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from the who-is-going-to-ask-if-I-want-fries? dept.
72 years after [Clarence Saunders] attempted to patent his idea, advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and other technologies are making the dream of a worker-free store a reality. And American cashiers may soon be checking out.
A recent analysis by Cornerstone Capital Group suggests that 7.5m retail jobs – the most common type of job in the country – are at "high risk of computerization", with the 3.5m cashiers likely to be particularly hard hit.
Another report, by McKinsey, suggests that a new generation of high-tech grocery stores that automatically charge customers for the goods they take – no check-out required – and use robots for inventory and stocking could reduce the number of labor hours needed by nearly two-thirds. It all translates into millions of Americans' jobs under threat.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:13PM (6 children)
The more the stores move to self check out, the more I will move to Amazon.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by snufu on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:00PM (5 children)
Who still drives to a brick and mortar store for stuff they can buy on Amazon?
Who buys meat and produce from Amazon?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:12PM
Ah but why would you have to buy raw materials if you could get the finished goods aka food you want delivered to you, or if you could go to a restaurant. I know many restaurants are expensive but think about why walmart is cheaper and restaurants aren't. What if walmart went a step further and cooked the produce? They can charge more but they might still be more efficient than their customers at doing the job.
It's not like many people are that good at shopping for groceries, cooking, keeping track of groceries, leftovers, etc. If you don't have a kitchen and don't need a big enough fridge to store the larger amount of groceries, you can save a fair bit of rental in some cities.
You may be able to cook better than some random burger flipper, but in the future a robot might be able to cook better than you.
That said, there might eventually be "3D printer" equivalents for producing cooked food. Might not involve meat.
Of course this makes civilization a lot more specialized, interdependent and very fragile... But it's already so fragile and interdependent anyway ;).
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:38PM
Amazon may not be an absolute solution. But I can still use it to the maximum extent against stores that try to force me into self check out.
It may be necessary to make infrequent trips to larger stores to buy meat and grocery items in bulk to the extent that it can be stored in freezers in the garage. But if that's the game the retail stores want to play, then I can't stop them.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:20PM (1 child)
I do. I want to pay with cash so that my purchases cannot be tracked. Why would anyone want to live in a world where companies and government have all this information about you? Convenience is not worth sacrificing my privacy and anonymity for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @09:58PM
I wish more people gave a crap about this!
Guess we'll have to wait for violations to become common enough, for the drunken MBAs to try and impress a date with how much power he has over people, basically for humanity to realize just how easily this data can be abused. Between blackhats selling the data and redhats "freeing" all the information it is inevitable for larger scale bad things to happen.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday August 17 2017, @09:25PM
Amazon does suck for some grocery shopping. Was trying to buy dark brown sugar last night (just finished the last box on some cookies). The prices are double/triple what a grocery store should sell it for. It should be like 2$.
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