Unexpected item in the bagging area. There is no unexpected item. There is a bag, which the machine told me to place in the bagging area, and the bag has weight, because bags have weight, and the machine has decided that this weight is suspicious.
I stand there like a criminal. A light flashes above my head. A teenager with a lanyard comes over, taps a code into the screen without looking at me, and leaves. I have been absolved by a child.
I would, genuinely, rather queue for a human. The humans are faster. They do not ask me to confirm my age for a bottle of sparkling water. They do not say “please wait for assistance” in a voice that has clearly been told to sound patient. But the humans have been removed, so I am left negotiating with a scale that has trust issues.