When you go to the store

“Why don’t they just go to college and learn to do something useful if they hate it so much?” Said awful human beings.

 

Can you point to specific policies from the Trump administration and explain how they have lowered the unemployment rate? Also could you point to any significant jumps in wage increases related to the low unemployment? I can’t seem to find any of either.

 

Strange------------democrats claim to be for the low paid people. They should embrace not using that self check out.

 

I go to self-checkout if I need the express lane (less than 10 items). It's quicker. Also, at least in my local Wal-Mart (only store we have with self checkout), the loss of cashiers seems to be balanced out with the extra folks doing "online" shopping for the store.

 

Well when the self-serve gas began, the self-serve places had noticeably lower prices than the full service (or filling) stations. I remember that's why I (teenaged male) chose to go to the self-serve gas stations. That 50 cents I saved was enough to buy a soft drink.

 

I guess you also lament the end of buggy whip manufacturers......

 

Shorthand for the above "they need to learn to code."

 

Labor is expensive. Labor costs twice as much as the worker nets.

 

I guess the pick up at the door or grocery delivery service makes a mess of that facial recognition thing...

I rather know that part of the money I spend, goes in the pocket of a local person, who scans my groceries, or better yet, uses an old fashioned (by today's standards) register to key it in.

 

I don’t doubt it. And when you can create a standard across all of retail it’s not like shoppers will have a choice.

 

At the suggestion of a relative I read Yangs book, (its an interesting read) he basically said what has come in the past (self checkout) is just the beginning.

one quote (paraphrasing here) was interesting. He said they had a think tank that had come up with some ideas to make cashiers more efficient and presented them to some retailers and the retailers said "we're not trying to make them more efficient, we're trying to eliminate them, get back to us with THAT solution and we'll talk"

anyway, if you haven't read his book I think you'd find it interesting, he was informative on some issues surrounding automation but had a much gloomier and faster tracking view of the future of semi-skilled employment than I do. I did get a bit of a feeling that he was pretending to be inside the inner circle of automation thought processes but I was looking at it from the end user prospective, not the think tank perspective so I was willing to give him the benefit of doubt since its obviously not my specialty.

he did come across as a bit condescending on the subject, he tended to think that "normals" would be the ones to suffer in mass numbers but the "brains" would be excelling in all areas, more to say on the subject of his book but I lack the time right now.

 

I have a grocery like 1/4 mile from my house and i'm able bodied, so obviously delivery or door service isn't that interesting to me and I kind of like wandering around the store to be honest. My store (publix) has no self checkouts, they still have baggers, and they still offer to walk out with you and load the car, I appreciate that very much but I do pay a price for that "upgrade" <funny that its an upgrade now.

With that said, I see a LOT more of the grocery pickup people in the green shirts (shipit?) buying a cart full with 3-4 different orders, that niche market is picking up, I always wondered what they get paid (prolly not much) because I'd be awesome at it!

I suspect the one reason publix hasn't done self checkouts is because they are still private, employee owned, so they think employees slightly before profit. If they ever go public on nyse, I suspect that we'll see self checkout inside of 3 months, which as a customer is a bad thing but as a stockholder it would likely be pretty great.

 

Since most of the stuff in stores is made in China or Asia anyway, you are putting someone out of a job, no matter what.

However, I am sure that you would be the first to call the ones laid off from cashier jobs "lazy drones", should they file for unemployment benefits.

 

Pretty easy. Go to duckduckgo.com and type unemployment rates over the last 11 years. Lower unemployment usually equals more business seeking more workers and that leads to higher wages. Please don't ask if any businesses are now paying higher wages because you already know that to be a fact.
Here, I know you are busy so I will do it for you.
https://www.multpl.com/unemployment/table/by-year
https://www.advisorperspectives.com...6/u-s-household-incomes-a-51-year-perspective
As for Trump's policies leading to growth? Kind of a silly question given the statistics I provided you with.
Now if you think I an going to get into a little pissing match with you over one graph or another you will be disappointed. Look at what I provided and think logically.

 

I’ll concede wage growth has improved slightly, but neither article points to Trump admin policies being the cause of lowered unemployment.

 

Shoppers always have a choice. Like I tell my customers when they ask if we can do this or we can do that; I tell them, we're only limited by your budget.

 

I frequent a station like that now.

 

I love self checkout. Not having to make mindless small talk and getting in and out works for me.

 

I go to Walmart nearly every day. From what I've observed many of those people who no longer work as cashiers have jobs in the store collecting the orders for people who use their iPhone to send in an order for the items they want and then simply come to the store and pick it up without having to go inside. At any rate, most of their employees still seem to have a job And I would wager most of them prefer being "order pickers" than being "cashiers". At least as order pickers they have less interaction with angry customers.

 

Who do you think invented them?

 

So you are a socialist as well. Wow, all of these "conservative" closet socialists!!!

I believe in the free market. Republicans used to as well. But Republicans are unrecognizable and apparently don't have any convictions beyond supporting the criminal in the WH.

 

No, only reactionaries.

 

I suppose you do not use ATMs either then? Or telephones? Or cars? Or digital cameras? If you were really a principled proponent of your argument, you would have to give up all of these services to "save and create jobs".

Your logic is one that tells you hate and/or fear progress.

Occupations come and occupations go. If you are such a "labour-conservative", you should move to the Third World and become a farmer or something. It is fine and fair to be sad when people lose their jobs because of automation, but we all end up better off in the end.

And if you are really against unemployment caused by automation, the real enemy to fight is the Minimum Wage and not the robots themselves.

 

No I dont. It give a cashier a job.