<P> The benefit to the retailer in providing self - checkout machines is in reduced labour costs: one attendant can often run four to six checkout lanes with the work of the cashier now being assumed by the customer . The size of a self - checkout machine is also smaller than a traditional checkout manned by a cashier; thus, a store can save space, which could be used for more shelves, display cabinets or additional checkouts . </P> <P> Customers who do not want to interact with the cashier can use the self - checkout . </P> <P> Self - checkout can also sometimes be faster than using a cashier lane . This can reduce the length of checkout lines (British: queues) and wait times . In a survey by NCR, 42% of customers said they liked the convenience of self - checkout, while 39% said it was faster than the cashier - assisted line . 90% of those surveyed responded as being users of self - checkout, with 7% of respondents saying they will always use self - checkout regardless of store lines and number of items . Survey respondents in Italy and Australia said they "always use self - checkout" at a rate of 13% and 9% respectively . </P> <P> One advantage is that self - checkouts can, if the necessary investment is made, provide a partly multilingual service . (It cannot be fully bilingual unless the goods are labelled in all the relevant languages, which is often not the case .) For example, Tesco's Welsh stores which can serve customers in Welsh, whereas finding enough fluent Welsh - speakers as staff can be difficult because in some areas only a small proportion of local people have Welsh as their first language . </P>

When were self service checkouts introduced in tesco