I'm standing there with one lonely apple, and the self-checkout machine is screaming "UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA" at my completely empty reusable bag like it's just discovered a grenade. I look around to see if anyone else heard this accusation, but everyone's studiously avoiding eye contact—they know what's about to happen. The bag has been sitting there for three seconds, betraying nothing but air, yet the machine treats it like a crime scene and demands I remove the mysterious phantom carrot immediately. I comply by holding the bag up to the light like a medieval peasant checking for witchcraft, then place it back down, and the machine screams again—apparently the bag's second offense is not learning from its first one.