I bought groceries using an Amazon Dash cart. I probably won’t again.

This is one of 28 Amazon Fresh stores where you can use a Dash cart to shop, per Amazon’s website. The company also offers them at a few Whole Foods stores and a regional grocer in the Midwest.

As soon as I walked up to one of the carts, an employee greeted me and asked: “Would you like to try this new technology?”

He then showed me how to start using the cart. You have to download the Amazon Shopping app to your smartphone, log into your account, and then pull up an “in-store code” to scan using one of the cart’s three scanners. That way, anything you place in the cart can be charged to your account.

This location had plenty of Dash carts — almost 20. During my visit, I only saw two other shoppers using them, while the others in the store were using baskets or regular carts to do their shopping.

This shopping list allows you to add items manually or through Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated assistant.

Amazon has added instructional videos to the Dash cart that show you how to use it. I watched this one, for example, which clarifies how to remove an item from the cart once you’ve scanned it.

Produce was a good test of the Dash cart since most items don’t have barcodes, and many are sold by the pound, making accurate weighing key.

That meant I had to enter PLU codes — those numbers on the stickers you find on produce — before placing it into the Dash cart’s basket and weighing it using the built-in scale.

These bell peppers were priced per pepper, but I still had to find them on the Dash cart’s screen before placing them in its basket.

I use self-checkout a lot at my local supermarket. Punching in codes for the bell peppers and other produce reminded me of that experience — and made the Dash cart feel like a self-checkout on wheels.

This selection of cranberry juice specials, for instance, popped up as I walked into the aisle where the products were located. The same thing happened later as I walked down the snack aisle and past the cooler case for milk.

The Dash cart includes three scanners: Two front-facing ones above the basket and another downward-facing one under the handle. You could scan most of the packaged goods in the store using one of the three sensors.

The position of the barcode on some products made scanning difficult, though. This four-pack of tonic water had its barcode on the bottom of the cardboard holder, making it tough to scan while keeping the glass bottles from slipping out.

Unlike many self-checkouts I’ve used, which give you an error message when you rearrange stuff in your bag or knock something over, the Dash cart didn’t mind when I had to rearrange my purchases. I also didn’t encounter any problems consolidating things into my shopping bag.

While looking at the alcohol selection, I decided to see how hard it was to remove something from the cart and my bill.

Initially, I chose a can of hard seltzer, scanned it, and placed it in the Dash cart. Then, I picked it up out of the cart and put it back in the cooler.

This screen popped up when I returned the can to the cooler. I confirmed that I had indeed removed it and proceeded to add a different choice to my cart.

Given that the cart relies on its internal scale so much, I wanted to see what would happen if there was a discrepancy between the items on the screen and what was actually in the basket. (No, I did not steal anything, and neither should you.)

I started by scanning this box of mac and cheese and placing it in the basket. Then, I put it back on the shelf.

I was still getting charged for the mac and cheese even though it wasn’t in my cart anymore. Once I hit “No, my receipt is correct,” I could keep shopping, and neither the cart nor the employee working the exit for Dash cart users caught it.

This is a big difference from Just Walk Out, which Amazon touted as capable of catching whatever customers walk out with — down to whether the avocado they picked up was organic or not.

Despite my last sub-par experience with Amazon Fresh’s coffee, I decided to pick up a cup just to see how the Dash cart would handle it.

There was no barcode to scan on the cup, so I entered a PLU number on the screen and set it in the cup holder. After all, what if I wanted to sip as I did my shopping?

But the Dash cart’s scale didn’t appear to extend to that part of the cart, since it didn’t charge me for it.

I felt like the hot coffee might spill on my shoes and the floor if I moved too quickly. Fortunately, I was near the end of my shopping trip.

An employee greeted me as I pulled into the lane. To my left were regular self-checkout options for customers using traditional shopping carts.

After a quick verification, the employee directed me toward the entrance. She didn’t check any other part of my purchase and didn’t catch the box of mac and cheese that I had returned to the shelf but not removed from my receipt.

I got an email immediately after I went through the Dash cart lane confirming what I had purchased and charging my payment method on file with Amazon.

As I left the store, an employee was waiting to claim my Dash cart. That meant I couldn’t take the cart with me and load everything into my car.

Fortunately, my purchases all fit into a reusable shopping bag I brought. But if I had done a proper weekly shopping trip, I probably would’ve needed to either take the cart to my car or pull up to the store to load everything.

Using the Dash cart felt a lot like self-checkout: You have to scan everything yourself and punch in codes for some items. And, if you change your mind about something, you have to remove it from your receipt using the screen.

It’s a far cry from the promise of Just Walk Out, which involves no scanning on the customer’s part — other than to identify yourself when you enter the store.

My experiment with the box of mac and cheese also shows that, just like self-checkout, Dash carts aren’t foolproof. Many retailers are pulling back on self-checkout because of theft, and it seems like the Dash cart has similar vulnerabilities.

Do you work at Amazon, Amazon Fresh, or Whole Foods and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com