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I live in Arkansas and self checkout is a big thing. Wal-Mart will have more self checkout "pods" with an attendant or two overseeing roughly (10) checkout machines within each pod.
Cashiers will/have transitioned over to home delivery and/or grocery pickup. Attrition will take care of the older workers and bad workers who quit/get fired will not be replaced as quickly.
Truthfully, this is nothing new. I solely use self checkout, since I don't smoke cigarettes and I don't buy alcohol from Wal-Mart.
It is not just those items that are difficult. Items with no bar code like fruit/veggies inevitably mess up on the self scan. I would say I have about a 75% failure rate where it thinks I am trying to put an extra item into the bag. It also has issues when you don’t put the item onto the bagging area at all, which sometimes I don’t want to do with an item that is heavy like a 24-pack of cans or water or other bulky items it makes more sense to scan in the cart and leave there.
I used to work at Wal-Mart. They've been working on this tech for 20 years.
This will eliminate some jobs but maybe not as many as you'd think. They'd still need some front end staff to help customers and police shrink.
I'd estimate maybe 30-40 positions per store at most. Mostly PT positions. Remember that a typical WM has 250-400 workers. Across the company it's maybe 150k jobs. Mostly PT.
It's not even about getting rid of current workers, it's about hiring fewer new ones and getting more of the new workers they do hire.
Mark my words, in thw future you'll start needing an associates degree to work these jobs
Walmart's problem is that they are just another big box retailer, that can't comprehend that brick and mortar is obsolete. So like other big boxes they are frantically trying to find a solution to prop up their failing business model. Walmart is going out of business. They just don't know it. There are a lot of other dominoes that have to fall first, but eventually it will get to Walmart.
If Walmart was smart, they would close all of their stores, and convert every single one of them to fulfillment centers, and go head to head with Amazon. With 4,700 warehouses to 100 for Amazon, they could easily beat Amazon at their own game. They could offer 2 hour delivery in areas Amazon couldn't even dream of.
But instead they will do what other companies do, and continue to try to figure out a way to save their retail stores, at the expense of their online operations.
The average person, myself included, procrastinates or is disorganized way too much to do all their shopping on-line.
You have to be organized to shop in a store, not online. You have to figure out everything you need, when you need it, and make sure you don't forget anything when you go.
With online shopping you just click buttons for what you need, as you need it.
If it was so damn hard and expensive to buy groceries online, I would never step foot in another store.
Walmart's problem is that they are just another big box retailer, that can't comprehend that brick and mortar is obsolete. So like other big boxes they are frantically trying to find a solution to prop up their failing business model. Walmart is going out of business. They just don't know it. There are a lot of other dominoes that have to fall first, but eventually it will get to Walmart.
If Walmart was smart, they would close all of their stores, and convert every single one of them to fulfillment centers, and go head to head with Amazon. With 4,700 warehouses to 100 for Amazon, they could easily beat Amazon at their own game. They could offer 2 hour delivery in areas Amazon couldn't even dream of.
But instead they will do what other companies do, and continue to try to figure out a way to save their retail stores, at the expense of their online operations.
A lot of people grocery shop at walmart. I think people who do that really prefer NOT to have people doing their grocery shopping for them. Most people I know who do that are not satisfied with the results. You might look for a specific type of fruit in terms of ripeness level, want to get a specific weight of meat, look for the latest expiration dates, etc.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla
The cashiers at Wal mart seem miserable. I don't even shop there anymore, they're so freaking rude. If their jobs are gone, so be it.
I haven't found them rude as much as incompetent. The one nearest to us, a Marketplace, has not had cashiers for over a year now. There sometimes will be one, but it's usually closed, with all of the rest being self-checks, with cameras monitoring. It's still always busy, with lines waiting to check out, and this is in whats is considered an affluent city, Bellevue WA with median family income $105,402, median home price $987,665.
I don't shop WM, but I think it is sad if all those cashiers lose their jobs. I know it is a crappy job, but the employees still have to eat. It will be especially challenging for the elderly workers to find jobs.
I don't like WM in general because of the people that shop there. The cashiers actually speed things up, it's the people there that are slow with putting stuff on the belt and counting their cash to pay for stuff.
Almost 8/10 people I see at Target pay with CC. At WM, I see only 50/50 people use CC. A lot of people hold up self-checking lines because their crumbled up cash couldn't be fed into the machine.
A lot of people grocery shop at walmart. I think people who do that really prefer NOT to have people doing their grocery shopping for them. Most people I know who do that are not satisfied with the results. You might look for a specific type of fruit in terms of ripeness level, want to get a specific weight of meat, look for the latest expiration dates, etc.
I shop at Walmart for groceries. If I could order groceries online and have them delivered free, I would never ever step foot in that awful store again, especially right now. Just try buying groceries online. It's an expensive nightmare, and there is no reason it should be any more expensive then buying other items online. You just about have to use an expensive service like Instacart to get groceries delivered, if that is even available in your area. When groceries become available online for the same price they are in stores, grocery stores will start closing down just like other stores.
Just what I need; even more people who can't figure out how to work a self checkout stand, clogging it all up. They will probably have just one employee to help everyone too, same as now & every person will be waiting for that one person to void a double scanned item, ring up their bakery or produce item, or approve their super glue purchase.
I don't like WM in general because of the people that shop there. The cashiers actually speed things up, it's the people there that are slow with putting stuff on the belt and counting their cash to pay for stuff.
Almost 8/10 people I see at Target pay with CC. At WM, I see only 50/50 people use CC. A lot of people hold up self-checking lines because their crumbled up cash couldn't be fed into the machine.
OMG, the Walmart cashiers I see do not speed things up. They are always moving in super slow motion. I just stand there with items in my hand waiting for space to put them on the conveyor belt, and waiting and waiting for it to move even one inch. And the customer in front of me is not the problem. By that time, they are already out the front door and loading their stuff in their car. And I'm still staring at the conveyor belt, hoping it will start moving so I can finish putting my items on it.
But hey I get it, when an employee is paid slave wages and treated like crap, they are not going to work fast. And the slow pace of the cashiers is okay with Walmart too. Because they are hoping you will get tired of the slow checkout and go use the self checkout instead.
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