On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 21:03:55 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"
wrote:

There are counters with handheld laser scanner. And those handheld
scanners are NOT placed carefully to avoid customers, at least I saw
that in Hong Kong.

Did they do it deliberately? Is it a secret laser experiment? Well...

The most obvious answer would be that they did it the most economical
way, without any regard or concerns for customers or cashiers. It's
pretty easy to "see" conspiracy everywhere, if you are diligent
enough.