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End of the Checkout Line: the Looming Crisis for American Cashiers

posted by martyb on Thursday August 17 2017, @02:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-is-going-to-ask-if-I-want-fries? dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

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: 2) by Pino P on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:40PM (4 children)

    by Pino P (4721) on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:40PM (#555369) Journal

    For one thing, an RFID tag adds 15 cents to a product's price, which can add up for (say) a $1 protein bar. For another, how would this work for fresh produce that needs to be weighed?

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  • (Score: 2) by driven on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:26PM (1 child)

    by driven (6295) on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:26PM (#555482)

    Citation, please. http://www.nano-di.com/blog/how-can-rfid-tags-cost-1-cent [nano-di.com]

    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday August 17 2017, @07:24PM

      by Pino P (4721) on Thursday August 17 2017, @07:24PM (#555513) Journal

      Google's zero-click result for rfid tag cost states:

      RFID tags can cost as little as 10 cents or as much as $50 depending on the type of tag, the application and the volume of the order. Generally speaking, finished smart labels that can be applied to cases and pallets typically cost 15 cents or more, depending on volume.

      Click through to the source it's quoting [barcoding.com], and that's for passive tags that don't have their own battery.

  • (Score: 2) by ledow on Friday August 18 2017, @07:17AM (1 child)

    by ledow (5567) on Friday August 18 2017, @07:17AM (#555749) Homepage

    I bet, at one point, people said exactly the same about barcode, price-stickers and everything else.

    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday August 18 2017, @02:22PM

      by Pino P (4721) on Friday August 18 2017, @02:22PM (#555885) Journal

      The improvement in product package image quality related to barcodes eventually paid for itself because a packaged good can carry more information, reducing the need for store staff to answer questions. Fresh produce, on the other hand, often doesn't carry a barcode and thus still needs to be weighed at the checkout.

      In addition, barcodes are passed over the scanner one at a time. The promise of "just walk out" checkout with RFID implies that some device will read, bill, and deactivate all tags in an entire shopping cart at once.

      I'd be interested to see a proof of concept in more than one city of this being made to work.