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Retail workers should have seen it coming a long time ago, with the advent of internet shopping, self-serve checkout stations and malls closing down.
And how many workers in other trades aren't seeing it coming, like Robots and Artificial Intelligence! Including the job you're working! Are You getting ready for the changes?'
I worked as a Nursing Assistant at a LTC Rehab facility, and I've been made aware they now have robotic caregivers. Shouldn't any nursing assistant see that coming, and? Which way to turn?
I think a number of retail workers who are fired are incompetent.
A lot of them have zero customer service skills and don't see that as part of their job. Just look at all the cashiers who get upset when customers won't use self-checkout stations.
And how about a coal miner? Putting more carbon into the atmosphere and destroying the environment!
Incorrect. Coal minors produce a product that is in extremely high demand and is used by virtually everyone - including you. BTW, every time you drive to the store, you're putting pollutants in the air. Notice I didn't say carbon - if you're going to vilify something, at least get your facts straight. Although lack of facts is the defining characteristic of climate alarmists.
Laid off coal workers, laid off auto workers and the politicians seem to make a big deal out of it, but retail workers? From January thru mid-June of this year, U.S. companies made plans to close down 7,000 brick-and-mortar stores, 160,000 retail jobs lost since 2017 and more to come. And a great number of these retail workers are women. Unfortunately, Trump's tariffs are kicking these companies while they're already down.
Trump has cushioned the impact of the trade war for other industries through taxpayer funded bail-outs and subsidies, but no such rescue seems in the offing for retail.
I loathe Donald Trump, but I hate this kind of nonsense even more.
The only way to raise wages it to raise productivity. The only way to raise productivity is to have a dynamic economy, rather than preserve old, inefficient industries. I mean, are you actually suggesting to preserve today's equivalent of a Blockbuster Video or a record store out of a sense of misplaced empathy? Or do you just enjoy empty posturing?
Retail has to change or die. But guess what? Retail has always had to change or die because demographics, shopping patterns, and good old-fashioned demand shift continually from years to year People are flocking to e-commerce for very substantial reason, so those retailers that fail to adapt will die off, just the way butchers, bakers, green grocers, dry goods shops all died on the vine when A&P and Piggly Wiggly came along a century ago.
Want to know how retailers can survive? All markets divide into high-touch or low price. A good working example is your local hardware store. Those continue to do fine in the face of Home Depot and Lowe's. Why? Because you can stroll into a hardware store and get answers in ways that you just can't at a big box--and never will. As a result, you don't mind paying more. Because knowledge is never a commodity. The same is beginning to be true of bookstores. The smart ones began to cater to reader rather than be lazy and simply act as places where you can buy books. So independent booksellers are actually having a comeback in the age of Amazon. You know, the original reason Amazon went into business in the first place.
So if someone is a retail worker who loses his or her job, I'm really sorry about that. But there will be a new job. Given the historically low unemployment rate and the fact that wages are now rising at a rate considerably higher than that of inflation, it means that clearing out the economic cobwebs means ultimately a better economy for all.
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 07-07-2019 at 04:50 PM..
This is what happens when people elect a cruel & evil moron to the POTUS job.
Republican folks are getting what they wanted.......... A miserable bastard to govern our country.
This is a pretty lazy assessment. And I wouldn't vote for Trump with a gun to my head.
The decline of manufacturing jobs is due to government policy that was enacted and sustained on a bi-partisan basis over the past 25 years, from NAFTA to China getting favored-nation status, to a tax and regulatory environment that actively discouraged domestic manufacturing. To sit and blame Trump for that shows breathtaking lack of awareness.
In fact, proof that even a broken clock can be right twice a day, Trump has likely bettered the lot of American workers by lowering corporate taxes and regulations. The rise in wages and domestic capital investment, as well as the plunge in unemployment are proof of that.
What's the biggest problem in this country? Posts like this authored by people too lazy and unimaginative to abandon binary political thinking. Try not parroting whatever bullet points have been handed to you by your political overlords.
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