I read some of these threads with amazement. Paying by cheques? In supermarkets? How charmingly antediluvian you Americans are!

In most civilised nations (New Zealand for only one example), in 2011, you scan the goods yourself with a hand scanner as you pick them off the shelves.

You wheel your full basket to the checkout, scan the checkout code into the scanner and replace it in a socket. Your items bought/total is displayed at the speed of a fast computer (as near instantaneous as makes no difference). Then you pull out your cashcard, swipe that through the machine, enter your pin, and you're gone, gone, gone.

Once in a while you'll get a random check, when the computer decides to ask for it: this involves a member of the staff re-scanning everything to see that you are being honest. But really, having to stand behind anyone hand-writing in a checkbook certainly wouldn't cut it in the convenience stakes, here!