Retail jobs are disappearing as shoppers adjust to self-service

[Liberal_in_LA]

Retail jobs are disappearing as shoppers adjust to self-service
Robots, vending machines and touch screen kiosks are increasingly replacing human workers.

March 4, 2011
Automation — long a force in agriculture and manufacturing — is accelerating in the retail sector, a trend that could hamper efforts to bring down the nation's stubbornly high jobless rate.

In an industry that employs nearly 1 in 10 Americans and has long been a reliable job generator, companies increasingly are looking to peddle more products with fewer employees. Shipping and warehousing workers are being replaced by robots that can process packages more efficiently than humans. Virtual assistants are taking the place of customer service representatives. Kiosks and self-service machines are reducing the need for checkout clerks.

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The nation's standard of living rises when workers move up the job ladder and productivity increases, said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst with the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

"It's not that when you don't have an elevator operator there's massive unemployment as a result," he said. "It's that people are freed up to do more valuable work."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-robot-retail-20110304,0,6578831.story

[bluestateguy]

1. I don't care for self service checkout at the grocery store

It's always something. The machine eats my money, or the coupon needs authorization, or the scanner won't pick up the item.

And then I often get stuck in line behind some old woman who doesn't know what she is doing and needs a store employee to help her anyway.

[Cleita]

2. When they tried to make me do it at our local

Albertsons, I asked them what they were going to pay me because for sure I'm not going to be an unpaid employee for them. They haven't asked me since then.

[Confusious]

15. They took them out of our Albertsons

Put them in, yanked them out. Come to think of it, Safeway doesn't have any either.

[walldude]

10. Wait a sec...

First you complain that there is "always something" then you complain about the old lady who needs the store guy to help? LOL.. might want to rethink that. Although I do sympathize, I always love getting behind someone with a return, expired coupons and a third party check with no ID in the SPEED LANE.
:Shrug:

[bluestateguy]

12. Indeed

That's all the more why we should leave the grocery scanning to the professionals.

[virgogal]

13. Oh those stupid old women. How difficult it must be for you.

Maybe they should all be put on an ice floe and drift off.

[Lugnut]

16. I won't use them.

I was a unionized supermarket front end manager back in the 70s so I'm perfectly capable of scanning in a few things. Self-checkouts eliminate jobs for human cashiers and I won't be a party to it.

[Hannah Bell]

3. um, where is that more valuable work, with unemployment still near 10%?

what a lie.

[tritsofme]

4. If I have more than one or two items, I refuse to the self-checkout at the grocery.

I'm not paying money to bag my own crap.

[DCBob]

5. I prefer self service for the convience and efficiency..

Improvements in technology always has and always will change the work place... that just the brutal reality.

[FormerDittoHead]

14. Same here. This anti-automation talk is "backward" IMO.

Instead of using email, they should write letters so the post office can avoid its cash shortfall this year:

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LNB3E80.htm

Or stop using ATM's.

For crying out loud, the thing that brought us anything that we could call "the good old days" was industrial innovation like assembly lines.

Think about all the candle makers forced out of business by those "evil" lightbulbs!

The Japanese aren't "afraid" of pushing a button and letting a machine do the heavy lifting. Maybe that's why they were eating our manufacturing lunch decades before we were buying anything from the Chinese.

Speaking of eating lunch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GajoPqoi9wo
"well.. at least in Japan..."

[Monique1]

6. That is why I look for places to deliver

hopefully I am keeping some people in a job. Safeway delivers my groceries, an organic market delivers my veggies and fruits and I know - live within walking distance to pick up my own pizza but I do pay to have it delivered to keep people working.

I posted this before but when Safeway delivered my groceries he wouldn't and said he couldn't take a tip. Safeway takes good care of hom plus he thanked me for keeping him in a job.

No, I don't have a lot of money. I'm on a fixed income but I do believe in helping one another. I truly believe we are on this earth for each other but that is my belief.

What I save on the wear and tear on my car and the gas or just helping - I am better off.

[doc03]

7. I recently took a trip to Florida, its been a while since I had been

on an airplane but they had touch screens for check in at the airport and only one human agent. In Florida on the 21st of February they closed all the toll booths on the turnpike, you now have a Sunpass sticker in your window that automaticly bills your credit card. I wonder where all those jobs went to? Oh I also noticed they have private contractors doing all the maintenance on the roads.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. When it was my time to move forward to a touch screen, an agent angrily told me to

go the touch screen! One opened up, and I was grabbing up my bags. Guess I wasn't moving fast enough. sheesh!

[Dawson Leery]

8. From experience, the self checkout machines are very "tempermental".

And you have to wait some time for a person to come over to correct the problem. Not worth it.

[Angry Dragon]

11. Another one with his head up his rectum

[Zanzoobar]

17. I have a friend who owns a couple grocery stores

Nevah!, is his answer to self check-out. He has a grinding hatred for the machines which belittle his commitment to customer service. It should go without saying that he doesn't understand that people are willing to hand over their cash for a service where no service is provided.

He's doing all right with his bagpeople who load up cars for a thank you. When you drop in the store, his "kids" take your deposit bottles and run them through the machine for you. They'll find you in the store and hand over the receipt or drop it off at the register for credit at checkout.

It's a Co-op store and he's very competitive.

The savages go to Kroger.

[Blue_In_AK]

18. I never ever use the self-service checkout

for this very reason. I'm not going to be a party to putting retail clerks out of work.

[SoCalDem]

19. My windshield wiper story

Lsdt week it was raining & my wiper blades were just smearing the window, so I went to AutoZone.

I counted SEVEN people walking around with Auto Zone shirts on.. There was a roped-line that fed to the registers. Of 4 registers, one was open & the guy had a big ole book he was looking through (for a part probably)

I have NO idea what size/kind of wiper blades I need..I had to look at my insurance card to find out what year my car is:rofl:

I flagged one of the wandering employees & told him I needed help and did not have anything to buy yet..and he said, when it was "my turn" someone would help me.

So I waited until the 4 people in front of me were through, and it was finally my turn.. The man at the register then said...:Go back there..there's a computer screen that you can look up the wiper you need"..

I basically wasted 15 minutes (at least) to be told that I could go look it up, find it on my own, and then wait in line all over..


I said. NO THANKS.. & walked out..

I then went to Pep Boys , where a clerk immediately called "Mike" on the intercom & he met me at the parts desk.. He found out which wipers I needed, got them for me, rang up the order and then told me I could drive around back & Larry would put them on for me..no charge..

From start to finish, I think it took less than 10 minutes.. and I was not the first car in the Larry-line..

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. I love stores that still provide customer service (by humans). n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

20. The self check out hardly ever works as it's supposed to anyway

In our one store they've replaced half the lanes with self check out lanes, which refuse to function as they should. They don't read the card correctly, or don't scan the item at the correct price. They're way slower than the regular lines due to all the malfunctions. Which is really saying something since now the regular lanes have lines which are usually around 10 customers long.

I really hate shopping at the grocery or any discount store anymore. It's become such an inconvenience. The sad thing is, pretty much everyone I know agrees with me. If someone would come along with a store focused on customer service again I believe they'd have a winner.

[lapislzi]

22. Always avoid the self-check out

One chain's taken it a step further. You can pick up a hand scanner when you enter the store and scan your purchases as you go, and bag them at the same time. Then you download the scanner at the self-checkout and pay. Along with the automated deli counter (you text your order upon entering the store), you need never come in contact with a human being.

Ain't technology great? That's at least three people they don't have to pay.