Meet Priam. He is a first year Mechanical Engineering grad student at MIT. He has NEVER used the self-checkout lanes at the supermarket. Let's watch him as he checks out for the first time all by himself

Priam does a pretty good job on his first try. Very impressive! He had a small glitch with the bagging area, which causes many people, both experienced and inexperienced, a lot of grief. There was also a brief moment near the end where it was obvious he could not find where he had to swipe the card to pay for his purchases. Possible bad design on the part of the self checkout system manufacturer? He was able to get through the entire process without having to get an attendant's help.

I also need to buy some groceries, so I ask Priam to help me checkout some of my items:

makings of a sandwich

oranges

10 cups of yogurt (they were on sale)

and a yucca root (it looked interesting)

He did well with the deli sliced meat and cheese, and oranges. He got through the 10 cups of yogurt, but it was torture listening to the audio lady repeatedly tell him how much he had saved. And well, the yucca root...that turned out to be a hopeless endeavor. It wasn't even listed in the directory!

I gave Priam some cash to pay for the items. Look at where the receipt comes out and the change.

The coins and bills are so far apart!