34K self-checkout machines employed in the US stores

25% of grocery chains are trying self-checkout registers now, with some 34,000 machines in use in stores in 2003, said IHL Consulting Group. The researcher predicts that by 2007 there will be 244,000 self-checkout machines in stores and that virtually every chain will at least some of them. Wal-Mart has self-checkout in about 840 of its more than 3,000 stores, and is putting the equipment into all of its new stores as they open.