yeeeeah. They’ll have to hire people to work the checkout lanes in that case… which means paying enough to compete with other employers who offer more. Case in point, here it’s like 12/hr here to work in a grocery, vs 16/hr at Amazon. But even if they do this, people will still shoplift. Self checkout didn’t create the problem, it rather treats everyone like a suspect.
The grocery I go to never has more than one staffed checkout lane at any time, typically a very long line of people too old, too stubborn, or with too many items to do it themselves. During the day it’s 8 or 16 self-checkout lanes (minus broke ones), and they close in the evening, so everyone is forced to use the slow staffed checkout.
I fundamentally hate self-checkouts because they were an attempt to eliminate an essential job in the company. I refuse to use them. Frustrares my wife and stepdaughter, but it is my little way to give the corporations the middle finger and force them to have to employ people.
Fair! My mom always refused to use them.
I didnt for the longest time, until the day my friend went through self c/o and took about two minutes, while I took 15 min in the slow lane. Which honestly was less about the employees and more about shoppers who cant figure out how to pay for the two carts worth groceries they got…
I don’t get what the issue is with eliminating unnecessary jobs. It doesn’t create any extra work for the customer (you have to place all items on the conveyer and put them back into the cart either way), it isn’t offloading any extra work to the other employees and it saves anyone involved a fuckton of time.
Technological advancements have the unfortunately intended side effect of corporations having less people they gotta pay to, because machines are quite the competitor sometimes. While I think OP is being a bit pedantic here, efficiency in and of itself is not inherently good – the question should be who’s extracting the profit. If the increased efficiency translates into less working hours… hell yeah. If it translates into record megacorp profits, then… I see no need in eliminating these unnecessary jobs for now – the worker gets their bread and that’s what I care about
I am on a fierce crusade against scanning your receipt to be “granted” exit through the gates. I’m not playing their stupid fucking game, I force the gates open every time as a matter of principle.
Lol, stores think they have a right to hold me in the store against my will unless I dance their little dance? Suuuure, now watch me leave.
