Self Checkout

DWalt

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I suppose this is happening everywhere, but at least in my area, self-checkouts at stores is becoming the norm. Yesterday afternoon, I needed to buy some plumbing parts at Home Depot. None of the regular checkout lanes were manned, only the self-checkout area (with one attendant). My closest Wal-Mart store recently expanded its self-checkout areas greatly (they now have two) and now has only four manned checkout stations. Yesterday only one of them was manned.

I think it is inevitable that these efforts to eliminate human employees will continue in the retail sector, because they seem to be working, and the self-checkout terminals don't have to be paid weekly and don't need any fringe benefits. I think fast food will be next, and not too far in the future.
 
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Already there. A couple of weeks ago I went to a McDonalds. It was lunchtime and there was one person on the counter and about five people in line. I went to the kiosk and ordered. I got my order before the third guy in line had ordered at the counter.

I'm all for it. The less humans I have to deal with the calmer I am.

This is what $15 an hour looks like:
 

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At least locally, several years ago Jack-in-the-Box tried ordering kiosks, but they didn't catch on and were removed. McD has had them for some time, and at least at my closest place they seem to be accepted. The fast food chains are all now investing in technology with the objective of eliminating most positions where they now need humans. $15/hour for a burger flipper or counter attendant is unsustainable. And machines can't unionize.
 
Not a fan of self checkout. The ones at Wal-Mart work pretty well. The ones at Kroger (grocery chain) are awful - the attendant has to come and do something at least two times when checking out. Aggravating and I don't like machines telling me what to do!

Have yet to use the McDonald's kiosk.
 
I actually prefer the self check-out at grocery stores and the only problem I have with those kiosks at fast food places is that I’m sure they don’t get cleaned very often. Same with those little pay station gadgets on restaurant tables. But then I don’t like salt shakers and condiment bottles on restaurant tables either. They always seem a little greasy :(
 
I'm retired and for the most part have plenty of time. I will not use those store "you do it" check outs. I will go through the regular check out. Perhaps if they give money off I might do it!


As far as the fast food places same deal go to the counter and for the most part get a bit amused by the actions of the "help, it makes the wait easier to bear. Course we rarely go to a fast food place, as the food they give you sure does not look like what you see on the TV commercials.:eek:
 
Yup. The rising cost of unskilled labor (a.k.a. minimum wage) is eliminating jobs and replacing them with kiosks. A lot of us predicted exactly this when the "make minimum wage a living wage" movement started screaming for $15 an hour to be the new minimum wage a few years ago.

Employers can't pay employees more in wages than their work generates in profits and still stay in business. It's simple math.

For example: if an employee is being paid $15 and hour, and their medical insurance, employer paid taxes, workman's comp, etc. cost another $10 an hour then it costs the employer a total of $25 an hour for that employee to work there.

If a retail operation is making an average net profit of 5% on sales, then that employee has to generate $500 an hour in sales, every hour they work, just for the employer to afford to pay them. That's $4,000 in sales per day per employee.

In a fast food setting for example, with a couple of people working the cash registers, a couple cooking the food, and a couple more prepping, packing, and bagging the food, six employees working means the fast food joint has to make $3,000 an hour in sales ($24,000 per 8 hour shift) to be profitable.

Even if the profit margin doubles to 10% it still requires $1500 per hour minimum in sales - every hour - for the restaurant to pay for a crew of 6. That's $12,000 in sales every 8 hour day and that cost of doing business never ends or even goes down.

Suppose that a kiosk replaces just the two cash register employees. That is $50 an hour in savings. In the example above with a 5% profit margin that reduces the required sales from $3,000/hr ($24,000 per shift) to $2,000/hr ($16,000 per shift). It doesn't take very long at that rate for the savings to completely pay for the kiosk, and once it is paid for there isn't a whole lot of ongoing maintenance cost.

Even in a higher profit margin setting like the 10% profit margin example above the kiosk still reduces the required sales levels from $1,500/hr ($12,000 per 8 hour day) to $1,000/hr ($8,000 per 8 hour day). So the kiosk still pays for itself in a short period of time and continues to provide additional savings (profits) once it is paid for.

Plus kiosks don't make mistakes like entering the order wrong, or giving incorrect change. They don't steal from the till, call in sick, take breaks, take vacations or present any of the other thousand other problems that come with having employees. So I don't see a very rosy future for low skilled minimum wage jobs in retail settings. Especially as minimum wage rates and benefit costs keep climbing.
 
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I won’t use them if there’s an opportunity to avoid them.

They hurt employment opportunities for entry level and low skill workers.

I’m not sufficiently enamored of wrestling with technology to imagine that the savings the retailers achieve are passed on to the customers in any meaningful way.
 
I don’t know how it is in other states, but in Kaliforniastan you can not use the self checkout process for the beer I often buy at the-grocery store, that means I often need to stand in along line to check out at a manned check out line which is frustrating , because I could have been through the self checkout several times by the time I get through the manned position. Thank the Retail Clerks Union for this state law. End result is I usually buy my beer only at a store that does not have any self checkout kiosks.

Bob


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While some work better than others in general I like them. I may be old but I'm not blind to the fact that you have to accept change, and they are the future whether some of us like them or not.

The push for unreasonable minimum wages only accelerates the process.
 
I do all the grocery shopping in my family and I only use the self-check. Its faster and I can bag my stuff how I want. There is always a live person around to tell the thing I’m old enough to buy my booze.
 
For the most part, I refuse to use the self checkouts unless I have cash and only one or two items. I am a dinosaur and write checks for just about everything and the self checkouts are not set up for those, without having to deal with the "human" clerk anyway. On the few times that I have given in to temptation and tried to use the self checkouts there is ALWAYS a problem and when you look around you see the one support clerk running around trying to deal with all the flashing red lights on the kiosks. I realize they are probably the future but they suck and I don't have to like it.
 
I won’t use them if there’s an opportunity to avoid them.

They hurt employment opportunities for entry level and low skill workers.

I’m not sufficiently enamored of wrestling with technology to imagine that the savings the retailers achieve are passed on to the customers in any meaningful way.

Welcome to the new reality. Business is not here to provide jobs or even produce stuff, it's here to make money, nothing more. Here is a quote from a Wall Street type to a Boeing engineer.

“Look, I get it. What you’re telling me is that your business is different. That you’re special. Well, listen: Everybody thinks his business is different, because everybody is the same. Nobody. Is. Different.”

To those with the money, all businesses are the same, be it flipping burgers, mortgage brokerage making guns (Remington, anyone?) or building airplanes. Um, really?

Full article here. Crash Course | The New Republic
 
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I am getting used to them at Kroger & Home Depot, McDonalds has them, but they're not faster really. The worst I ran into was at a Thorntons mini mart. The at first had a cashier standing behind each one, walking folks through it.

A month later I went in and the screens were still there, but everyone was still waiting in line instead. A flat screen can't reach back and grab a pack of Marlboros off the rack, or count the number of donuts in the little bag. I don't purchase either product, but enough do that it was holding things up I think.

I don't see a computer helping me load 10 sheets of plywood on my truck either,...... yet.
 
Again, another example of economics. If gas stations still operated with attendants like they did in the 1950s, gas would probably cost twice what it does now. I don't remember the last time I saw a free-standing old-style attended gas station that wasn't associated with a convenience store or supermarket. At one time, some states banned self-service gas pumps as being a fire hazard. I know Ohio did. Remember when most gas stations had one or two service bays and someone they called a "mechanic"? Of course back then, being a mechanic was a much simpler job than today.
 
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