There's an article about how grocery stores are losing potential revenue through self-checkouts. It's because without having to stand around waiting for someone to scan all your crap, you're not as tempted to buy impulse items like magazines and candy.

That's the upshot of research being released tomorrow by IHL Consulting Group in Franklin, Tenn., which provides market analysis to the retail industry and its IT vendors. According to IHL, consumers report buying junk food, supermarket tabloids and the like 45% less frequently while scanning their own purchases than when checking out the old-fashioned way.

"Retailers are being forced to rethink their merchandising at the front end as they deploy self-checkout systems," says IHL President Greg Buzek in a press release. "The impulse displays have not caught up to this new technology. By definition these are impulse items – thus they must engage the senses. Retailers such as Meijer and Kroger have adjusted by offering items such as rotisserie chickens and fresh baked breads to rely more on the sense of smell to drive sales rather than simply visuals when trapped in a staffed lane."

I think the study doesn't tell you much though. The real question is how that 45% less frequent purchase in self-checkout stacks up against more impulse buying in the regular lanes, but also takes into account the cost of the cashier's wages. It may only be $8 an hour, but I gotta think that that would tip the balance at least a little bit. Especially if there's a second person bagging...then that's double wages!

One idea could be extending the racks of impulse items past the start of the self-checkouts, since usually you have to wait in a line that starts further back if they're all occupied.