The downside is that you are responsible for scanning everything correctly. Where I live I’ve heard of people getting banned from a shop, because they accidentally forgot to scan small piece of ginger.
The downside is forcing a bunch of people through self checkout who need a cashier. Whenever you all talk about how great self checkout is, I wonder what mecca you live in. My only experiences with it are long lines and long waits caused by a number of factors:
-Many self checkout lanes closed because they think everyone is stealing and refuse to staff more than one person to watch over you
-Old people who can’t use technology and don’t want to be using the machines
-People who have entire carts and struggle to effectively scan their groceries on the tiny space allocated.
-Machines that scan painfully and artificially slow because they want to weigh every goddamn item to prove you aren’t stealing
-Machines that record you and yell at you for stealing if you move an item slightly awkwardly
Huh? I don’t understand this comment. Are you saying you think I’m lying? Lol. I mean more power to you if you’ve never experienced these self checkout logjams. I’m fine with them in concept, but the way a lot of the stores I’ve experienced use them makes it kinda unpleasant. Guess it’s regional.
20 years ago a cashier position in a grocery store was a well-paying union job with a pension. It could literally be your career. You could buy a house, raise a family, and retire from that position.
New hires were, yes. Because of automation (and position hybridization, the rise of the gig economy, despecialization, and the rise of Walmart, of course). This is exactly the point that I’m making.
Old contract new contract.
When boomers sold the union so no one else wpuld get living wage, and they could keep their lifestyle.
I was lucky to have a supervisor when I started in 2006 who was open and honest, explaining why our holiday pay and schedules were so different (old contract new contract)… Still complicated, but no more raises or benefits.
He was making over 20/hr. I started at about 8 usd… 10 years later i worked another brief stint at the chain. Same starting wage. Probably didn’t go up until covid pressure.
Gen X got screwed out at the end of long union busting campeigns, and the rest of the shit rolled downhill.
Fresh out of high school, I started working at a store that was union, but everyone in my generation was on a different contract from the people who had been there for 20+ years. A lot of the benefits paperwork that went out to everyone had to clarify different terms depending on whether you were hired before or after a certain date, with the terms for the “after” group usually being worse.
Unions in general are great and necessary, but bad unions are still out there.
It kind of blows my mind. I mean, take the rights people died for and then pull up the ladder behind and ask why no one wants to visit in retirement. Like, we don’t even get time off to vote in general election, we’re so busy hustling for half of a living wage and free sneers from management. Very yikes.
A strike in time saves nine, fancy. Lives, probably too.
The U.S. We still had strong union grocery stores right up until automation hit. Then you get the big UFCW strike in California in 2003-2004, and what you’re left with is a store full of a bunch of people who are making middle class wages, but all new hires are making $8/hr with no benefits. Get on another 20 years, and that’s basically everybody working at a grocery store now.
Reaganomics absolutely blazed the trail, but self-checkout finished the job.
Depends on the shop, out of the shops here Aldi have pretty good self checkouts and if I am only buying bread I don’t want to wait in line behind people with 50 items. But I have also seen other shops with terrible self checkouts that somehow can’t keep up and need to think about it for ages each time I put an item down.
Self checkouts have no downsides.
The downside is that you are responsible for scanning everything correctly. Where I live I’ve heard of people getting banned from a shop, because they accidentally forgot to scan small piece of ginger.
The downside is forcing a bunch of people through self checkout who need a cashier. Whenever you all talk about how great self checkout is, I wonder what mecca you live in. My only experiences with it are long lines and long waits caused by a number of factors:
-Many self checkout lanes closed because they think everyone is stealing and refuse to staff more than one person to watch over you
-Old people who can’t use technology and don’t want to be using the machines
-People who have entire carts and struggle to effectively scan their groceries on the tiny space allocated.
-Machines that scan painfully and artificially slow because they want to weigh every goddamn item to prove you aren’t stealing
-Machines that record you and yell at you for stealing if you move an item slightly awkwardly
I think You’ve only ever heard of a self checkout, not really seen one in real life.
Huh? I don’t understand this comment. Are you saying you think I’m lying? Lol. I mean more power to you if you’ve never experienced these self checkout logjams. I’m fine with them in concept, but the way a lot of the stores I’ve experienced use them makes it kinda unpleasant. Guess it’s regional.
20 years ago a cashier position in a grocery store was a well-paying union job with a pension. It could literally be your career. You could buy a house, raise a family, and retire from that position.
Reagan is already 40 years ago buddy. 2005 couldn’t do that for you.
Yeah, I’m talking about pre and post self-checkout. 2005 absolutely could have done that for you.
Cashiers in 2005 were making $7.25/hr, dude. At least in the US.
New hires were, yes. Because of automation (and position hybridization, the rise of the gig economy, despecialization, and the rise of Walmart, of course). This is exactly the point that I’m making.
Old contract new contract. When boomers sold the union so no one else wpuld get living wage, and they could keep their lifestyle.
I was lucky to have a supervisor when I started in 2006 who was open and honest, explaining why our holiday pay and schedules were so different (old contract new contract)… Still complicated, but no more raises or benefits.
He was making over 20/hr. I started at about 8 usd… 10 years later i worked another brief stint at the chain. Same starting wage. Probably didn’t go up until covid pressure.
Gen X got screwed out at the end of long union busting campeigns, and the rest of the shit rolled downhill.
This was my experience as well.
Fresh out of high school, I started working at a store that was union, but everyone in my generation was on a different contract from the people who had been there for 20+ years. A lot of the benefits paperwork that went out to everyone had to clarify different terms depending on whether you were hired before or after a certain date, with the terms for the “after” group usually being worse.
Unions in general are great and necessary, but bad unions are still out there.
Thanks for comparing notes.
It kind of blows my mind. I mean, take the rights people died for and then pull up the ladder behind and ask why no one wants to visit in retirement. Like, we don’t even get time off to vote in general election, we’re so busy hustling for half of a living wage and free sneers from management. Very yikes.
A strike in time saves nine, fancy. Lives, probably too.
Damn! Which country do you reside in?
The U.S. We still had strong union grocery stores right up until automation hit. Then you get the big UFCW strike in California in 2003-2004, and what you’re left with is a store full of a bunch of people who are making middle class wages, but all new hires are making $8/hr with no benefits. Get on another 20 years, and that’s basically everybody working at a grocery store now.
Reaganomics absolutely blazed the trail, but self-checkout finished the job.
The current ones suck. But yes, the concept is cool and I’m sure they’ll be perfected in the years to come.
Depends on the shop, out of the shops here Aldi have pretty good self checkouts and if I am only buying bread I don’t want to wait in line behind people with 50 items. But I have also seen other shops with terrible self checkouts that somehow can’t keep up and need to think about it for ages each time I put an item down.