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Some Walmart employees say customers are getting hostile at self-checkout — and they blame anti-theft tech
(www.businessinsider.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
If it was for old people, I can't imagine why they would have taken away the ability to just mute it if you don't need it. When the transaction finishes, it unmutes by default for the next person.
I just don't think it being audible is for the attendant as you can't hear them with so many sounds, and you have a screen already that shows everything. For old people seems to be the most obvious, but why would they remove the mute of that is the case. In all reality it's likely some corporate decision, that in their testings made them more money with no mute button vs with mute button. When I worked at a huge national grocery store chain (ahold) it seemed like every decision was made by people who've never worked in a grocery store. So wouldn't surprise me if the reason was some nonsense.