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Watched a self-checkout lane replace 4 cashiers at my local grocery in Sacramento, and I'm honestly torn
Last week I ran into my old neighbor Dave at the grocery store on Fulton Ave in Sacramento, the one I've been going to for like 12 years, and he looked terrible. He's worked the register there forever, and he told me the store just put in 8 new self-checkout machines and cut his hours from 40 to 24 a week. He said 4 people on his shift got moved to part time or let go, and the manager told them it's because "the machines pay for themselves in 14 months." I stood there watching people scan their own groceries and thought about how fast this stuff moves once it starts. Dave is 58 and has a bad knee from standing all day, and now he's supposed to learn a whole new job or take the pay cut. It got me thinking about my own crew, since half of what we do is lifting and carrying and the other half is knowing how to not break someone's grandma's china cabinet. I keep wondering if there's a robot that can look at a staircase and figure out the couch won't fit up it. Does anyone else work somewhere that just flipped like this almost overnight, and did you see it coming?
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drew_hart418d ago
My uncle ran a small hardware store in Oak Park and when Home Depot came in he had about 6 months to figure it out. What saved him was getting his regulars to call ahead and ask for him by name, so people started coming in just for his help and not the stuff on the shelf. Maybe Dave could push for a "helper" role at the front where he walks people through the machines, since that's the one thing a kiosk can't fake.
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