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posted by martyb on Thursday August 17 2017, @02:27PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:40PM (16 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:40PM (#555368) Homepage Journal

    I fucking hate self-checkouts. I'll happily go to another store a few miles further away rather than use one.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 1) by Zal42 on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:53PM

    by Zal42 (5435) on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:53PM (#555380) Homepage

    Me too. I avoid them like the plague.

    But the reason that I hate self-checkouts is that they're a serious pain in the ass. I'm not against the concept of them. I confess, however, that I can't see how they could be made any better -- particularly when you're buying things that have to be weighed.

    If stores started having nothing but automated checkout systems, I'd probably just shop elsewhere. There are a number of stores that I already refuse to shop at for various reasons, adding a few more isn't that big of a deal.

  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:54PM (3 children)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:54PM (#555381)

    Why?

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:36PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:36PM (#555455)

      Most automated checkouts I have visited don't take cash/make change.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @07:04PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @07:04PM (#555505)

        I do all my grocery shopping at Target where the self checkout takes $50 bills and makes change.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:25PM

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:25PM (#555596) Homepage Journal

      Mostly because they're making me be a checker and I resent that. I don't want to do it, I'm not nearly as quick at it as someone who does it for a living, and they're not paying me or giving me a discount to use the machines. Besides, I'm a people person.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:09PM (#555435)

    Surprise! A popular named nigger like the Niggery Uzzard hates self checkout. He wanna be keepin it real, chat up the cashier, keepin an eye on that sweet ass. If all the cashiers lose their jobs, where will a nigger like Uzzard find poor young white women to fuck with his big black cock?

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by nobu_the_bard on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:30PM

    by nobu_the_bard (6373) on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:30PM (#555450)

    I like them. Regular cashiers are so slow and wasteful, outside of a couple of outliers in either direction. I'm typically through the line much faster. Also, many places like Wal-Mart employ a better strategy for the queue leading to them (one queue for 4 to 8 stations) than for other lines (one queue for each station) which helps too.

  • (Score: 2) by WalksOnDirt on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:42PM (3 children)

    by WalksOnDirt (5854) on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:42PM (#555462) Journal

    I like self checkout. I frequently feel like I'm getting the bum's rush when I use a cashier. If I'm doing it myself I can make sure the prices are right and I'm getting all the discounts I'm entitled to. With all the weird pricing going on in the major chains now, like mix and match five items for a discount, it can be hard to figure out.

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:21PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:21PM (#555479)

      I like self checkout. I frequently feel like I'm getting the bum's rush when I use a cashier.

      Unless you're selfishly oblivious to the line forming behind you, you should feel like you're getting the bum's rush from everyone waiting impatiently to use the machine while it bleats at you, "please take your items, please take your items."

      If I'm doing it myself I can make sure the prices are right and I'm getting all the discounts I'm entitled to. With all the weird pricing going on in the major chains now, like mix and match five items for a discount, it can be hard to figure out.

      Yeah you're just a control freak. The cashier can't be trusted to do the job to your exacting standard. You don't want the cashier's low pay or poor job security, though, oh no. You just want to control the work.

      • (Score: 2) by WalksOnDirt on Friday August 18 2017, @02:41AM (1 child)

        by WalksOnDirt (5854) on Friday August 18 2017, @02:41AM (#555681) Journal

        It only takes a few seconds. It's just that without a cashier to perform for it's easier to think.

        • (Score: 2) by t-3 on Friday August 18 2017, @05:27PM

          by t-3 (4907) on Friday August 18 2017, @05:27PM (#555988)

          I agree, I just wish the self-checkout registers weren't crippled. I've worked at a grocery store before, I know how to scan items faster than one every 10 seconds. If I was allowed to do so, it wouldn't be so fucking annoying using them. Also, the fucking thing has a scanner, I should be able to scan my id if I want to buy alcohol instead of waiting for the cashier.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by VLM on Thursday August 17 2017, @07:15PM (3 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 17 2017, @07:15PM (#555512)

    I'll happily go to another store a few miles further away rather than use one.

    Self checkout is a SWPL / whiteopia thing. You can't have those in diverse areas, crime too high. First indication of an area becoming "not so nice" is they remove the self checkouts and replace with human drones. Drive until you see a strip mall consisting of nothing but popeyes fried chicken, a rent to own store, three payday loan establishments, and a grocery store, there won't be any self check there.

    Basically if the weekly police blotter in the newspaper's website is all about drunks and car accidents they can have self checkouts. Once you get violence and car breakins and muggings in the police report, the self checkouts get removed. You can also see it in shoplifting reports, if some dumb kid does something dumb every couple months the store can afford the losses of that ethnic group. If the police report is full of car thefts and muggings, the store can't afford the losses.

    To have self checkout at a store is inherently white privilege. Even for white people, could you imagine a bank being run where you simply walked into the vault, put however much cash you'd like in your wallet, then on the way out signed a register of how much you took and who you are? Or a bar or restaurant where you served yourself whatever want and paid the bouncer on the way out? This only happens in racially and ethnically homogeneous areas, aka whiteopias, mostly the wealthy ones at that.

    • (Score: 2) by Bobs on Thursday August 17 2017, @07:57PM (2 children)

      by Bobs (1462) on Thursday August 17 2017, @07:57PM (#555528)

      Interesting, So you live in a world where white people don't commit crimes?

      Different reality from the rest of this planet.

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:14PM

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:14PM (#555591) Journal

        The worst part about that post is, I don't think he's using "whiteopia" ironically...ye gods.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:47PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:47PM (#555601)

        He lives in a reality where he is a racist shitbag and is too stupid to realize it. Ramblings of a madman.

  • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday August 18 2017, @03:45AM

    by Reziac (2489) on Friday August 18 2017, @03:45AM (#555694) Homepage

    Same here. I'll stand in line for a cashier rather than use the vacant self-checkout.

    I regard self-checkouts as trial runs of cashier-free retail, and I'm not gonna encourage 'em.

    --
    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.