Here is a video compiling various self checkouts I filmed. This all started with Carrefour, which I filmed because of just how similar they are to the ones in the U.K. Even containing the same UI and voice! Though most self checkouts do contain the same software and are made by the same company so it shouldn't be too surprising.
Here's a little description I wrote for each of the self checkouts (excluding carrefour because I just described it)
Tesco self checkouts (and tills as well) run custom linux based software with their own voice and UI. The software for the tills is very similar to the self checkouts, with the only differences being some of the messages and features. Some of the tills can even be put into self checkout mode and can be swivelled around. My local tesco extra only has 6 self checkouts because of this.
Poundlands are apparently old Sainsbury's and Tesco self checkouts which were refurbished and installed in Poundland. The software, however, is Windows PoS 2009, a Modified version of Windows XP designed for tills. There are newer versions of Windows PoS that are based on Windows 7 and 10. These versions of Windows were/are given security updates years after the consumer version stops. Windows PoS 2009 got updates until 2019, 7 until 2021 (it's still getting updates 2024 if you buy that extention updates thing) and 10 until 2029. XP, 7 and 10 had/have updates until 2014, 2020, and 2025 respectively on consumer editions.
Wilko and Spar appear to have fully converted some of their tills into self checkouts. Some of these self checkouts are really clunky and hard to use. In the case of spar, they added a really stupid voice which goes "Please wait for the card transaction to fully complete on the terminal". Both self checkouts run windows 10 and in the case of spar have really blurry UI.
WHSmith self checkouts (Service stations) are an insult, they don't even hide the mouse cursor (which is obviously a Windows XP one). And have the nastiest UI I've ever seen on a self checkout. Thankfully the high street and airport ones are a lot better.
M&S ones are odd, they used to have the same voice as other self checkouts until around late 2021 when they started introducing new software (the old software was likely PoS 2009 or 7 and needed updating to 10), M&S appear to have released the software to stores in a very unstable state, and had a lot of strange announcements that didn't make sense and placeholder graphics. Because of this, the rollout was very, very slow. The software gradully got updated in the coming months, fixing out the placeholder graphics and glitches. In August 2023 they replaced "Please put the card in the card reader and follow the instructions" With a nasty placeholder text to speech voice. They also added a text to speech "Thank you for shopping at M&S". Around this time, everything else was mostly patched out, so I don't get why they just didn't wait until the announcements were fully ready. Thankfully M&S now have a real person say "Thank you for shopping at Marks and Spencers". The rollout of software is still not complete yet, as some stores still have the buggier software, and there's even stores with the old software, like Simply food in Richmond for example.
I want to try and film more self checkouts in the future, mainly at these places:
Waitrose
M&S (Old)
Sainsbury's
WHsmith (High Street)
Tesco (Cash)
Tesco (Hybrid till)
Boots
Asda
B&Q
0:00 Intro
0:10 Tesco
0:46 Carrefour
1:38 Wilko
2:12 Poundland
3:05 WHSmith (Service station)
3:30 Spar
4:08 M&S
4:44 Outro
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