Probably because, like most of us, they are underpaid, under trained, and over worked.

These can returns are self serve, we have them in MA as well. They are completely automated, all you have to do it can in hole, it spins it for you to find the barcode doesn’t matter the orientation of the can. You can perch the next can on the lip of the hole and it will suck that one in after it scans the next, and you can get a satisfying little rythem going.

Now the feeling OP is referring to is the same one I feel when I go to the self checkout at Aldi and all the lanes are being used by someone with 4 kids running around, olds who scan one thing, stare at it, look around, then maybe put it down in the bagging area or go back to staring at it, or someone hunting around in a bag/purse looking for payment like they were standing in line earlier and could have been PREPARED FOR THIS LITERAL INEVITABILITY.

It’s like people haven’t been going to grocery stores for years, and witnessed the whole thing being done tens to hundreds to thousands of times and the entire process is an arcane ritual to them.

I just want a fast lane for people who have qualified in some way that they are there for one purpose, to leave as quickly as possible and have demonstrated at least a passing competence in doing so. I don’t care how ridiculous this idea is, I want it.