I'm aware. My point above was that they didn't really automate the checkout. That would involve augmenting the system so that it could scan all the items and bag them without a cashier. Instead, they've traded the cashier's paid labor for the customer's unpaid labor.

Half yes and half no. They automated the greeting and payment processing, but the scanning and bagging is done by the customer instead of the cashier. That's offloading of labor, free of charge. Pretty clever, actually.

This has been in the cards for a long time. Minimum wage bumps are just adding extra incentive to improve the solutions. The more repeatable and brainless your job, the faster you'll be replaced by a bot.