I saw something about this today of a test of such a system. I wonder how well it’s protected from hackers. I also was shocked to find that cashiers make up the majority of jobs in America which would explain Trump’s rise as he promised to bring back higher paying industrial jobs. This is both interesting and frightening to me as I can’t afford the technology to go to one of those stores and worry about what all the potentially displaced workers will do.
we have had these in the U.K for some time now. My local supermarket must have a dozen of these machines. They still have a lot of human cashiers though
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I prefer a cashier. I hate those stupid self checkouts.
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I prefer a cashier too. I always worry with those self checkouts something will go wrong and I’ll piss off the people waiting by taking too long.
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What technology product is required of customers to shop there ???
I am in the usa and we have many stores with mix of that, but none that I know of are absolutely with out some kind of cashier.
We have self-checkout lanes and they are arranged in a group of about 6 to 10. One cashier supervises them all.
They are mostly express.
I think you will be saved from what you fear by two things:
-
lack of public training
-
older folks
ok. 3 things. cost of retail sqare footage.
All of the above are related to why i dont think it can work in such a complete manner as you are thinking.
It maybe fine for a few items (express lanes). The common person does not scan groceries enough to be proficient at it with large/family purchases. What would take a customer 15 min., a cashier does in four min.
They would needa lot more floor space and self-checkots to avoid a back up of long lines. floor space translates to money paid for retail space rented by the square foot.
The eldery, well, some of them just dont give a d!!ned about technology. They did good just to be able to show up there and they have money to spend. The stores are simply asking to much of them. What else can be said?
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There are no employees at all in those stores (with the exception of stockers) and as far as I can tell you need a smartphone (I could be wrong)
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wow. No, I was not aware that model of supermarket existed.
That would exclude quite a few people from shopping there. You think they’ll crash? I do. Businesses cant be picky about whose money to accept.
Is there a certain type of smartphone needed?
Where I am at, there are crappy but usable smartphones for as much as about $100.
The bill on those types of phones are about $40 to $60. a month. (I dont know if yhat is in your budget. I know many people in my city can only afford the non-smartphones.
Are you thinking of getting one? You can get them on sale online during the time school starts back. At that time, they are sold for only about two-thirds of the prices found in stores.
I wasn’t too sure about that either but I use self checkout almost every single time I go to the store. The only exception is stores that don’t have them. I’m not a people person. My people battery gets drained while I’m at work because I deal with the public so any time I get the chance to avoid people I do. I’m assuming they will need unskilled labor to make these machines so there is temporary job opportunities there. I realize though that that will not be enough to suffice all the dislocated workers but if we found a solution to that I wouldn’t mind at all having automated stores. Makes my life easier.
I have used them and they have a long way to go to get them working properly. If you have no bar code like fruits and veggies it was hard to find them in their scanner system. and awkward if you did not know the kind or brand of the veggie.
One time, I just walked out and went elsewhere
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We have some machines like that in a Walmart in a town nearby here. I use the checkout with cashier and it doesn’t seem like those who don’t get done much faster if at all.
My mom uses the self checkout and there’s hassle like some only take credit /debit and aren’t clearly designated with an obvious sign.
According to this article, it’s cashierless, with no need for checkout at all. But there are employees in the store. This scares me because if I go back to work I’m thinking about doing a cashier job.
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the advantage of getting rid of these jobs
is that it allows us to make the groceries themselves cheaper.
And that should be the priority IMO.
If people want to volunteer at the store, let them do it but without pay.
This is amazing! Bout time to invest in some Amazon stock I think.
I worry that Amazon is becoming a monopoly though. I mean I shop at Amazon, but I don’t think we should let them become a monopoly.
What happened to the Sherman Antitrust law? It’s supposed to prevent monopolies
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I have a difficult time using the self checkout.
I’m usually too slow and am too nervous that I’ll make an error.
I like cashiers because they bag my groceries and make it easier for me.
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So you don’t think Amazon is becoming a monopoly?
I love those things! They’re a god send for people with social anxiety. I don’t have to fumble with my change and try and jam everything into my wallet after I paid while the rest of the line watches. Also no awkward small talk.
They have them at mcdonalds too now. Super happy because usually unless someone takes me through drive through and I tell them what I want I refuse to order in restaurants. It’s much too difficult for me.
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I really don’t know. In school we were taught about the Sherman Antitrust law which is supposed to keep a company from becoming a monopoly. So if Amazon is a monopoly how are they getting around that law?