I hope that is sarcasm. If anything, it keeps people with 2 or 3 items out of long lines, where they tend to be grumpy. In all of the stores I have seen self checkouts in, the same number of people are checking, but with shorter lines.
They are indeed great for just a few items. Unfortunately, Albertson and Kroger in the DFW area are using them as the main resource and have reduced regular checkers to as few as ONE or TWO..which makes the self line just as time consuming.... ~sigh~
If they kept the regular checker lines and only added the self service lanes, it would be much much better. But they really are using them as a way to reduce head count, at least in these stores in my area, which does nothing to improve the service.