Supermarkets are ditching self-checkouts in a sign that we can push back against the technofuturist tide

Cost-of-living pressures have encouraged shoplifting at the same time as the self-checkout machines are making mistakes, leading to a rethink at some supermarkets. Photograph: AzmanJaka/Getty Images

British supermarket chain Booths is scrapping its self-service machines and replacing them with living, breathing, talking, thinking human cashiers. Hooray! In a world that seems to leap, minute by minute, from one dystopian scenario to another, this is happy news.

Even better is that it’s not just Britain that’s trading in the automated misery chant of “unexpected items in the bagging area” for a trumpet of hope. CNN reports that major American chains including Costco, Walmart and Wegmans are also rethinking the loveless use of machines that can not tell an avocado from a banana no matter how loud you yell with frustration at it.