This is standard at self-service checkouts in Australia. Both Coles & Woolworths (the 2 main supermarkets) have this imployed. Unrelated to the topic, they also watch what you bag and will lock up and sound an alarm if it think you've added an item without paying. Absolutely atrocious. But back on-topic, these stores also have cameras in every single aisle, from ever perspective. They absolutely track people throughout each store.

I believe they also have cameras watching the scales / scanner platform. If you put e.g. an orange on it and then choose to manually input what type of item it is, orange is usually the first item on the list of suggested possibilities.

Do the same experiment with the orange in an opaque bag and it will still usually have it on the list (guessing by weight) but not always at the front of the list.

I would assume this will also trigger an alarm if you were to try tricking the system by obscuring the barcode on some steak and checking it out as apples by weight (but have not tested this hypothesis for obvious reasons).

You can't say this and then not name the corporate supermarket...

It's Whole Foods. I've grumbled about them before but didn't want to seem like I was on a vendetta against one particular company; my impression is that many other large grocery firms are equally dystopian.

Trader Joe's is the only large chain that seem to take a different tack. They pay well, managers/forepersons also do a share of floor as well as desk work, stand-up meetings seem task-focused rather than hierarchical, employees seem to have much more discretion and job satisfaction etc. My first job as a teen was in grocery and I continue to take an interest in how different firms operate.

You think that's bad? One of the grocery stores near me has a self-checkout security camera aimed directly at the customer's bald spot and similarly displays it on screen! I had to cut them off entirely to preserve my mental health

If you can't (or don't want to) avoid shopping there, maybe carry a post-it note to cover the camera while you're using those machines?