Avoiding this practice completely might become more and more difficult, I’ve seen self checkout systems ask for extra money.

There's a small deli near me that has a self checkout system and asks for a tip, but the tip goes to the kitchen making the food, so I do think that's fair enough in a tipping culture.

Self checkout in a grocery asking for tips is a new level of dystopian though.

Post pictures, please.

Not mine but some pictures here:

- https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/tipping-self-checkout-machi...

- https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/182csd2/i_go...

Makes sense to me. Terminal maintenance, electricity all these cost add up. So tip is due. After all it is customers' responsibility to keep track all expenses business incur during course of its operations. Paying just listed price and taxes is so "heartless".

I keep forgetting that listed prices, at least in the US, can be before tax.

By contrast, in the EU prices are so transparent that whenever there is a sale (in person or online), the new price has to be accompanied with the lowest price from the last 30 days - so that the customer could check how big that sale really is.

I'd really like a way to guilt trip the management at stores that do that, but I don't know how. They aren't there to confront - even if I threw a fit at the checkout line, the people responsible aren't the ones who are there.

Maybe it needs to be at a shareholder meeting?

You communicate to management that you are unhappy with the business practices by not giving them revenue.

They can't quantify what business practice is causing customers to leave though. They can really only quantify who comes to the store. In the US, most stores put a URL for a feedback form on their receipts. I've used these a few times to air out my grievances. I like to think it works - the bike rack and the additional self-checkout registers only came after I called the CEO a lazy loser nepo baby a few times in the feedback forms.

There are far more egregious things to guilt trip shareholders meetings over if you are going for that.