The self checkout lane. Is there any body in there?

I stare dumbfounded, eyes aglaze sliding that package of meat over the glass plate waiting for the ding. Nope. Slide a little slower. No. Grip the sticker tight on both sides, flip the thing upside down, elevate just a little on the toes, ELBOWS IN TIGHT....ding GOT IT!!! Next I scan the little bitty envelope of yeast. Ahh, instant gratification. Oh, wait. No. I hear that calm, reassuring voice "Please place the scanned item in the bag." immediatly followed by "Help is on the way." as I look up sheepishly only to find no help there and I don't dare turn around to the others in line behind me just yet. What happened to eye contact? What happened to personality? Such things have slowly seeped away, so slow we don't miss them in the abyss of mass commerce until that shiny beacon of humanity illuminates what we have been missing. Today I was enlightened during a quick trip to my local CVS drugstore. I was there to get some Glade candles that were on sale to illuminate and raise the ambiance in my humble abode. Well, actually to be truthful, just to make the garbage stink a little less in this heat. Now, I am really good about bringing my reusable shopping bag with me so I plopped it on the counter with my stuff and the cashier out of pure habit dropped everything in a plastic bag after each swoop of her scanner. After she was done I gently reminded her of the bag I brought and she just chuckled, more to herself at first, looked at me and remarked "You know, I should know better because in China (where she is from) we don't use plastic bags at all. If you want plastic there, you have to pay for it." This ended up causing a short, simple friendly conversation about the environment and waste turning what could have been an ego bruising (am I really so technologicly inept I can't work a darn checkout scanner?) moment into somthing human.