1. My local supermarket offers three self-checkout lanes manufactured by NCR. Two of them are intended for shoppers with 15 items or less. With my basket full of groceries, here we go!

2. With the basket at the end of the conveyer belt, I press the “start” button on the touch screen monitor.

4. Here's a box of pasta. The barcode scanner registers it easily with a “beep!”, and the machine reads out the item's price.

5. I place the pasta on one of the three white bagging areas available.

6. I keep going with other items. I brought my own shopping bag, so I’m not using any of the store’s plastic bags. Oh dear, the bagging area is getting full...

7. How about produce without barcodes? Here are some bananas, the scale registers 1.01lb.

8. I can either look up item, or key in the product code. Let's try looking it up, since I don't know the code for these bananas.

9. I use an alphabetical menu to find the price. That was pretty straightforward and easy!

10. Since I'm running out of bagging space, I try “skip bagging”. I then change my mind and place the bananas on one of the bagging squares. This makes the machine rather unhappy and it triggers an error - "Bagging alert - unexpected item in bagging area. Remove item". OK, OK, I take the bananas away and put them back into my basket for now.

11. Now, let's try the same with some apples.

12. The menu lists 13 types of apples! Hmm, which are these? Definitely not the granny smiths... let’s just select one.

13. That's all I have, let's finish and pay.

14. I'm given a chance to check my items. Everything looks OK.

16. I notice a sign, and pause to read it – oh, it's telling me the codes for commonly purchased products. I don't need these codes now.

17. There's the payment machine, it’s a little further on the right. I slide my card obediently. A graphic appears on the monitor, asking me for a signature.

18. After signing, the receipt is churned out below. That's the end of the machine process.

20. With that , I start bagging my items in my own bag.

21. Total time taken for 17 items: 5 minutes. I wonder if it would have been faster if I went to a cashier...

Then I remember – oops! I forgot to scan my club rewards card for discounts! Oh well.