, the learning curve.  It's easier to help customers at the checkout line than if they get stuck somewhere down an aisle.