I just see it as the inevitable dead end of a corporate model for running a grocery store which was doomed from the beginning. It is only since 1916 that Piggly-Wiggly grocery stores introduced the open stock shelving that people could shop through the stock and bring it to be paid for at the cashier.
I think that business model has just run its course and we are headed back to the previous model in a slightly modified form where you just gave the grocer your shopping list and they brought it out to you from the stockroom.
The new version is curbside pickup and the return of home delivery. They are still getting some of the bugs worked out but I think we are a lot better off. It solves most of the big problems we face with stores in their current form. Pilferage by people grazing through the aisles. Restocking things that are put in the wrong places, sometimes spoiling when things are not put back in place in refrigeration. It is not subject to the same kinds of product tampering. It doesn't create the problem with flash mobs that has come about. It eliminates the checkout with the inherent risks of both the public and the cashiers not scanning things properly. There is no line for checkout. They are not forced to constantly corral shopping carts and hunt down the ones taken off the property. It reduces the need for large parking lots. It eliminates the nonsense of moving things around in the store trying to optimize product placement. It cuts down on the whole shoplifting problem.
I rarely go into a grocery store any more. I just go to their web page, click on the things I want. I set a pickup time and when that comes around, I load up my little dog and we drive to the store and wait in the parking lot and they magically bring everything out to the car. No standing in line for a cashier. No loading and unloading from the cart to the conveyor to be scanned. No hunting around the store trying to figure out where they have moved things. No waiting around for a price check when things don't scan properly or payments don't go through. It even takes away the problem of impulse buying.
It's incredible that this break down of trust was't foreseen with the introduction of self check outs. on second thoughts is obviously was hence all the camera's . I expect like Amazon the losses are tolerable compared to paying wages.
I never use a self check out , even though I have to track down a human . Self check out means we are doing the work that people used to get paid for. Fortunately they have not made it to the rural area I live in, yet ...
The hourly wages for a robot self checkout system is 0$. We are the robots when we use them also. Again paid 0$ for our efforts. I use them sometimes. It's another counterintuitive reality in the multi reality we live in, the hyperreality. The self checkout system is an invisible slave system. It drains money from the system via human jobs. Mega Grocers expand power. It's another insult they know we will endure! Another crack in society's foundation we will casually resist, for a while! When its robots everywhere we will wish we resisted harder.
A predictable consequence, as well as eliminating entry level jobs for teenagers that existed when I was coming of age. Demands for higher "living wages" for unskilled workers that were never meant to be a career path has ruined so much for the last generation or two of kids who need to develop some skills, experience and work ethic. No wonder they are mostly still helpless and clueless when they get out of college.
I just see it as the inevitable dead end of a corporate model for running a grocery store which was doomed from the beginning. It is only since 1916 that Piggly-Wiggly grocery stores introduced the open stock shelving that people could shop through the stock and bring it to be paid for at the cashier.
I think that business model has just run its course and we are headed back to the previous model in a slightly modified form where you just gave the grocer your shopping list and they brought it out to you from the stockroom.
The new version is curbside pickup and the return of home delivery. They are still getting some of the bugs worked out but I think we are a lot better off. It solves most of the big problems we face with stores in their current form. Pilferage by people grazing through the aisles. Restocking things that are put in the wrong places, sometimes spoiling when things are not put back in place in refrigeration. It is not subject to the same kinds of product tampering. It doesn't create the problem with flash mobs that has come about. It eliminates the checkout with the inherent risks of both the public and the cashiers not scanning things properly. There is no line for checkout. They are not forced to constantly corral shopping carts and hunt down the ones taken off the property. It reduces the need for large parking lots. It eliminates the nonsense of moving things around in the store trying to optimize product placement. It cuts down on the whole shoplifting problem.
I rarely go into a grocery store any more. I just go to their web page, click on the things I want. I set a pickup time and when that comes around, I load up my little dog and we drive to the store and wait in the parking lot and they magically bring everything out to the car. No standing in line for a cashier. No loading and unloading from the cart to the conveyor to be scanned. No hunting around the store trying to figure out where they have moved things. No waiting around for a price check when things don't scan properly or payments don't go through. It even takes away the problem of impulse buying.
I can't see any reason to go back.
It's incredible that this break down of trust was't foreseen with the introduction of self check outs. on second thoughts is obviously was hence all the camera's . I expect like Amazon the losses are tolerable compared to paying wages.
I never use a self check out , even though I have to track down a human . Self check out means we are doing the work that people used to get paid for. Fortunately they have not made it to the rural area I live in, yet ...
The hourly wages for a robot self checkout system is 0$. We are the robots when we use them also. Again paid 0$ for our efforts. I use them sometimes. It's another counterintuitive reality in the multi reality we live in, the hyperreality. The self checkout system is an invisible slave system. It drains money from the system via human jobs. Mega Grocers expand power. It's another insult they know we will endure! Another crack in society's foundation we will casually resist, for a while! When its robots everywhere we will wish we resisted harder.
Remember the weak resistance to the vaccine pass?
Be collapse aware! Prepare!
A predictable consequence, as well as eliminating entry level jobs for teenagers that existed when I was coming of age. Demands for higher "living wages" for unskilled workers that were never meant to be a career path has ruined so much for the last generation or two of kids who need to develop some skills, experience and work ethic. No wonder they are mostly still helpless and clueless when they get out of college.
Not surprising. The other day at our local Costco I noticed they had taken out self checkouts. I'm all for the human cashier experience coming back.