Situated at the terminus of the self-checkout lane, a small load-bearing, weight-sensitive platform waits for each item to be placed exactly where the scanner expects it, and the Committee convened seven times over two weeks to observe it in situ, four members present at minimum for each session, one abstaining on principle from the fourth session onward for reasons entered into the minutes but not repeated here. Its function, nominally, is to confirm that the item scanned matches the item placed, a reasonable enough premise that collapses almost immediately under real use: a two-pack of yogurt registers as an unexpected item four times out of five, a shopper's own reusable canvas bag registers as a full transaction requiring staff override, and a bottle of wine set down too gently, as though defusing something, registers as nothing at all until nudged.
The Committee's finding, adopted six to one, with one member dissenting on the grounds that the platform is merely doing its job under impossible constraints, is that the bagging area operates on a presumption of guilt it is poorly equipped to prove or disprove. It flags. It does not explain. A red light appears; an unseen employee is summoned by chime; the queue behind you does not care whose fault it was. We noted, for the record, that not one member of the Committee has completed a self-checkout transaction this year without triggering it at least once. We consider this significant. We were not able to agree on what it signifies.