The incentive is for tech/automation to eliminate jobs especially unskilled work...
I suppose if it works as designed, it would cut down on shoplifting.
Of course if they tried it here, the cries of “Racism!” would be non-stop.
We have similar stores with Amazon in USA. Supposedly, you do not need to check out items at all.
It’s been that way since 1760.
Here’s a possible improvement for the system: it can charge the credit cards of only ONE race, while letting another race walk out without paying.
They should try this in San Francisco. They already have a law that allows shoppers to grab things and walk out. This would improve matters for them - they would be able to put their things in a bag, making it easier for them to carry them out. Much more dignified than stuffing $950 worth of cosmetics into a trash bag.
Self-checkout probably works better in a country where if you shoplift more than $950.00 worth of stuff, you don’t get a slap on the wrist, you get an ax to the wrist...
Bet they still hide the pork products in a separate, “unclean” section.
I seem to remember that when scanning was first touted for shoppers that you were supposed to able to load your cart and pass it through the scanners which automatically detected everything in the cart and rang up your bill.
Now in many stores we have to scan our own merchandise in a laborious process eliminating the jobs of the cashiers who could do it faster. What ever happened to the automatic scanners that were predicted?
Our walmart went automated a while back. They have 1 or 2 cashiers and the rest of the checkouts are SELF checkouts. If I don’t have the energy to check myself out (health issues), I just don’t shop there. I will/can only stand in a line for so long, if it takes too long I leave. I worked as a cashier at one time so self checkout works for me, when I can. I prefer it over the dim bulbs who work in my store.
None of this is new lots of grocery stores has self check out and have had for a while.
Amazon is opening one of their hyper-automated food stores just a couple blocks from me.
I think you have to have one of their paid membership cards to swipe into the entrance door.
We have two regular chain grocery stores within walking distance, so, hopefully, the added competition will create some downward food price pressure in my little neighborhood.
Isn’t curious how certain Islamic countries (like Dubai and the other emirates) can be at the cutting edge of modernity while others are still in the 7th century?
This is what happens when you make labor expensive through regulations, taxes and of course the minimum wage.
The incentive is for tech/automation to eliminate jobs especially unskilled work...
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Thus the phrase.
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Some scanners asked me to choose my language. I would say “foul” when dealing with certain types of scanners. On some temperamental ones I would end up quoting “Marvin the Paranoid Android” declaring loudly “What a depressingly stupid machine.”
Amusingly, people are still lined up three or four deep at the traditional registers. I'm one of the only shoppers that actually use this app.
I suppose it's possible to not scan some items and get them for free but most people would never do that. Besides, I'm sure the supermarket's P&L has a line for "losses" like this and found that it more than balances the cost of hiring additional cashiers and baggers.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing it.
They should make human labor more affordable by having them live in cubicles above the store like china does with it’s factory workers.
Those “unskilled workers” are barely human anyway.
This is only possible in a country with laws against shoplifting.
The incentive is for tech/automation to eliminate jobs especially unskilled work...
Except Dubai has no minimum wage and labor is generally very cheap. Emiratis generally don't work, the only place you'll see one working is at the immigration counter when you enter Dubai. All low level work like cashiering will be done by imported workers, usually Filipinos or Indonesians will be doing cashier and server work. Manual labor is usually done by Indians and Pakistanis. In many respects it's like the illegal immigrant workers in the U.S., except in Dubai it's actually legal. They still work for pennies though.
I posted on another thread that minimum wage doesn't really matter when it comes to automation, a machine is always going to be cheaper no matter the wage and jobs will be automated if they can be. Several posters disagreed with me but they're wrong, it will happen no matter the wage. This is a good example, workers in Dubai cost very little yet they're still getting replaced with machines.
A good cashier is VERY skilled.