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Self-service checkouts - what IS the "unfamiliar item in bagging area"? I have never known it be anything other than a bag - what do they MEAN?

Anne Bromley, London, UK

• When I was about 12 one of our grocers built several self-checkout lines. I've always been rather observant, and when I leaned on the tray and the machine began to spew its monotonous rage, I began poking and prodding it just to have a little juvenile fun. So yes, the unfamiliar item is weight on the tray that the machine has not been told will be placed on it.

  Mariah, Mankato, US

• I recently found it's best not to start placing anything in the bags provided for your shopping until you've finished and paid, otherwise the "unfamiliar item in bagging area" is... yes... you've guessed it.... one of their own carrier bags...

  WB, Cambridge UK

• Having complied with The Machine's wishes to not have an "unfamiliar item (i.e. a carrier bag) in bagging area" until I have paid my dues, I then find it's a mad scrabble to get packed, with an admonishing voice repeatedly asking me to "please take your shopping.... please take your shopping.... please........", while those queueing look on as if to say "Get on with it, will you?" Funny world.

  WB, Cambridge UK

• Some of the machines (in the same store) are very much more sensitive than others, I might add - the less sensitive ones seeming not to register the minuscule 'weight' of an 'unchecked out' carrier bag - so you can at least get on with things uninterrupted.... But the horrible 'keen' ones go a bit nuts if you so much as rustle the bags hanging by the weight-sensitive bagging area before paying. (I have been known to tell them to "Shut up"... oh dear!)

  WB, Cambridge UK

• I find the easiest solution to all the announcements is to mute the sound and if it shows an unfamiliar item I just move to another checkout.

  Juptin, London UK