RFID tags will all but eliminate that.
When I read about Amazon buying whole food I thought I read there would not be any check out. You use a card to enter the store and your purchases are charged before leaving the store. Not sure how this will work but I am sure the technology is available.
Yeah they just have to get them on every product.
Pastor friend went through one in Singapore. And that was years ago.
When the guy in the IBM video puts the packages of meat in his pockets I wondered how they pulled it off. I used to customize the software on those printers (early version w/o RFID). One of my last internal customers had one that did do the RFID. The packages of meat will be a piece of cake. So to speak.
[and your purchases are charged before leaving the store]
As you walk through the scanners, the RFID tags are totaled and charged to your account. However your account was set up (credit - debit - store credit - etc).
See the IBM commercial from 2007:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob532iEpqk