What I hate even more is they more and more stores are disabling the mute button, leaving you with Loud and Louder as your only volume choices.

When I worked self checkout at Safeway, first thing I would do at the start of my shift is mute every self checkout register. You can tell if a customer needs help from the lights alone; no need for the obnoxious, repetitive script. But unfortunately a lot of cashiers are too stupid to realize what the lights are for, so they crank the volume so that their Boomer ears can hear them. Drives me nuts.