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Kitchen Table Kibitzing October 29, 2023 [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-29  

Serve Yourself

I first noticed the trend in economy grocery stores. Yes, a checker totaled your purchases, but slid them down for you to pack into bags yourself. Well, that seemed OK, since the stores touted themselves as “economy” so you were saving money.There was still human interaction.

Self- service has been around longer than I thought. “In 1986, a handful of Kroger stores installed the first self-checkout machines, which cost $5m to develop. The contraptions, called CheckRobots, required customers to scan items and place them on a conveyor belt before a human employee bagged them on the other end.”

I didn’t notice them until much later. My immediate reaction was to avoid them, since I figured their purpose was to eliminate employees. To this day i have never used a self-checkout line. Often an employee is helping the customers use the scanning machine anyway; some savings! “Neither have they reduced the need for workers: despite the increase in self-checkouts, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the number of cashiers employed in the US has remained virtually the same over the last 10 years.”

I would expect this as well, from The Guardian: “Meanwhile, self-checkouts have become a prime target for fraudsters, who use a variety of tactics to beat anti-theft measures. Weight sensors can be defeated by ringing up expensive items – like king crab legs – as cheap items like apples. James, the cashier in Washington, says he saw a customer trying to buy a $1,600 grill for $5 by hiding one item inside another and switching the barcodes.”

And yet…….

“84 percent of the 1,000 Americans surveyed revealed that they like self-service options and 66 percent said they would choose a self-service kiosk over the full-service option.

These figures also revealed that many of these shoppers want to keep to themselves, as 60 percent said they do not want to talk to a person when checking out.”

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/10/29/2202400/-Kitchen-Table-Kibitzing-October-29-2023

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