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Yeah that'd be a great move....lay off thousands of people for machines. I live in FL and the elderly people here do not like those machines. Plus they're expensive to get and expensive to maintain. I worked at Home Depot when they first came out.
It's not something which can be implemented overnight. The key is to increase the number of self-checkout counters gradually, while decreasing the cashier counters proportionately. Elderly people are not going to be around forever. The generation which follows is more tech savvy. Also, FL might be one of the last markets where they will deploy this. Even in the case of elders, given a choice between cheap stuff vs. a live cashier, most people would choose cheap stuff, given how inflation will continue to erode the purchasing power of their fixed income SS checks. Machines are usually cheaper than people, especially when you consider salary + benefits + healthcare that you are now mandatorily forced to give an employee. If a self-checkout machine is not cheaper now, it will become cheaper once they are mass produced to be installed in the thousands of supermarkets across the country (note that this manufacturing boom will produce quite a few jobs too, probably more high paying).
In the world of the future, only people with unique marketable skills will survive. Cashiers, greeters, huggers, handshakers etc. will be rendered obsolete in favor of machines which will do the same job faster and better. As heartless as it sounds, this is how it will come about.
Good move by Walmart. A useless job if I have ever seen one. I don't need to be "greeted". They can eliminate those positions and put the savings against the items in the store to reduce the prices even further. Another thing they should eliminate in the long run are the cashiers. If people could self checkout, then that would save a lot of money. Shoplifting can be combated by efficient use of technology. Using people to do this is more error prone and ineffective. This is a win-win for the business and its customers.
Proof?
You are going to love the RFID system that is in the R&D phase. Every item will have a tag. You will push your cart into an area that will ring up the entire cart in a couple seconds. Guess who is spearheading the technology?
It would not surprise me if, years down the road, stores charged a service fee to use a cashier, just as some banks charge for too many visits to a live teller. That would persuade even the elderly who don't want to be bothered to use the technology to cut their expenses.
Realistically, its an easier position to automate than bank tellers were, and for the most part, the vast majority of tellers went to new lines of work in the post ATM world, with most banks now running 2 live tellers max vs the 6 or more we'd see in 1985.
Good move by Walmart. A useless job if I have ever seen one. I don't need to be "greeted". They can eliminate those positions and put the savings against the items in the store to reduce the prices even further. Another thing they should eliminate in the long run are the cashiers. If people could self checkout, then that would save a lot of money. Shoplifting can be combated by efficient use of technology. Using people to do this is more error prone and ineffective. This is a win-win for the business and its customers.
Proof?
>>> Check the news. Check Youtube. I've seen a few news stories this year where an irate customer attacks store employees or when a greeter tries to stop a shoplifter they get attacked. It happened locally where a thug seriously injured an elderly greeter when she tried to stop him froms tealing a TV. She tried to stop his cart and he wrenched her arm pretty bad.
Technology does not stop shoplifting. You can watch a shoplifter VIA camera but you still have to physically stop them from leaving. And those security strips and alarms do not stop shoplifters. They either remove them or they just run out the door and don't stop. If nobody's there to stop them( even just having a person standing there is enough) shoplifters become pretty bold.
The best deterrent to shoplifters is having an employee or employees let them know they are being watched and that they will be stopped when they try to leave the store. Thats prevention. Stores have tried self checkouts and they don't work. With "technology" shoplifters can change barcodes and buy a $100 item for $3.
Honestly thats why I say this will be tried for a year or two and then the costs of lost merchandise by theft will be seen to outweigh the relatively low cost of having a door greeter.
After 30 years, "People Greeters" will no longer welcome Walmart customers with a "cart and a smile." Four months after Walmart got rid of its night-shift "People Greeters," the big-box retailer is moving its day-shift greeters inside the store. Walmart claims it's all in the name of better customer service, but the announcement has left some greeters uncertain about the future of their jobs.
Don't greeters at some big box stores also check the receipts of the customers leaving the store?
Heaven forbid Wal-Mart can't get rid of the receipt checkers. Lord knows they can't afford to lose anything and must basically strip search any customer and their purchases
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