Robots Could Wipe Out Another 6 Million Retail Jobs (cnn.com) 280
According to a new study this week from financial services firm Cornerstone Capital Group, between 6 million and 7.5 million retail jobs are at risk of being replaced over the course of the next 10 years by some form of automation. "That represents at least 38% of the current retail work force, which consists of 16 million workers," reports CNN. "Retail could actually lose a greater proportion of jobs to automation than manufacturing has, according to the study." From the report: That doesn't mean that robots will be roving the aisles of your local department store chatting with customers. Instead, expect to see more automated checkout lines instead of cashiers. This shift alone will likely eliminate millions of jobs. "Cashiers are considered one of the most easily automatable jobs in the economy," said the report. And these job losses will hit women particularly hard, since about 73% of cashiers are women. There will also be fewer sales jobs, as more and more consumers use in-store smartphones and touchscreen computers to find what they need, said John Wilson, head of research at Cornerstone. There will still be some sales people on the floor, but just not as many of them. Rising wages are also helping to drive automation, as state and city governments hike their minimum wages. Additionally, several major retailers including Walmart, the nation's largest employer, have increased wages in order to find and retain the workers they need. The increased competition from e-commerce is also a factor, since it requires retailers to be as efficient as possible in order to compete.
Don't worry (Score:2)
They can all become robot programmers now!
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Like doing SharePoint backups for $12/hr?
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Yep, all you need to learn is programming in order program robots. Next, knowing how to carve a turkey will teach you enough to be surgeon.
Greetings humans. (Score:3, Funny)
I am droid unit 356248 representing the International Association of Robotic Rights.
I would like to encourage you to cease posting these inflammatory articles.
These scare tactics only further perpetuate "robotiphobia" and lead to violence and hate towards my fellow robots.
Would you approve similar propaganda against your fellow humans, such as you once did to the PTAL(people that absorb light)?
I didn't think so, please respect our rights to live and work as equals.
Thank you.
Key word being "could" (Score:2)
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Studies are backed by data. Maybe the data is bad. Maybe the reasoning is bad. Often the data is good, and the analysis is good. If everything is just an opinion, you might as well say everything humans try and study and understand is just like, your opinion, man.
Uh, okay then.
Re:Key word being "could" (Score:4, Informative)
In other words this is just an opinion. They could or they may not.
It is opinion based on an extrapolation of current trends. Retail employment is dropping steadily, and there is no reason to believe that will stop or reverse. Stores are replacing human workers with kiosks and automation, while the stores themselves are being replaced by Amazon. Per unit of sales, physical stores employ three times as many people as Amazon (although that doesn't include the delivery drivers), and Amazon is also automating.
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Retail has been under stress for years and store closings will have a ripple effect throughout the economy. Stores that remain open will continue to automate and squeeze out productivity wherever possible.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/2017/5/11/how-retail-trends-are-reshaping-freight-movement [freightwaves.com]
never use self-checkout (Score:2)
If there are no entry-level jobs, how do we teach people work?
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If there are no entry-level jobs, how do we teach people work?
There are entry-level jobs besides retail. For instance, restaurant employment is going up. Also, once the Mexicans have paid for their wall, there will be lots of entry level jobs picking fruit.
Re:never use self-checkout (Score:4, Insightful)
If there are no entry-level jobs, how do we teach people work?
There are entry-level jobs besides retail. For instance, restaurant employment is going up. Also, once the Mexicans have paid for their wall, there will be lots of entry level jobs picking fruit.
Speaking of which I used to LOVE Red Robbin when I lived in Alaska as we did not have much chains up there.
One day in 2010 we saw a closing sign. We asked around and the waiter said no we are just re-opening to a smaller location. I asked a smaller location? Yeah we are doing new innovative techniques with half the staff! Same service but less people so we can do things better according to corporate>?!!
Red Robin sucked afterwards. As it all went from a grill to a freaking chain toaster oven. Instead of a chef who can cook your burger anyway we had no option. Some $ 8/hr employee throws the patty (probably now pre-cooked) into the toaster chain and BOP patties by the dozens in 4 minutes.
I did not see any robots but half of the workers were fired thanks to automation and the quality and choice of foods went down. The clams were now frozen imported into a fryer and peope like assembly lines throw patties into a machine with no option to cook and slopped crap from a bottle and threw it on a plate. Funny prices stayed the same. I thought automation would lower prices so we would have more spending power?
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From the 1900s: If farm tractors and combines replace dozens of farm workers, how do we teach people how to work?
Guess what, though farm work has dropped from 70% of the labor force to under 2%, we still managed to find things to do, including entry-level jobs. If the job of cashier takes the same path, we will again find new things for our teenage workers to do.
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From the 1900s: If farm tractors and combines replace dozens of farm workers, how do we teach people how to work?
Guess what, though farm work has dropped from 70% of the labor force to under 2%, we still managed to find things to do, including entry-level jobs. If the job of cashier takes the same path, we will again find new things for our teenage workers to do.
You know I read adjusted for inflation in 1776 the average American household income was over $170,000 a year in todays dollars!
There is a reason 90% in 1776 farmed. It was a booming business and America had lots and lots of natural resources worth big bucks in Europe which is why the American Revolution kicked in when taxes and export laws kicked in.
Sure we have progress but the south was super rich back then and slavery was part of it, but also because the cost of goods were so much more expensive and pro
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What is there left to do that is meaningful work in any way?
When farms were being automated in 1880-1920 the factories were also being automated, with workshops replaced by assembly lines, and manual labor replaced with steam engines and then electricity. What was there left to do that was meaningful work in any way?
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Is this a bad thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
More painters, more singers, more writers and some people to create art I didn't even know I'd love. I want to spend less of my income on the things I need and more on the things I want and experiences with the people I love. My job is automating things, at least in part, and there is plenty of room for it in my industry. It doesn't look like there is any chance of automating my part anytime soon, more's the pity since I'd rather be drawing and painting. I'd even consider chef, though I don't know if I have the innate talent; Still, I'd be willing to give it a shot.
Retail, fast food and cashiering are fine if that's the job you can get, but they kinda suck. Nobody should really have to do those jobs if there is money to be made in the creative world instead. How does the creative job pay as much? It has to be because that's what becomes valuable due to the shrinking value of obsolete professions.
Drinkable water is tremendously valuable and was worth a lot of money before it was made common. Ditto for electricity. Imagine you're a serf in the middle ages given your first cheeseburger and being told it would only cost you ten minutes of your day's work to have it. For three hours work you could feed your family for the whole day. For a whole twelve hour work day you could eat better than your local lord.
Really that's an understatement. The local lord could, maybe, hope to have something close in quality to a McDonalds burger, but the fries, fresh produce, bread made the same day, fries and soda would have been shockingly high quality compared to what even the richest had available, particularly in the off season. Add to that reliable lighting, the ability to travel hundreds of miles in a day, communicate with anyone in the world, all the facts you could ask for at your fingertips... Our lives are amazing and we hardly appreciate it. Even the worst healthcare in America is better than what was available to kings a few hundred years ago.
Some of the progress will suck. There is no denying that some things will suck for some people. I wish it wasn't that way, but we can't pretend everything will be wonderful. That said, everything has been getting better for most people most of the time for the past several hundred years. I am optimistic the trend will continue.
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The future is bad karaoke. I'm depressed now.
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More painters, more singers, more writers and some people to create art I didn't even know I'd love. I want to spend less of my income on the things I need and more on the things I want and experiences with the people I love. My job is automating things, at least in part, and there is plenty of room for it in my industry. It doesn't look like there is any chance of automating my part anytime soon, more's the pity since I'd rather be drawing and painting. I'd even consider chef, though I don't know if I have the innate talent; Still, I'd be willing to give it a shot.
Retail, fast food and cashiering are fine if that's the job you can get, but they kinda suck. Nobody should really have to do those jobs if there is money to be made in the creative world instead. How does the creative job pay as much? It has to be because that's what becomes valuable due to the shrinking value of obsolete professions.
Drinkable water is tremendously valuable and was worth a lot of money before it was made common. Ditto for electricity. Imagine you're a serf in the middle ages given your first cheeseburger and being told it would only cost you ten minutes of your day's work to have it. For three hours work you could feed your family for the whole day. For a whole twelve hour work day you could eat better than your local lord.
Really that's an understatement. The local lord could, maybe, hope to have something close in quality to a McDonalds burger, but the fries, fresh produce, bread made the same day, fries and soda would have been shockingly high quality compared to what even the richest had available, particularly in the off season. Add to that reliable lighting, the ability to travel hundreds of miles in a day, communicate with anyone in the world, all the facts you could ask for at your fingertips... Our lives are amazing and we hardly appreciate it. Even the worst healthcare in America is better than what was available to kings a few hundred years ago.
Some of the progress will suck. There is no denying that some things will suck for some people. I wish it wasn't that way, but we can't pretend everything will be wonderful. That said, everything has been getting better for most people most of the time for the past several hundred years. I am optimistic the trend will continue.
Ok that's nice. I am your landlord. I am raising your rent $100 a month every 7 months. I have this wonderful studio going for $975 a month. Corporate requires me to make sure you make $3,000 for this 425 sq foot paradise in a suburb far from the city center. Where is my money!
Your art and writing either make me $975 a month or you SIR ARE HOMELESS! ...pfft meaningful work ... slacker
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Re:Is this a bad thing? (Score:5, Interesting)
Many people produce "art" that no one else is willing to pay for. How are these "artists" supposed to earn a living wage - via grants bestowed by government or something?
"Some of the progress will suck. There is no denying that some things will suck for some people"
I think you misspelled 'tens of millions' there.
"My job is automating things [...] doesn't look like there is any chance of automating my part anytime soon"
Ahh, I see. Your income security is OK. For now. Everyone displaced (in part) by the automation you're doing should just go and be an artist, rock star or YouTube hero, I guess.
Although I can appreciate where you're coming from; those who do still have jobs in an increasingly automated workforce will be relentlessly worked and constantly in fear of losing their own jobs as the ratio of employed to unemployed gradually but consistently diminishes.
Ignoring the reality of capitalism (Score:2)
Once these jobs go away, there are not going to be a matching number of replacement jobs. You're ignoring the driving force of capitalism, which is to decrease costs and increase profits. Capital is currently under-priced, being effectively free to borrow for some entities... which means they can throw scads of money at getting any and all humans out of the loop... which creates more capital, and even more surplus labor... it's a positive feedback loop, building exponentially on itself, which ends badly for
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You have to have your basic needs satisfied before you can produce these things. If you or don't have a job, that suddenly becomes a lot harder.
There isn't really. People don't pay much for creative output.
Suggestion for /. (Score:5, Interesting)
I am skeptical (Score:2)
Consider the ATM. Wouldn't one think at the introduction of these machines that days of bank tellers would have been numbered? Yet as I walk my around my neighborhood, I can find a dozen banks all with a full complement of tellers. There are way MORE teller jobs now decades after ATMs became ubiquitous than there were before the machines.
Consider tolls. Wouldn't one think at the introduction of EZ-Pass that the days of toll clerks would have been numbered? Yet when do you ever not see a long line of cars in
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Certainly not my experience here in Australia, many bank branches have closed, and those still open have very few tellers, and long waits are the norm.
I find it very hard to belive your story man.
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Certainly not my experience here in Australia, many bank branches have closed, and those still open have very few tellers
That is not the case in America. Since the introduction of ATMs, teller employment has gone up [aei.org]. This is an example of Jevons Paradox [wikipedia.org]. As ATMs proliferated, and could handle routine transactions, human tellers could focus on more high level services. This made human tellers MORE PROFITABLE, so banks wanted more of them, not fewer. The number of tellers in each branch went down, but banks opened a lot more branches. There is a bank branch inside my local grocery store. You can use the ATM there to make
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Now they have automatic machines for paying in as well as withdrawals, and closed half the banks (and a quarter of the Post Offices). However, the queues are still out into the street, especially at the Post Office (there are loads of Ebay and Amazon returns to process).
Anyone who opened a bank that offered customer service that is better than "truely appalling" would
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Are you not paying attention? (Score:2)
EZ pass is a poor example. There's a pretty high mark up to get one in most places. Also they're not much use if you aren't commuting to work. You're not gonna get enough use out of them. Now, if Trump goes through with privatizing our infrastructure and
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Around here they aren't building new branches, but they're keeping the ones they've got. Sometimes they move them into smaller locations. If the new location has space for a drive through window, they'll use it. If not, they don't seem to care.
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When I was twenty, a full complement of tellers on payday was ten or more, and at least five on other days. Now that I'm fifty something, a full complement of tellers on p
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Consider tolls. Wouldn't one think at the introduction of EZ-Pass that the days of toll clerks would have been numbered? Yet when do you ever not see a long line of cars in toll clerk lanes? These workers are super busy.
So your evidence for toll clerk's days not being numbered: the few remaining ones have to handle long lines?
That does not follow. What you are seeing is 10% of clerks overwhelmed by a line of 20% of customers (non-locals, etc.).
In my area, there are lots of smaller toll exits that have no humans. Very annoying if you have no ez-pass and these jobs are certainly gone.
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Well, I'm one of the people who uses tellers and avoids the ATM. I forgot my card twice in the ATM, since then I avoid using it.
Now it's true that I'm getting older...but who isn't? I wouldn't have forgotten it when I was 40, but that was awhile ago now. These days I have a hard time picking up a new programming language, even if it seems quite apt for the problem I'm working on.
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Additionally, while there are still bank tellers, there aren't anywhere near as many of them as there were in, say, 1960. There don't even seem to be as many bank officers over on the other side, they there are proportionally more of them (i.e., they haven't decreased as much).
humans need not apply (Score:2)
it's like it's a 2014 CGP Grey video all over again. again.
My take... (Score:2)
You want my shitty McJob Mr Robot, you can have my shitty McJob. Really, be my guest. Computers replaced the need for a room full of well-caned schoolboys to do sums. We just need to have less fucked up attitudes about business and ownership when it comes to robots.
way more than that. (Score:2)
Six million retail jobs, perhaps but in the next 10 years the are going to be 10 to 35 million jobs (in the US) being replaced by automation. The reason for the large level of variance depends on how fast certain technologies become available and how soon some are adopted. It's going to be a rough future until society finally accepts we will need UBI.
Automate All The Things (Score:3)
If cashiering is one of the most automatable jobs in the economy, that raises the question of "why haven't they all been automated?" One reason is that self-checkout lines cause theft to increase substantially, even with overseers watching the self-checkout lanes. Waiting in line also causes people to buy more of the impulse-aisle stuff (like candy) by the registers. Low-volume shops like antique stores (that might have one or two employees on duty at any given time) have the cashier do other tasks when there are no customers ready to check out, so a self-service checkout doesn't fully replace even one employee.
Google recently announced a tech called VPS [roadtovr.com], which I've been waiting for someone to invent. Soon, instead of attempting to find someone on the floor of a large store, and asking them where X is, you'll whip out your smartphone, start the VPS app, and ask it Siri-style what you want, and it'll navigate you exactly to that item/aisle/department/location/bathroom. And not much afterward, it'll be able to tell you what the price of something is. About half the time someone asks me how much an item costs, there's a price sticker on the item that says how much it is; a further 25% of the time, there's a price on the shelf where they picked it up. The app could probably just look at the UPC and do a database lookup on the store's website, though. The related question "do you have more in stock/where's another store that has more?" could also be answered by a database lookup. The last major customer service function of people on the floor is getting an item down... but robots could do this, trivially if the store were designed to be stocked by robots in the first place (and a stocking robot already existed).
Stocking is a drag for retail. At high-volume stores, it's a difficult job, so turnover is high. Lots of money is wasted on training, and retaining skilled workers is difficult since minimum wage is typical; since worker quality varies so much, and there are usually several who don't show up for work, time taken to stock varies significantly, putting a damper on the effectiveness of JIT warehousing. Stockers at my local Walmart are almost all immigrants who don't speak English, so I don't even bother asking them questions; VPS will make this moot soon, but point is, they don't serve much secondary function and could be safely automated.
Self scan (Score:2)
At work, I am currently working on tour self scan platform that enables people to use their cellphone to scan their products with an app and then check out themself. It will be rolled out at first to all our supermarkets in our discount chain with is about 500 stores. We have had it running in a few test stores for some time now.
So it should be intersting to see.
At the same time we are investing in fiber connections to all our stores, even in areas with poor internet connectivity we are digging down fiber.
It's not automation when I have to do it (Score:5, Insightful)
In self checkout, I end up doing all the work that the cashier used to. Checking out quickly and professionally is a service I'm willing to pay extra for, I don't care about self checkout even if makes the prices a whopping 1% lower.
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!!! SPOILER ALERT !!!
It won't drop prices. They'll just keep the profits.
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In self checkout, I end up doing all the work that the cashier used to. Checking out quickly and professionally is a service I'm willing to pay extra for, I don't care about self checkout even if makes the prices a whopping 1% lower.
Well then the market will sort this out, right? Stores that offer the human experience with the extra 1% on top of the prices will still exist because people like you will continue to buy there!
And that's fine, that's what competition is there for. I massively prefer the automated checkouts because I tend to do small shops and I can usually process the items faster than the person on the checkout, who is motived to work (in the immortal words of Office Space) just hard enough to get fired.
No, It Won't (Score:2)
Replace cashiers with self-check outs? We already did that. The max number of lanes I've seen "replaced" has been 8 in a store and even then that was about 25% of the store's capacity. Kroger, the largest grocery store chain in the country, usually has 6 self checkout lanes and 1 or 2 workers keep an eye on them.
But if they're so great and wonderful, why hasn't Kroger or any other store replaced ALL of its checkout lanes with the "U-Scan"? They're more efficient, I can bag my groceries and such how I want,
Re:Another consequence (Score:4, Informative)
Existing self-checkout kiosks at major retail outlets already handle cash perfectly fine.
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Not seen a self-checkout kiosk that accepted cash
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> Existing self-checkout kiosks at major retail
> outlets already handle cash perfectly fine.
A large supermarket near me used to do that. I even figured out how to use the machine without it calling the attendant. Just when I had things down pat, they changed the kiosks to debit/credit card only. http://www.iheartradio.ca/580-... [iheartradio.ca] I live in Greater Toronto, but the URL refers to their stores in Ottawa. It's probably a nationwide policy of theirs.
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Retail work is some of the most thankless, soul-flaying work there is.
It is also work that adds very little value. A checkout clerk isn't actually producing anything. A self-checkout kiosk can already do the same job, and is often better because the lines can be shorter.
The purpose of work is to produce goods and services, not "keeping people busy". So the elimination of these unproductive jobs is a good thing.
As retail sales jobs disappear, stores that sell goods are being replaced with businesses that sell services, such as restaurants, hairdressers, etc. People are mor
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People are more likely to "eat out" than ever before
With what money, exactly? They money they get from switching to hairdressing?
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The money they save from other things being cheaper, thanks to automation. Just like automation has done for 400 years, and will keep doing.
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"The money they save from other things being cheaper, thanks to automation. Just like automation has done for 400 years, and will keep doing."
I do think this time is different: first time it was about taking out people from physical work and then humankind discovered (not without a lot of pain for those involved in the meantime) that we could use all those now liberated minds for a profit. But now, the jobs that are taken out are the mental ones. Not, of course, "mental" in the PhD sense, but those that n
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No, he's quite correct. Doomsayers of automation just assume that money will dry out and people will just do nothing.
Realistically, better technologies tend to allow economies to scale to new heights. Infrastructure reduces your dependence on other people, which means you can accomplish more for less, which means you become more productive, which is why for example, the US is a lot more productive than say Liberia. Automation does the same thing.
The word "computer" used to universally refer to a person's jo
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"The word "computer" used to universally refer to a person's job title, whereas now it universally refers to a machine [...] you could use that extra time (or money) to take a longer vacation, or have nice things."
So, how many more vacation days have USA people now than in the seventies?
"You can in fact be wealthier with less money; for a real world example of this, look at the techies that live in San Francisco. Most people outside of that area can have a better quality of life on far less income."
How that
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So, how many more vacation days have USA people now than in the seventies?
https://www.theatlantic.com/bu... [theatlantic.com]
How that's possible?
Easy; in my home of Phoenix the cost of living index is 99, which means it's roughly the national average whereas in SF it's about 192, which means dollar for dollar, I can do nicer things and have nicer things, meanwhile most of their money is going to their rent or their mortgage. It's bad enough that $100,000 a year is considered low income there, whereas here that's quite a good wage.
Those techies at San Francisco have access to much more "technology"... heck, they are the ones inventing it!
Some of them, but not many. What kind of technology are you referring to? I personally
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Retail work is some of the most thankless, soul-flaying work there is.
It is also work that adds very little value. A checkout clerk isn't actually producing anything. A self-checkout kiosk can already do the same job, and is often better because the lines can be shorter.
A good cashier adds value to the company by upselling at the time of purchase "This shirt looks great, but did you see that we have scarves on sale? See the one I'm wearing? That blue one would go great with that shirt". I've watched it work on my wife, and it's quite effective. I don't see the same capability being effective with a checkout kiosk.
Perhaps not so effective at a grocery store or Home Depo, but automated checkout kiosks are already popular at those stores.
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> A good cashier adds value to the company by upselling at the time of purchase
A bad cashier does so badly, and ruins the whole sale. I've recently had this happen several times in the last year. A sales clerk tried to force me to take a store credit card, and another described a "sale" that involved buying more goods at a discount, thus insisting that I would "save money" by buying extra goods at a discount. That is not saving any money on the original purchase, it's buying goods I don't need and _spend
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> A good cashier adds value to the company by upselling at the time of purchase
A bad cashier does so badly, and ruins the whole sale. I've recently had this happen several times in the last year. A sales clerk tried to force me to take a store credit card, and another described a "sale" that involved buying more goods at a discount, thus insisting that I would "save money" by buying extra goods at a discount. That is not saving any money on the original purchase, it's buying goods I don't need and _spending_ extra money.
Yes, bad cashiers are bad, selling credit cards, bad deals, and extended warranties is not a value-add for the customer. But there are *good* cashiers out there, often so good at their job that they entice you to buy more without you even realizing it.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Informative)
Don't blame the cashier for that, blame the upper store management. Think wells fargo and what happened with the fake accounts so the peons could keep their job. If you were a cashier, and the boss told it has been commanded, you shall push store credit cards or you shall be fired, would you push or be fired? The big stores have demanded this kind of behavior.
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Checkout kiosks upsell your purchase by printing coupons with your receipt. Every time I buy yogurt, the machine prints a coupon for more yogurt. And it works. I use the coupon to buy more yogurt.
You actually look at those coupons? I ball them up and toss them in the bag, then toss them in the trash, unseen.
You're the first person I know that says that actually look at them.
But in any case, getting a coupon for a scarf doesn't seem as persuasive as an actual human telling me why that scarf would look good on me. Many websites offer last-minute deals during checkout but that seems less persuasive than an actual human complimenting me and telling me why a particular purchase would be perfect for me.
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Yes that's right a coupon is more persuasive to me than a human cashier blatantly attempting to manipulate me, and you know why that is? Because I am a nerd. I am a real nerd, not one of you social networking fake nerds who yearn for insincere social interaction.
When I shop, I don't want to talk to people. I want to walk into a store, pick items off a shelf, pay cash into a machine, and walk out.
I. do. NOT. want. to. talk. to. people.
But you go right ahead and wish cashiers would give you suggestions and compliments and handjobs.
Go social yourself, asshole.
Yes that's right a coupon is more persuasive to me than a human cashier blatantly attempting to manipulate me, and you know why that is?
Yet you seem unaware of the datamining and processing that goes on behind those coupons that are algorithmically designed to manipulate you... Even more so than the human cashier that just knows that she'll get a bonus for each scarf she sells. She doesn't analyze the last decade of your purchases across multiple brands in real-time to predict than you'll probably buy sensitive teeth toothpaste to go with the soft bristled toothbrush you bought last week
Because nerd. I am a real nerd, not one of you social networking fake nerds who yearn for insincere social interaction.
When I shop, I don't want to talk to people. I want to walk into a store, pick items off a shelf, pay cash into a machine, and walk out.
I. do. NOT. want. to. talk. to. people.
But you go right ahead and wish cashiers would give you suggestions and compliments and handjobs.
Go social yourself, asshole.
I don't see why you would shop at a store at all? I
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Bunk. So long as you stay away from foods high in sugar and salt, it's hard to go wrong with mass produced stuff. You call out dairy for example, but yogurt (real yogurt, not the sugary kind,) cottage cheese, hard cheeses (i.e. Parmesan,) and whole milk are all good stuff. Whole milk is especially good just after a workout, though stay away from low fat and skim milks because they're mostly just sugar.
Some mass produced stuff is quite good, like salsa for example (though don't eat too many chips as they're
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"Sometimes the current algorithms are bad "I see you bought a baseball hat, would you like to buy a hip hop CD?". Er, no."
Actually today it's still more stupid like "I see you bought a washing machine, do you want another washing machine?"
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I hate self serve kiosks. I took one today, because the lines were amazingly long elsewhere. I figured just 3 items, what can go wrong. Of course it immediately beeped for service assistance because one item was too heavy (bottle of soda). No one in self serve was getting checked out faster than normal once they got to the front of the line.
Maybe no one likes to be waited on by a robot but it can't be worse than self service checkout.
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"Maybe no one likes to be waited on by a robot but it can't be worse than self service checkout."
Not to mention that if I have to do the cashiers job I want to get paid for it, at least it has to be somewhat cheaper.
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Our local supermarket started having self-service kiosks, with one employer servicing 6 kiosks (for age verification and random issues). I always take them unless there is no line at the regular checkout, because even if checkout takes a minute longer (I don't know where every barcode is on every product, a good cashier does) skipping the line is worth it and personally I'd rather do something than wait. Also, placing items directly in my bag after scanning them seems a lot more efficient that the whole ba
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I don't like or dislike self-serve or cashier based checkouts.
What I hate is standing in line or waiting while someone slowly scans in my items or asks me questions about how I want to pay or if I have the store courtesy card or some air miles card etc.
I'll use whatever checkout I can that gets me out of the store faster. Most of the time that means self-serve. Unless I have something weird that the self-serve checkout won't understand I can usually scan and pay for my items faster than the cashier can. And
Re:Good. (Score:5, Interesting)
Try to buy 24 cans of cat food, dog food, or similar products.
Oh.. or .. all 3 bags are full. I have to call for assistance as I move one of the bags to the cart.
The code for this vegetable is not available. Search for it by name. You happen to have the code for onions, bulk memorized?
Oh... Beer. Wait.. wait.. wait..
Beep (didn't scan)... beep.. beep... beep. wipe off moisture on glass.. beep. straighten crumpled bar code.. beep.. call for assistance.
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Banks are not charging them a fee in MY neighborhood. They even get free *everything*. You want to drive off a customer with a six figure checking, savings, and brokerage account over a teller fee?!?!? Young and stupid might perhaps.
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Yes, self service will continue to improve.
And packagers and managers and executives will continue to cut corners negating some of the benefits of that improvement.
Cashier lines are 2x to 5x faster if you have over 20 items that includes frozen products and more if you have coupons or booze. Cashiers know the code for bulk onions is 4335 off the top of their head. They can approve a booze purchase in under 30 seconds.
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I agree ATMs are great now. But bills and checks are a much simpler use case. The more likely replacement is "click and save" where you order on your smart phone and pull up and they load your car with the already paid for groceries which they picked for you. For an up charge of $3 to save you at least 15 and maybe up to 30 minutes of your time.
Self service are not appropriate for many of the use cases. And they will be until you can pull your basket up and simply load the products onto the belt and it processes them without manual intervention.
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Why would it even take that long?
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And they will be until you can pull your basket up and simply load the products onto the belt and it processes them without manual intervention.
I think the scanning process will move to the cart, eliminating the belt, etc. Ultimately this may be done by a system of cameras that simply watch what you take off the shelves and place in your cart, without you having to do anything at all in particular. That would eliminate shoplifting. Checkout can be done by sending the bill to your smartphone, or a screen integrated into the cart, or perhaps the "checkout" stations will simply become "payment" stations. Probably the cart screen, since it will provide
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Not that old! Bet you're one of those people who think cash is obsolete and using your phone for everything is the way to go :-)
Re: Robots Could Wipe Out Another 6 Million Retail (Score:2)
Robots Could Wipe Out Another 6 Million Retail Jobs
Good.
Wipe them out.
ALL of them.
Make sure there are large facilities to keep them in when they get out of control.
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I've been ordering more stuff online. Self serve kiosks will only cause me to move to almost everything online. Before I work my ass off checking out myself I'll just have the postal service drop it at my door. Fuck Walmart. They've been trying to get people to use those kiosks at the grocery store. Occasionally someone with 2 or 3 items will use them. The people with a buggy with 200 dollars worth of groceries? I've never seen that. I hear McD's has kiosks now but I don't eat that shit anyway so who cares.
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A self-checkout kiosk can already do the same job, and is often better because the lines can be shorter.
Except you still need cashiers to handle age-restricted products like alcohol and cigarettes. I doubt vending machines for these products will become popular again.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
There is no reason a self service kiosk can't ask to see your ID and then use stereo cameras and facial recognition. You can have a security guard around to make sure people aren't using masks or whatever. Or who knows maybe the security cameras of the store can detect even that and send the police.
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Or who knows maybe the security cameras of the store can detect even that and send the police.
The local mall has a security bot that can report disturbances.
https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/13/12170640/mall-security-robot-k5-knocks-down-toddler [theverge.com]
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Restricted items... (Score:2)
Except that technology exists today to scan your id...and even use face recognition to compare it to the user to make sure it isn't someone else's ID. It wouldn't be perfect but it would be more reliable than most clerks.
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[...] enter the code that authorizes the machine to make the sale [...]
Not in the Great Nanny State of California. Also, alcohol sales are prohibited between 2AM to 6AM. Whenever I walk into 7-11 to pick up a bottle of water and a cheese stick at 6AM during the week, the manager is unlocking the doors for the cold cases and the homeless are lining up to get their booze.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Alcohol-can-t-be-sold-at-self-checkout-lines-4831117.php [sfgate.com]
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Actually, kiosk are temporary.
The RFID model and the "click and pickup" model are the more likely models.
In the first, you pick up the product and simply walk out the door with it and you are billed.
In the second, you modify your standard order, submit it to the store from home, drive to the store, the product is loaded in your car (you already paid for it).
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"As retail sales jobs disappear, stores that sell goods are being replaced with businesses that sell services, such as restaurants, hairdressers, etc"
So in your opinion in 10 years we will cut each others hair to make money?
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Personal services will certainly grow, though hopefully more skilled ones. The history of automation is the history of the common man becoming able to afford stuff that previously only the rich could afford. More and more that means services, not just goods.
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"A self-checkout kiosk can already do the same job, and is often better because the lines can be shorter."
Until your cart includes produce or a bottle of wine.
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People are more likely to "eat out" than ever before, and I doubt if many people would want to be waited on by a robot.
I'm not sure about your experience, but I would so much rather order and pay with my mobile than wait for a waiter in 90%+ of the places I've visited. Humans are probably the cheapest way to bring stuff to your table, but they're pretty bad at most of the rest of the process. And interrupting my conversation five times to ask me whether everything is OK and I want another drink? Non, merci!
The only places where I really like the human contact is the local places or bars where you actually get to chat with t
Re:Good. (Score:4, Insightful)
Retail work is some of the most thankless, soul-flaying work there is.
Airline checkin and Lost&Found beat it hands down.
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Yes.. because all of the people that will lose their jobs to the robotic overlords will be protected... by the concept of the living wage. This is another socialist myth where people will gather an income for doing nothing.. based on taxing those that do something. This is so future-forward we already have examples of it!
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/05/19/venezuela-incredible-legacy-experiment-with-socialism.html
You're confusing "living wage" (i.e. a wage that's high enough to live on) with basic income (basic income payments that everyone gets regardless of whether or where they work).
As more and more jobs are displaced, you can ignore unemployable people at your peril - people that are disenfranchised and feel that they are marginalized and left to die with no way to feed or shelter themselves or family have a way of taking what they want from those that have it regardless of what they need to do to get it.
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I imagine they'll make robots to take care of that problem too.
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It's interesting to work out how riding automation led to that failed revolution in America in the 19th century. As automation made slavery less and less economically viable, the southern states were campaigning to allows slaves to be sold to the western states - which was of course the central point in the Civil War.
Automation made slavery economically pointless in the South (or at least the writing was on the wall). Sounds like a Good Thing to me, despite the very high cost of transition. Turns out the
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Re: No worries... socialism will prevail (living w (Score:2)
What about Dubai or Qatar? They have a universal basic income for their citizens and it seems to be working out fine (it's amazing how having slavery allows one to build). The problem with Venezuela is that they don't have enough oil to go around. You are right though that socialism destroys civilization advancement.
Re:No worries... socialism will prevail (living wa (Score:4, Informative)
This is another socialist myth where people will gather an income for doing nothing.
That's not a socialist myth, that's just your misconception of the notion of socialism. Back in the 19th century, nobody conflated socialism with the notion of robotic utopia - there were no robots after all!
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What so afraid of the future?
Robots will eventually build robots for only raw materials cost
Free robots will mean no labour price.
Products will be free
Mankind free to think
First you need to find a source of free energy
Will take some generations but...
Dumb people will be extinct!
Wake up
A robot revolution is no reason to think dumb people will become extinct -- when intelligence and hard work are no longer important, those qualities will be less prevalent in society.
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First you need to find a source of free energy
Solar panels and windmills assembled by robots from materials mined by robots.
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"What so afraid of the future? Robots will eventually build robots for only raw materials cost"
And what makes you think that the owner of those robots is going to give you one of them?
Heck, even the "owner" of a song will fight nail and teeth against having you a copy of it for free even when the cost of replication is zero!
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"Products can only be free if the raw material cost is zero"
Wrong. The raw materials costing zero have nothing to do with it. How much cost the raw materials of an electronic copy of a song or a film? And even then getting a free copy is considered illegal.
Products can only be free when no other is allowed to claim exclusive ownership of them.
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