| Title | End of the Checkout Line: the Looming Crisis for American Cashiers | |
| Date | Thursday August 17 2017, @02:27PM | |
| Author | martyb | |
| Topic | ||
| 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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printed from SoylentNews, End of the Checkout Line: the Looming Crisis for American Cashiers on 2023-06-16 18:56:09