Di Leo: Self-Checkout and the Biden-Harris Economy

We will attempt to look at an entire job class today, so there are going to be some unavoidable generalizations. Even so, certain truths do apply across the board, whether we like admitting to them or not.

Some of us love the self checkout line at the grocery store. We don’t slow down the other people in line; we can pack our own bags the way we want to, and as long as we can get the discount programs to work and the pricing is right, it can be a nice change to brighten our day.

But most of us prefer a real live cashier, and maybe a dedicated bagger too. They know the codes for the produce by heart; they’ll remember to pack the frozen things together and to keep the raw meat completely separate, and to put bread and eggs on top and to double-bag the heavy canned goods. They are professionals, after all, and they want your purchases to make it home in one piece.

In store after store, community after community, the stores can’t find staff to operate those cash registers, making the self checkout a necessity rather than a choice.

Armchair economists remember their econ classes from high school and college, and can readily recall logical reasons for such labor shortages:

- Changes in demographics, population declines. The community might have fewer young people to be baggers, fewer older people to be cashiers.

- Increased employment opportunities – more desirable options for the local jobseeker. The appearance of a new mall, a new theatre, a new factory, might be attracting the usual pool of employees.

- A salary disparity – suddenly the other local options that were already there now pay much more, leaving the grocery store uncompetitive.

When we old timers were in school, it didn’t take a master’s degree in economics to figure it out.

The grocery stores of today have new problems that were never envisioned in those econ classes of a generation ago:

- The pool of families from which the grocery store used to hire is shrinking, because families are moving away – out of blue states into red ones, out of tax hells into tax havens. Executives, entrepreneurs, and retirees are moving away, taking their spouses and kids with them.

- The city, the county, or even the state, conned by the ludicrous progressive trope that “every wage must be a living wage,” has mandated new, higher minimum wages, double what it was before when things worked, requiring the stores to cut their staff in half in order to pay the required salaries to those they employ. This makes jobs evaporate and makes life much harder for those who remain. The self checkout lines are there because you voted half the cashiers out of a job.

- The city, state, and even federal governments got in the habit of putting everyone on the dole. Again and again, a $300 stimulus check, or a $500 stimulus check, or a $1200 stimulus check. More and more of the people who used to need entry level jobs now receive more in WIC and SNAP cards than they’d earn at an entry level job. So naturally, the entry level jobs go unfilled.

- The intentional destructions of the American petroleum and auto industries have made it harder to attract workers from miles away. With gasoline, car prices, and car repair costs doubling in just three years, the math for a cashier or bagger to drive to work from two towns away just doesn’t work anymore. If you’re not local, you can’t afford to take the job.

Perhaps worst of all is the combined effect of all of the above. The cashiers who know neighbors who just fled to Texas, the baggers whose best friends just moved to Florida. And here they are, left behind, trying to pleasantly wait on shoppers who are buying more expensive things than they can afford, only to watch the shopper pay for it all with a SNAP card.

How often must the cashier mutter under his or her breath, “I’m working minimum wage and I’m paying for this joker’s groceries with my tax dollars?”

If the cashier quit on the spot and went to work at the factory instead, or the mall across town or the logistics park down the road, the pay might be the same, but at least he wouldn’t be constantly assaulted by that particular, painful reminder. Every fourth person, even every third person, probably in some communities every other person, paying for groceries with a welfare card, often while carrying a designer purse and wearing designer clothes, or covered in expensive tattoos and flashing garish jewelry.

You can’t blame anyone for quitting when this convoluted, government-twisted economy is so hostile to the working man, hit in the face with reminders of it at every turn.

Mandated wage hikes have raised prices, driving inflation so that the cost of living has skyrocketed. Property taxes, income taxes and crime have driven other employers out of state. Sanctuary cities and open borders have flooded the area with illegals who don’t have the work ethic of legal immigrants. Declining public education has left the employment pool lacking the math skills to operate a cash register. And nobody knows how to cook anymore, so people spend all their money on prepared foods, further wrecking their own longterm financial states.

The grocery store brings all these issues together. We see and feel the problems of our economy more deeply in the grocery store than anywhere else.

Is it any wonder why the cashiers are disappearing, and more and more of us find ourselves learning the self checkout lane, whether we want to or not?

John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international transportation and trade compliance professional and consultant. A onetime Milwaukee County Republican Party chairman, he has been writing a regular column for Illinois Review since 2009. His book on vote fraud (The Tales of Little Pavel) and his political satires on the current administration (Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes I and II) are available only on Amazon

Was in Krogers the other evening around 8:30pm. Spent about $200. Was expecting to at least have at least one station with a live cashier. Nope, they had lem all go home. Took me a half hour to self check out. Had to put bags on the floor as there was not enough room on the counter before I could eventually put them back in the cart. Checkout assistant had to stop and help me 5 times. I was pissed! I maintained civilty with the kid, but told him to tell his manager I thought it piss poor customer service
.. total bullshit.

Local Walmart superstore reduced its live checkers to 1 person. Of course, a customer line forms.

I have been in that store maybe once in a year. Now, I order a lot of stuff online and get stuff shipped to my back door or mailbox. Amazon.com gets a lot more of my business. Walmart gets a lot less.

I suspect I am not the only one who has changed stores and methods.

Another salient essay. I always look forward to your original posts.

As for the subject matter, I have a few opinions to add.

I’m a “retired” biologist now working at a grocery store in Arkansas. I say “retired” because I wanted part-time work to keep active, but I was quickly promoted to full-time grocery manager, then perishable manager. Now they want me to take over the produce department, should the current manager quit (I’m thinking he will). So I have some insight on how a grocery store works. And here it is…

It’s organized CHAOS!!! Every day, every hour. It truly is nonstop activity. I average seven miles every day for distance traveled. It’s very difficult, physical work. And therein lies the problem. Most people don’t - or can’t - work here. It’s too intense. It’s too physical. Or it’s too much pressure!

These are, of course, the excuses people use when they quit after two weeks. If we’re lucky, they’ll give us a 2-week notice. Usually, though, they just disappear as a “no call, no show.”

And the worst of these “no call, no shows?” The young people. Especially the males. So why do they quit? Get ready for this… nearly all of them are gamers. To do actual paid work for 40 hours a week apparently interferes with their gaming. Now I can’t speak for all grocery stores, of course, but here in Arkansas the most worthless employees are young males addicted to gaming and allergic to work. And most have girlfriends! Which makes you think: what kind of loser young female would put up with such a loser young male? That’s a rhetorical. No need to answer.

So, yes, we have a problem in America. If the reddest of the red states (Arkansas) has this sort of work force problem, we may face a future that is decidedly nasty, brutish, and short.

they’ll remember to pack the frozen things together and to keep the raw meat completely separate, and to put bread and eggs on top and to double-bag the heavy canned goods.

Where is this fantasy land? I've organized the items on the belt to keep things together I want together, like frozen food and meat which must be handled immediately versus cans and cereal which can wait to be unloaded. The cashier would reach over items just to mix up my organization. It's just easier to do it myself.

I was recently in a Smith’s (Kroger affiliated) and the Mother/Daughter combo in front of me rang up a total of $350, then the daughter said “We only have $275” (on their EBT card) The order had already been bagged so they picked through it one bag at a time pulling out and item here and there until they hit $275. Took about 15 minutes. The checker had the patience of a saint. I enjoyed the spectacle, not beng in a hurry. Once they left the checker and I had a good laugh.

Most cashiers at Wal-Mart, for instance, are middle aged. They’re traditionally the more stable employees. Besides, the real reason stores have these self checkouts is because it’s waaay cheaper than a human being. I stopped at a Wal-Mart after church yesterday. I had to wait a couple of minutes for a self checkout to become available. There were several empty spots, but they were apparently non-functioning. Anyway, the person ahead of me got to the next terminal, and the people before her had apparently waltzed out without paying for their order, while the attendant was busy helping someone who was having trouble with a terminal. I marveled at the audacity one must have to do such a thing, but it’s just a sign of the times. (And for those of you who love to jump to a certain conclusion, no, the thieves were not POC).

I can’t imagine honestly that wages saved for minimum wage part time employees is more than the cost of people skipping out on the bill at self checkout. Logic of the management at these stores is assbackwards. I think all self service nonsense is part of the bigger plan. No personal connection, and THEY control how you can do everything ie minimize your choices and make it unpleasant

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