I had the anti-self-checkout mentality for a bit, because I didn’t want to see cashiers losing their jobs. One day at Target I was waiting in line at the human checkout, and the cashier started yelling at everyone in line that there were multiple self-checkout machines open. It sounded like she hated our guts.
Fine! I’ll use the damn machines. Haven’t bothered cashiers since then if I have other options.
edit: to be clear, I’m not blaming all cashiers for her attitude, I just want to do the right thing without being a pain in anyone’s ass and I’ve learned that sometimes that means using self-checkout
Okay but fuck those stores where the self checkout “bagging area” is smaller than the size of a hand cart. Like what fucking idiot designed those.
Heh. I know that idiot, at least one of them. Personally. At least for some of the major retailers that are making the switch who have very small bagging areas.
It’s not his fault, it really isn’t.
He got a list of requirements. Table is so big, scale is so big, computer is so big, and so many checkouts in so much area.
Every component has a minimum size requirement, and when the client isn’t willing to bend on how many check outs must fit, the only other option is to shrink the one thing that can, and that’s the bagging area.
Then they pile a bunch of shit in the bagging area, they have these giant caddies to hold thousands of bags, and they put three of them up there.
My gripe is there’s not enough room to put items from my bag to scan.
Need to put my bag on the bagging side, but it’s full. Gotta take stuff out until scanned. No where to put the stuff, so I pile it on the floor.
Fuck me for bringing my own bag I guess
People who want you to suffer.
My understanding is that it’s about loss prevention.
They think that self checkout is a high risk for shoplifting, so they want it to be a manageable amount. They need confidence in their security monitoring strategy before they go all in.
After a long trial here including employees monitoring and AI monitored video, the store near me now has maybe 30 self checkouts, with 10 having nice big bagging areas. I never have to wait in line anymore.
I only use self checkouts, it eliminates like the only major variable of shopping.
cashiers were replaced by vending machines. anyone see a Best Buy vending Machine or Japanese vending? cashiers are about as useful as full service gas attendants. They aren’t.
What should they do instead, Mr. Astral Brain?
find a job. are you retarded? please tell me you fight for coal jobs. please tell me you picket for railways. please tell me how stupid you are by shooting off the hip insults instead of providing solutions. oh wait, you did. I turned off notifs if you reply, its onto a wall. have fun
Perfectly sane response from a perfectly sane man.
solutions, instead of offhanded insults. like you’re good at. :D please shoot me another. youre good at it
So you have no suggestions. They just should die? They either work where you deem useful or have no income and perish?
The solution is a society without a “work or die” mentality, like you have right now.
We have passed the need where everyone must have a job. We can’t keep inventing new jobs like influencing just to give everyone one.
It is okay if there are some members of society that don’t contribute much. We aren’t cavemen anymore where every person needs to work so the group doesn’t die. Hell we already have business owners and landlords, who offload all their work onto others and do nothing for society except own stuff.
I just hate them because stores have replaced half a dozen checklanes with an employed human being each (sometimes two if they had baggers) with one minimum wage paid person watching over 20 machines. It’s so blatantly disgusting to me, personally.
Should we really be propping up jobs of dubious usefulness rather than going after a proper social safety net? We could pay people to dig random holes and others to fill them in if we just wanted to pointless jobs. Why not just hand out the money directly? Why the perverse requirement to make them jump through hoops for it? It feels… condescending to me to knowingly make someone do a task that could be automated just to give them a pay check.
Sorry, guess I was just living in reality and not a Pixar future where people get taken care of.
So we should just maintain the status quo exactly as it is right now to make sure no one loses their job? Should we stop all automation to make sure that there’s more jobs for people?
You’re already wasting energy being angry about it. Might as well aim a little higher with the fantasy. We all deserve better.
Ever since the lamplighters lost their jobs its all gone downhill.
Bring back the gas station attendants, make everywhere New Jersey!
If cashier isn’t a useful job, why are these mega-corporations trying to get me to do it for free?
While raising prices, too.
On smaller packages! Ain’t life grand?
(DON’T FORGET TO DONATE ON YOUR WAY OUT, THERE’S HUNGRY PEOPLE OUT THERE YOU KNOW)
Lolol I loved them at first when they still employed all the cashier’s so the slow people didn’t get in my way
“job killer” automation in a reasonable society should mean less need for work and the same amount of resources available (if not more).
But we will never reach the point where we consider picnics, parties and painting more valuable than manipulative marketing, unnecessary polluting but profitable industry, and especially the all-important busywork. Do something profitable. Anything profitable. It doesn’t even matter if it’s a net negative to society, just do something.
Personal hobbies aren’t valuable to a society, they’re valuable to individuals. A guy playing video games 6 hours a day is probably okay with it, but it’s not contributing anything to society. There’s an argument to be made for people to be guaranteed time to themselves for their well being, but the idea that an economy can function off of picnics and parties is stupid. Automation is not going to make work obsolete, it’ll just shift the economy in a different direction. Just like what happened in industrial revolution 200 years ago.
Automation, AI, should be there to make people have more time doing things that they want to do. Means less “mindless” work, more time for art, reading, philosophy, education, spending time with family, etc. The “banal” work which can be automated should be automated so that more people have more time doing things above. I think the concept of universal income with free education, free health care (and maybe free housing) can work with the automation of work.
I understand what you’re saying and I don’t necessarily disagree, but you don’t seem to understand my point. The idea of automation that you have is based on the sci-fi idea that robots will do all of the work for us and we wouldn’t have to work anymore. It’s just a thought experiment. This idea isn’t reflected in the real world. We’ve already been through automation revolutions before, and every time, the economy just shifts to something else.
For example, for a very long time, being a lamplighter was a popular job. A bunch of people would get hired to go around the city and make sure that the street lamps are lit and well maintained. However, via the magic of automation, the light bulb was invented. Lamplighters were no longer necessary. There were a lot of lamplighters who were angry at this new technology for stealing their jobs and many protested against, some even tried to ban it, but ultimately the convenience of technology won as it always has and always will. But thanks to this new technology there were new jobs created… like electricians who would look after these lightbulbs for example.
My point is that the current automation wave is not going to kill the economy. It’ll just simply shift and make it more complex. There will still be jobs, but they will either be entirely new or they’ll be an existing job but simply updated to address society’s new needs. There will still be people who will work on creating automation technology, people who maintain it, people who will manufacture it, scientists who will try to research improve it, and so on. There will also be jobs that haven’t been created yet. Just 20 years ago, Youtube wasn’t even a thing but now being a youtuber is an actual profession held by tens of thousands of people. What’s to say we’re not going to see something similar in the next 20 years? It’s silly to think that we’re going to have an economy of picnics and parties any time soon when all we have to support this notion is pop culture speculation. The reality is that the wheels of the economy are just going to keep on turning like they always have.
A guy playing video games 6 hours a day is probably okay with it, but it’s not contributing anything to society.
Unlike profitable activities like manipulative marketing, unnecessary and polluting industry, and meaningless busywork?
Oh and yeah, mobile game developers. Whale-catching sure is a huge contributor to the rest of us, right? It’s so much better that they’re putting 8 hours a day into catching whales/addicts, than wasting time just chilling. Right?
My argument, since you need it clarified, unlike the majority; A lot of work doesn’t contribute to society. We might as well let them not work.
Saying “You need to work no matter what no matter how!” with our policy decisions and then hoping people will pick something important has so far led us into a civilization of extreme over-production of useless goods, successfully marketed to easily manipulated apes. A civilization of high pressure/intensity and low focus. The amount of stress experienced in video game development studios is a ridiculous example of this culture of ours.
Additionally, I have personally been told by an instructor at a metalworking/welding shop that it’s a huge part of my job to ensure I’m not replaceable, that is my priority. And automation/efficiency will only hurt me by making me and my time less valuable, and I should not pursue it. That kind of cynicism frankly makes me completely disinterested in continued participation.
My comment got downvoted to all hell by a bunch of Marxists who don’t understand how an economy works… which is not surprising in the least.
Look, my point is fairly straightforward. The idea that automation will do all the jobs and people will just sit around and do nothing all day is nothing more than a thought experiment. It’s a sci-fi idea. Not in the sense that people will have to work no matter what, but in the sense that’s not how automation or society works. We will never reach a point where we max out on what kind of work can be done and therefore we can automate all of it away. There will always be a new chapter that’s slightly more advanced than the last. I think we can agree that new technology should be used to benefit society as a whole, but we’re not going to have an economy based on hobbies any time soon. While automation gets rid of jobs, it also creates opportunities for new jobs to take place. We’ve already gone through automation revolutions before. We already know how the cycle goes. New technologies get invented, those technologies get put to use immediately, the people who’s jobs it is replacing will get angry and riot/protest, they will end up losing and having to either find a new trade or elevate their skills to remain in their trade. Basically, the economy becomes more complex. We may not have lamplighters, human computers, or ice cutters anymore, but thanks to the advances in technology we do have brand new jobs like software engineers, social media managers, or animators. When we look at the past, we can see constant change. There’s no reason to think that will stop with this current wave of automation. I think the economy will just shift to a new phase.
“…an economy based on hobbies…”
The new jobs you mentioned, social media managers and animators are unnecessary bullshit jobs. To the point they’re as good as hobbies. They’re trivial, and there’s no reason for those jobs to be compulsory or high stress at all. Our treatment of those kinds of jobs is ridiculous.
It’s time for UBI, a decent baseline, and then good compensation for actual important work.
People like yourself are responsible for the destruction of our life support system for trivial reasons.
The new jobs you mentioned, social media managers and animators are unnecessary bullshit jobs.
That’s not up to you to decide. Your personal tastes on what a “real job” has no bearing on whether or not it is a job. There’s clearly a demand for it, there are people who get paid for doing it, and there are people specializing in it. It’s an actual job.
They’re trivial
Social media managers are basically the new generation of PR. They advertise, spread awareness, and do community outreach. These core responsibilities have been a part of jobs for a very long time, it’s just this job is adapted to a new medium where people gather.
there’s no reason for those jobs to be compulsory or high stress at all. Our treatment of those kinds of jobs is ridiculous.
If you want to argue for better working conditions, protections, and rights then I would actually agree with you. But this brainless idea that jobs aren’t necessary or that there will be a point where they’re all going away is stupid. Societies can only function when their members contribute, and the current wave of automation is NOT going to put everybody out of work. Old jobs will automated away, new jobs will be created, and people will adapt to the advancing economy. This is the same it has been for the past automation waves. The idea that automation will do all the work and people have nothing to do anymore is literally nothing more than a pop culture sci-fi idea.
It’s time for UBI, a decent baseline, and then good compensation for actual important work.
I’m not opposed to a UBI or better compensation. But this boomer mentality of “real jobs” is as myopic as it is ignorant.
People like yourself are responsible for the destruction of our life support system for trivial reasons.
I’m not responsible for shit. I’m merely pointing out that you’re delusional fantasies about what automation and the economy don’t actually reflect reality.
I’m not responsible for shit.
You choose to argue and act in favor of it.
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Introvert here who loathes these fucking machines. Fuck them and their stupid errors. Yeah I put my fucking item in the bag.
Being an introvert means you get more comfortable with not chit chatting. You really don’t have to.
It puts the lotion in the basket!
lol got a nice chuckle out of me!
Norway has roughly the same unemployment rate as the us, but most supermarkets have the option of self service, most fuel pumps are self service (never have someone pumping it for you), and if anyone bags your groceries for you it’s kids raising money for their football team or something. Very few people (comparatively) have menial jobs but unemployment isn’t really higher. I also don’t know anyone who has to work more than 1 full time job to survive. Menial jobs trap people who could otherwise flourish.
Slow, buggy, cramped germ covered self checkout POS are far more frustrating than dealing with a pimply cashier and are worse for the community as youth have fewer job opportunities.
I prefer the stores that let you scan your items on your smartphone and just pay via it or at least go through a fast lane where you just tally it up at the self checkout and go. Especially if they have convoluted coupons or bonuses that o can track as I go.
Self-checkout is the best thing to happen in recent history, imo.
It’s super annoying to need to queue at the counter and talk to the staff. It’s not that I have social anxiety and can’t talk to them. I just don’t want to. I rather use a machine and get my shopping done. I’m there to get stuff, not to talk to people.
I don’t mind if the entire store converts to self-checkout save for 1 or 2 counters for those who are unable to use the machine for the time being. Eventually, it should all be converted to self-checkout.
My laziness triumphs over my introversion. plus, fuck robots tikin er jerbs
They’re not even doing good jobs.
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Why does this kind of thing only happen in the US?
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Cashiers in Europe are well trained and probably love it. Because we don’t offload those jobs to students trying to make a quick buck. Here it can be seen as a proper career which you can do your whole life if you want.
But that is maybe because we don’t have as many arrogant fuckers who think service jobs are bottom tier and the people working them shouldn’t even be seen as human.
I’ve never seen cashiers loving their jobs, but I’ve never seen them mishandling stuff either.
OTOH, I’ve never seen them filling the bags, so that may have something to do with it.
Thankfully it seems both cashiers and baggers are better trained than they used to be at least at the larger chains. I don’t have either of these issues at supermarkets.
That doesn’t mean they won’t be lazy or lack hustle though.
wait employees bagging your items is a real thing in the US? why? what’s this american obsession with having shittily paid people do everything for them?
Sometimes I catch incorrect prices or the cashier keying in the wrong vegetable at checkout, but you can also read your receipt later and ask for a refund. I’ve never had a grocery store quibble when I said I was mischarged or an item was bad.
I don’t want to interact with a cashier either but fuck if I want to scan my own shit either.
It’s also way more awkward when something goes wrong and now I have to initiate.
“Warning! Shopping bag content is 0.00003pg heavier than expected. Please call an assistant or remove the excess items.”
Thankfully, Walmart stopped weighing items entirely. Not sure how it affects theft, but it sure makes the checkout process smoother. Don’t need to wait after scanning each item. Don’t need take reusable bags out of your cart. And they replaced almost all of their checkout lanes with self checkouts.
Too bad Walmart is evil, because their checkout is 👌 and Sam’s scan-and-go is just 💦. Every other store is just bad UX.
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They always had that.
Doesn’t every store have cameras everywhere recording everything?
These detect extra things you didn’t scan. I had to have an employee come check my items because I was using a cardboard flat to hold the canned goods I was buying. It locked up as soon as I moved the cardboard to the bagging area.
