Prometheus 6   

Don't be fooled; this is an economics story

More Consumers Reach Out to Touch the Screen
By AMY HARMON

INDIANAPOLIS � Striding into the airport here one recent afternoon, Kimberly Ward did not so much as glance at the two ticket agents waiting at the counter. Like most of her fellow travelers, she instead claimed an automated check-in terminal, touched its screen a few times, and took the proferred boarding pass with a quick smile of thanks.

Ms. Ward, 37, pays for gas only at the pump. She shops at Marsh, a supermarket in her neighborhood that has machines that let customers scan, bag and pay for groceries themselves. Her favorite bank teller is her A.T.M.

Dealing with humans in such situations "just slows you down," she says. "This is a lot more convenient."

A new generation of self-service machines is slipping into the daily lives of many Americans. Rejected for decades as too complicated, the machines are being embraced by a public whose faith in technology has grown as its satisfaction with more traditional forms of customer service has diminished. Faced with the alternative � live people � it seems that many consumers now prefer the machines.

"The main thing is you don't want to deal with the cashiers and their attitudes," said Dexter Thomas, 37, bagging his own pizza rolls and Eggos in a self-checkout lane at Pathmark store in downtown Brooklyn this month. "That's why people come to this line."

Soon they may have little choice. Eager to save money on labor costs, businesses are stepping up the pace of automation. Nearly 13,000 self- checkout systems will have been installed in American retail stores like Kroger and Home Depot by the end of this year, more than double the number in 2001, according to the market research firm IDC. Delta Air Lines spent millions of dollars this year to line 81 airports with chest-high automated kiosks: 22 million of its passengers � 40 percent of the total � checked in by touch-screen this year, up from 350,000 in 2001.