You've got bigger problems than labour relations when "having a pleasant feminine voice" is the success criteria you use to measure the performance of a reporter.
I dunno, this logic sounds exactly like the fucked up logic that went on in the conference room that dreamed up this shitty idea only to have it face reality and be pulled on day one.
It's faster until you need the human operator to keep coming over because the anti-theft sensors keep getting tripped up by false positive readings. Or you need to find some vegetable code that a normal cashier has memorized.
Self checkout is great when it's done well, and total shit when poorly executed. And unfortunately, it's not always just a matter of technology (which normally keeps improving); it's often a matter of business model: sometimes customer convenience is really important, other times loss prevention (which creates frustration) is more important.
I've seen countless good self-checkout experiences backslide into crap experience because the business felt that a controlled client is more profitable than a convenienced client.
For me personally, this comment rings true, but the reality is that if you do feel this way (like I), then you were never the audience for this add. Believe it or not, still plenty of people out there with buy-a-car-as-a-present kind of money.
Think lottery winner, successfully YouTuber buying their parents a car as a thank you, plain old old money types ...
6, 7, 8, 9 is the golden age of the series. I have a favourite among those four, but let's leave it at that.