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I was in 2 Walmart stores at a busy time of day and only 1 or two registers were open. So annoyed I just ditched my basket and commented to the greeter on the way out that I wasn't going to wait in such long lines and she said well that is why we have all the self check outs open. Now I get it. They prefer you use them, and I don't mind, but when I have produce I'm not going to fool with it. I also thought to myself now that they have grocery pickup etc, they need employees to do this job so I think they have cut back in coverage at the checkout. Sad indeed. Oh and I might add that there were
long lines in the self check out area too! So what's a shopper to do?
Hard to believe that if a store is that busy they'd only have one or two registers open. At the height of our 'busyness' we will have 9 or 10 open. And we'll STILL have lines. Albeit short ones but lines just the same. I work in a super busy store, one customer after another, most of the day. Walmart has implemented a program called "Customers First" and they are working on covering all those busier hours. Problem is our schedules come out of Bentonville, likely put together by a computer and based on PAST business. It always helps when we don't have a lot of call ins as well.
They aren't trying to get customers to go all self checkout but many actually prefer it. And, yes, we get lines at ours too but most get through fairly fast anyway. Doing produce at self checkout is really easy once you've done it a couple of times. You can choose between a picture or putting in a CPU number and it works fine. When I am supervising self checkout I really like showing customers the 'quick and easy' ways of doing things with them.
Yes this store carries it. I would think if I am standing there the associate could at least look it up in their system. The point was missed entirely in A: Customer service and B: Being dismissive when a paying customer was willing to drive there instead of relying on the online order system. Just recently had an online order go straight to someone else mail Bin. These things happen. So to assure that I could get the product I went to the store. Only to be bounced around like a ping pong ball.
You did get me to thinking that I should have just stopped at the customer service desk and maybe they would have been more accommodating.
At our store you would have to talk to a higher up manager to find out if something is in stock but not put out. The ordinary associate has no way of doing that. And if a customer asks me where to find something, and I don't know for sure, I will do my best to find someone who CAN help them. If I can I'll take them to it but I usually can't. I am generally stuck at my register.
It is possible that new careers will open up, but not a certainty. I think it is more likely that the entire economic system will need to be revamped, rather than the workers who will have to revamp/retrain. If there are no or few jobs not being done by computer/AI/robots, what alternatives remain?
I am not sure if this post is in the right place, but here goes;
This morning I shopped at Walmart where there is a very friendly and good spirited check out guy. Today he looked sad and I asked him what was wrong. He said,"everybody is sad here today because they have been told we (Walmart) were going fully automated and most of us will loss our jobs." He went on to say how difficult it is to find a job in this area and he and his coworkers don't know what they will do.
I wonder has anyone considered what will happen with there is a majority of folks out of work unable to pay taxes or buy the necessities of life?
I witnessed something like this in another state I lived in. When the only industrial plant in the area closed laying off workers causing them long term unemployment and unable to pay their taxes the township raise the taxes on the remaining folks who were working. Needless to say this is not workout and the town is all but deserted.
Seconly, without jobs and cuts in public assistance many will not be able to feed their families. Eventually this will led to crimes of necessity. i.e., man stole loaf of bread to feed his family and got six months in jail. (True story).
I don't use the current automated lines but I doubt that makes any difference in Walmart's plans. However, when Walmart has nothing but automated checkouts I will shop elsewhere.
We are going to have to decide what a "post-work" economy is going to look like. The "jobs of last resort", like fast food and retail, are starting to disappear, replaced by iPads and robots. The cold hard truth is that not everyone is going to be able to work. Even STEM jobs are being replaced. For now it's offshoring, but there are now tools that can generate program code.
Here's a real life example: 20 years ago, every company had its own computer network. Maybe they had a few Novell Netware services to service a small-to-medium size company. They'd probably hire one, maybe two network guys to maintain the servers. Fast forward to now, and those companies are now outsourcing to large server farms. So where 20 years ago, 100 companies would each hire its own network administrator, now there are two or three guys manning the server farm. Soon you won't even need them.
One of two things will happen -- either there will have to be some kind of guaranteed income and billionaires will have to pay for it, or we will return to a feudal society where there is the aristocracy (greedy bastards like the Koch brothers) and everyone else will scramble for scraps.
Do you think robots appear out of thin air?
People have been saying this for decades if not centuries..
A patronizing question ^. I know technology requires human authorship. But a small development team creating automated services that replace thousands of human jobs, is still a net employment loss..
Centuries (?) When did people 400 years ago forsee robotics replacing human clerks, manufacturing, navigating, etc.
My opinion, folks who think the workplace is gonna adapt & stabilize in the face of contemporary automation, don't appreciate how much the game is changing. We'll see.
A patronizing question ^. I know technology requires human authorship. But a small development team creating automated services that replace thousands of human jobs, is still a net employment loss..
Centuries (?) When did people 400 years ago forsee robotics replacing human clerks, manufacturing, navigating, etc.
My opinion, folks who think the workplace is gonna adapt & stabilize in the face of contemporary automation, don't appreciate how much the game is changing. We'll see.
They said the same thing about cars and agricultural advances and the assembly line. New jobs will develop and new businesses will form. That's reality.
Centuries (?) When did people 400 years ago forsee robotics replacing human clerks, manufacturing, navigating, etc.
My opinion, folks who think the workplace is gonna adapt & stabilize in the face of contemporary automation, don't appreciate how much the game is changing. We'll see.
You think advances in technology is a modern day phenomenon? It's not. The world has always been changing, people have always been making advances.
You think advances in technology is a modern day phenomenon? It's not. The world has always been changing, people have always been making advances.
But THIS time it's different. No, it's not. The cataclysm mentality is strong, especially when utilized as a bludgeon for new schemes of redistribution. The latest being Universal Basic Income where money is stolen from one group of people so losers just don't have to be bothered making the effort.
What about returns? What if you get home and it's charged you all wrong. Who do you call? How do you prove you didn't buy 100 avocados?
And the video showing people "checking in" with their phones outside of the Amazon Go test store, showed a huge queue of people waiting to get into the store.
So, the line could be outside of the store waiting to get in. If you can only go in one at a time, that could be a mess.
Even if they could get robots to stock the shelves and clean up messes, what about security?
Maybe the next job training to get will be robot maintenance.
What about returns? What if you get home and it's charged you all wrong. Who do you call? How do you prove you didn't buy 100 avocados?
The same way you would currently prove that you did not buy 100 avocados.
And its not like businesses are going to be 100% human free, there will still be people to sort out any problems.
Although I've got to say, automated returns would be great. I would love to be able to scan a barcode, scan my recipet, and get a refund. There would be no answering a million questions about why I'm returning, or having to wait for a manager because only certain people are able to do returns.
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