I just nipped out to post cards to the owners of my local barber's and hardware store and popped into Tesco for some more last-minute non-essentials. Some woman was out trying to buy satsumas
on Christmas Eve (!). No chance. I bought mine a week if not longer ago.

I went through the self-scan checkouts, which is normally against my principles because I don't work for Tesco and nor do I want to do anyone out of a job, but I made an exception because I was just pleased to able to get any shopping done today. As it happened, my going through that checkout saved me very little time but cost Tesco a fair bit in time, assistance and goodwill, so the cosmic balance is restored. The bagging area wasn't big enough for my 16 items. The software got confused when I took my full bag off the scales to fit a second bag on in its place, and the message kept alternating between 'unrecognized item in bagging area please remove it before proceeding' and 'item removed from bagging area please replace it before proceeding,' so I was stuck in a loop and had to summon assistance (again).
I think my dislike of self-scanning checkouts is vindicated, and I shall continue not to use them in the future, with a vengeance.