Opinion of self-checkout lanes

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

?

[kcguy]

The self-checkouts don't ask me to make small talk.

This introvert approves.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

I mean they are nice, but pretty annoying when you have stuff like produce and have to search for the code and punch it in. And also if you didn't do something right and have to talk to a store attendant, it would be much more awkward than just having a chasier scan your goods. I like it though because it makes you feel like a supermarket cashier superhero.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

When did we decide that we'd rather support the ultra-rich get richer by removing jobs that our communities need? Self checkout lanes are not NEEDED, AT ALL. Our culture is getting so obsessed with the ideas that "ever so slightly faster = WAY WAY better" and "newer technology = automatically better PERIOD in every single case" that we are turning our backs on our communities (ourselves) and our local and national economies. When you pay cashiers, most or all of that money goes back into your community (and state, and country). When you save Wal-Mart money as a group of people by always using checkout lanes, that money is usually not spent in your community or state or country's economy, and doesn't contribute to your local economy.

[Santander]

The self-checkouts don't ask me to make small talk.

That's the thing I hate about small towns.

[Skunk]

Freedom lanes when you're a college student. It's incredibly embarrassing to have someone scan six packs of instant ramen and cereal for you.

[kcguy]

When did we decide that we'd rather support the ultra-rich get richer by removing jobs that our communities need?

. . .when we got rid of our gas station attendants?

[Santander]

Freedom lanes when you're a college student. It's incredibly embarrassing to have someone scan six packs of instant ramen and cereal for you.

There's nothing embarrassing about doing that as a college student.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

When did we decide that we'd rather support the ultra-rich get richer by removing jobs that our communities need?

. . .when we got rid of our gas station attendants?

Fair enough. Why do we keep making these decisions? How big is the unemployment rate going to get in 50 years, and how much richer are the rich going to get? Do we think the rich will share their wealth with us out of pity, or that the government will have the balls to force them to? If not, why would we want to continue down that path? Why do some here support that choice?

[dead0man]

When did we decide that we'd rather support the ultra-rich get richer by removing jobs that our communities need?

. . .when we got rid of our gas station attendants?

or when 6 guys with spears could do to a large beast what 25 dudes with rocks couldn't do.  Doing things better means we need fewer people to do it.  The fewer humans hunting beasts, filling gas tanks and scanning our groceries is a good thing.  People that would never do any of those things telling us it's a tragedy that we've lost those jobs doesn't change that fact.


edit-also, I just did this exact thread (better) a couple of months ago.

[JA]

Freedom Lanes

I have 2 reasons for this belief...

1. I want to minimize social interactions as much as possible, especially after a long day of working in customer service. The last thing I want to do is make small talk with someone whose life I couldn't care less about.

2. These lanes are an example of smart innovation and using technology to free people from menial forms of labor. The more menial jobs that can be eliminated the better. However, with that said, we have done an awful job of ensuring the benefits of automation are spread more equitably, rather than simply being transferred upwards. Man doesn't need to compete with machines; machines should liberate us, not terrify us. When people respond that way to technological progress, it proves a flaw in our economic system, not a flaw with technology. People should welcome not having to scan items for others anymore, not bemoan it.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

2. These lanes are an example of smart innovation and using technology to free people from menial forms of labor. The more menial jobs that can be eliminated the better. However, with that said, we have done an awful job of ensuring the benefits of automation are spread more equitably, rather than simply being transferred upwards. Man doesn't need to compete with machines; machines should liberate us, not terrify us. When people respond that way to technological progress, it proves a flaw in our economic system, not a flaw with technology. People should welcome not having to scan items for others anymore, not bemoan it.

OK, and when we realize (already know) that under NO circumstances will the benefits of automation be spread equitably, we need to stop eliminating these jobs. Once we get our from cut-throat corrupt anti-socialist oligarch capitalism, we can eliminate these jobs and all share in our technological advancement.

[Morgan Kingsley]

They're annoying to use

[Robert California]

1. I want to minimize social interactions as much as possible, especially after a long day of working in customer service. The last thing I want to do is make small talk with someone whose life I couldn't care less about.

Tovarishch, you hurt the revolutionary struggle by refusing to associate with your fellow workers. How can we form solidarnost if our maximum relationship to one another is an embarassed aversion of the face following accidental eye contact and a mumbled "ope!" when we accidentally bump into each other during the rare times we leave our individual hovels?

2. These lanes are an example of smart innovation and using technology to free people from menial forms of labor. The more menial jobs that can be eliminated the better. However, with that said, we have done an awful job of ensuring the benefits of automation are spread more equitably, rather than simply being transferred upwards. Man doesn't need to compete with machines; machines should liberate us, not terrify us. When people respond that way to technological progress, it proves a flaw in our economic system, not a flaw with technology. People should welcome not having to scan items for others anymore, not bemoan it.

OK, and when we realize (already know) that under NO circumstances will the benefits of automation be spread equitably, we need to stop eliminating these jobs. Once we get our from cut-throat corrupt anti-socialist oligarch capitalism, we can eliminate these jobs and all share in our technological advancement.

While I instinctively sympathize with your fears of automation and such, I don't see any reason to subject the working classes to mile-long checkout lanes for the sake of some sort of long-run economic endgame. Is your goal to engage the laboring people in meaningless busywork for the sake of principle, thereby distracting them from self-actualization and skill improvement? Your previous post implying that communities need gas station attendants (as in, people to pump your gas for you) is example enough of the lunacy that you're willing to entertain.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Annoying because supermarkets are the biggest employers in the workforce.

We are screwing the basic fabric of the communitt by making everyone unemployed.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

2. These lanes are an example of smart innovation and using technology to free people from menial forms of labor. The more menial jobs that can be eliminated the better. However, with that said, we have done an awful job of ensuring the benefits of automation are spread more equitably, rather than simply being transferred upwards. Man doesn't need to compete with machines; machines should liberate us, not terrify us. When people respond that way to technological progress, it proves a flaw in our economic system, not a flaw with technology. People should welcome not having to scan items for others anymore, not bemoan it.

OK, and when we realize (already know) that under NO circumstances will the benefits of automation be spread equitably, we need to stop eliminating these jobs. Once we get our from cut-throat corrupt anti-socialist oligarch capitalism, we can eliminate these jobs and all share in our technological advancement.

While I instinctively sympathize with your fears of automation and such, I don't see any reason to subject the working classes to mile-long checkout lanes for the sake of some sort of long-run economic endgame. Is your goal to engage the laboring people in meaningless busywork for the sake of principle, thereby distracting them from self-actualization and skill improvement? Your previous post implying that communities need gas station attendants (as in, people to pump your gas for you) is example enough of the lunacy that you're willing to entertain.

I didn't make that gas station attendant post, it was another user.

My "fears" are projected to become a reality by the majority of industry professionals and projections, the only question is how long it will take. It's an eventuality. You don't need mile-long checkouts, stores typically put extra cashiers on during busy hours. There will always be a time where a store gets unexpectedly busy for 10 or 15 minutes and you have to wait a little bit, which is part of life and not a huge deal. If you're triggered by an occasional line-up, there's a safe space for that nowadays where they deliver groceries to your front door. My ideology here isn't so much about m
always making sure everybody has a job no matter what. It's more about when a HUGE amount of jobs all disappear because if robots and we have a massive unemployment number, less workers spending money into the economy and corporations making record high profits as the middle class almost literally disappears. I'm not talking about applying my stated logic to capitalism or to 2019, but rather a massive imminent crisis that seems very small now but will only continue to grow and grow until our entire economy and society become a frankenstein's monster.

[HillGoose]

I love the self checkout I can check myself so much faster than the cashiers because they r slow.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

ff

[Santander]

As with no-service gas pumps

Another reason why NJ is great.

[Red Willow]

Corporate CEOs need that extra yacht, how can they pay for it without canning their cashiers? Think of the poor capitalists!

[dead0man]

As with no-service gas pumps, self-checkout lines do not eliminate "menial" tasks. They merely force that labor on to a disempowered consumer who gets nothing out of the deal.

You can order your food from home and employ several people and never break a sweat or leave the couch!

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

The relatively new Target in Minneapolis in Uptown is now only self checkout lanes (last year there was still two cashiered ones but those were converted into returns and exchanges now) which kind of bugs me due to the location and state of this Target, it's on the bottom floor of a relatively newly built luxury apartment complex where the starting price for a studio is about $2500/month and is designed so that residents can go it just by going down on the elevator. Very convenient yes, but being designed so that you can just walk go down an elevator and get some needed food or household items with no social interaction whatsoever kind of irks me.

It's also much smaller than most Targets and doesn't have a clothing section or sell any clothes, while I suspect that this is partially because those take up a lot of space, it's probably also because the people living there probably don't buy clothes at Target and no one who goes to Uptown to shop for clothes is going to want to do it at Target. Hence why while it's a convenient place to visit it's always feels a bit irking to me.

[RI]

As with no-service gas pumps

Another reason why NJ is great.

I like the Oregon compromise of allowing self-service gas stations, but only in some rural counties.



This comment from discussion of the above map so perfectly demonstrates the absurdity of self-service that it's worth quoting here:

If I fly into Portland, I often will drive across the river to Vancouver, WA and fill the rental car on my return trip to the airport.

What is interesting is that the price is no cheaper in Washington. In fact it seems to be more expensive. I just prefer to do it under 'my terms', such as pay at the pump. It has the added benefit of not dealing with the attendants in Portland. Very slow and often surly.

Clearly, preferences differ: I would sooner sit in the comfort of my vehicle while a "slow and surly" attendant sees to its refueling, particularly when there is no reward for doing it myself.

Why is the surliness of the attendant so important, anyway? There is nothing wrong with service workers who refuse to maintain the cloying have-a-nice-day attitude that so many American customers demand from them. That insistence probably explains how these pathological types come to experience these exchanges as emotionally taxing in the first place.

Tried to gas up in Medford this July, but the attendant (who was just sitting around and smoking) told me to leave because he didn't start working for another half hour, and I couldn't pump the gas myself. Infuriating.

[Hammy]

They should be banned outright. They're eliminating a lot of entry level jobs--making it harder for people to enter the workforce to start with, but it's really annoying when you have 20 people at the self checkouts, and ten closed checkout counters.

Personally I think at least half of the counters should be required to be manned at all times for larger stores anyway.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

The more I think about, the more I realize this comes down to a "me" or "us" mentality. For me, it is far more important that people continue to have jobs than for my life to be a tony tiny fraction more convenient. If we can do things easier with machines, okay, but as another user pointed out, under capitalism and with no specific regulation, this mostly benefits corporations, benefits consumers a tiny bit, but negatively impacts unemployment, the wealth gap and the economy. Our current governmental systems in North America and a lot of Europe will NOT be spreading the benefits of automation to the people. Extra corporate profits that they don't need and a shrinking job market = no thank you.