I first encountered this in non-banks at Fry's Electronics over a decade ago. It struck me as odd initially, but I quickly realized how much more efficient it was and began to prefer it -- especially when I ended up stuck behind a 10 minute checkout in which the person insisted on paying with a cheque.
It's really important at Fry's, when often as not you just get an empty box or a piece of paper saying "Give this man a monitor" and they have to send somebody out across the store to actually pick up your item. Or when you bring out your government purchasing card and they don't believe it's real, so you have to stand there for an hour while they try and figure it out (true story).
All the wholefoods in NYC (that I've been to anyway) have done this. You know the voice that tells you which register to go to? That guy used to work (maybe still does?) at the one on 7th and 24th, and his job was to direct people to check outs.
