SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 18 2017, @01:42AM
> even the slight weight of placing these cloth bags in the bagging area is enough to freak the machines out
This one has a solution -- scan item, put on bagging platform (but not in a bag). Once everything is scanned and paid, then move items from platform into your cloth bags.
I do this with my small-wheel "shopping" bicycle that I bring into the store (instead of shopping cart)--items are all put into the bike bags, after I'm done paying.