Self-service is the practice of serving oneself, usually when making purchases. Aside from Automated Teller Machines, which are not limited to banks, and customer-operated supermarket check-out, labor-saving which has been described as self-sourcing, there is the latter's subset, selfsourcing and a related pair: End-user development and End-user computing.
Self-service fueling
A Chinese buffet restaurant in the United States
A soft drink vending machine in Japan
A buffet can be either a sideboard or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve themselves. A form of service à la française, buffets are offered at various places including hotels, restaurants, and many social events. Buffet restaurants normally offer all-you-can-eat food for a set price, but some measure prices by weight or by number of dishes. Buffets usually have some or mostly hot dishes, so the term cold buffet has been developed to describe formats lacking hot food. Hot or cold buffets usually involve dishware and utensils, but a finger buffet is an array of foods that are designed to be small and easily consumed only by hand, such as cupcakes, slices of pizza, foods on cocktail sticks, etc.
Swedish smörgåsbord buffet
Modern sideboard furniture, used for serving food
Dinner buffet in Americus Hotel (1955)
A small cold buffet at an art school exhibition