Well the job has already been taken

That cashier job ain't coming back wether you use the self checkout or not

It doesn't work entirety employee free so in many cases you still have employees stacking shelves and such.

But it is ultimately mimimising work force.. which is a thing happening anyway. Because being a cashier has low pay and many kinda cannot even afford to work as a cashier.

These self checkouts are kinda a symptom of companies not paying enough for cashiers so they eventually chose to automate..thereby making stores run with fewer employees.

Usually it doesn’t; the same number of staff are still present in store but they are switched to other tasks such as restocking the shelves, cleaning or unloading deliveries - or helping customers on the shop floor.

It is possible to get rid of some checkout staff in the switch to self checkout but the usual trend is that rather than cutting service the stores just provide more service in other areas, especially at quieter times.

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The job was removed before you used it. The company took away the job. The question is what happened to that worker.

I work at a gas utility. When gas meters became wireless, we no longer needed the fleet of meter readers we had. Nor the auto department to keep that many trucks maintained. My company, seeing that coming, made it known to the meter readers so they could be placed in other jobs within the company. It that doesn’t cover everyone. They may not want to do customer service, for example.

At the self checkout, how many people are replaced? 10? (Across all shifts) do they have an opportunity to be the ones who maintain the self checkout? Some stay in the area to help people using them. It is going to depend on the store.

I remember seeing a tweet from a Texas politician talking about McDonalds becoming fully automated and saying “this is what happens with a $15 minimum wage”

Except they never raised their minimum wage. The change happened anyway. The point I’m making is that the car took away the jobs of horse ranchers, farriers, etc. it was a societal change. That could also apply to your question.

Trader Joe’s (owned by Aldi these days) doesn’t use self checkout. If you move all your shopping there, even if won’t change the rest of the industry, it may make you feel better about your shopping.

It’s also worth noting that in many stores, the self checkouts aren’t actually replacing more lane space than the checkers on hand used to occupy.

In my grocery store, they removed 2 checkout lines to put in two rows of self checkout, each with 6 stations, each row headed by an employee.

I get in and out if there faster, especially with small orders, since there’s less of a bottleneck at the registers. But it’s the same number of people per lane as it was before

But surely if EVERYONE refused to use the self checkout, piled into line for the cashier lanes, and made sure to take their business to the first stores to hire more cashiers, then that would have an effect on employment.

That's unlikely, but stores don't dictate everything regardless of consumer preference. There are tons of things stores might like to do which customers wouldn't put up with, and at least a handful of businesses folding to consumer sentiment and changing their plans.

So one person going through self checkout doesn't cost a job exactly. But everyone accepting the shift to self checkout IS costing jobs. Just like one person doesn't appoint the president, but the way everyone votes DOES.

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Well here in germany theres this in between thing where you still have a cashier but they dont directly do the change, they just sit there. Pull the items over the band and you put the money in a coin sorter.

In many cases an employee is still present they just have an eye on the self checkout aisle so no one does anything stupid.. like the way ikea does it is smart...really only works in large af stores such as ikea though. They Have like 8 cashless registers for smaller purchase numbers.. and one or two sometimes 3 employees are around to guide people and manage, you have 8 cashless registers (sometimes 4) and still 2-3 employees.. because they handle furniture and such, having all these cash registers filled is almost too inefficient because you still get long lines... ikea just turned 2 cash registers into like...8 and still has employees staffing it all...heck they seem to have more people thanks to this. I usually see 3 people on the self checkout aisles, when the area that thing takes up is usually just one or two cash registers normally...but again this only works in huge Huge stores like ikea where it is also worth to Have a ton of employers just because they do pick up and delivery too. So even at calm hours no employee is useless there

Cashiers are sadly a dying job because it is quite stressful. Underpaid and all in all a job that requires quite a bunch of skill and resiliency....so you often times don't get many skilled enough cashiers that can handle the load.. which is why these coin machines exist... to mske cashier employment easier

Like with or without self checkout aisles, the whole retail sector is getting smaller and smaller and employees often times no longer need to be there for cashier roles but stocking shelves etc...this direction is happening anyway

Im your average aldi you have 4 or 5 cash registers usually just one or two are staffed... the store can be run by like 3 people...in most stores having a dedicated person for every cash register is not needed.. most grocery stores in their very design run with few people in the actual store.. self checkout aisle or not.

A self checkout aisle just makes the shop run more fluidly usually... it tends to be one of those things which is bad but it's more thr symphtom of a trend that has already been going on steadily, if anything it increases life quality for the handful employees still there.. as theres less workload.

It is sadly one of those many jobs which requires suprising amounts of skill. Is too underpaid to find plenty of employees.. and can be automated....also in a more and more cashless society you don't need as many cashiers that can handle coins really well...if anything the prevelancy of credit and debit cards is the thing killing the cashier job.

If it werent for the self checkout you just have 3 overworked cashiers at 7 cash registers...just because theres 7 cash registers doesnt mesn they hire 7 people.

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I feel like this idea assumes that people are entitled to having access to a job from a large company. On a basic level every job is a privilege, not a right.

Not really. As long as it made the same amount of money. People would have to refuse to use stores with self-checkout, and in large numbers, for it to make a difference.

By that logic, people can force almost anything out of a company by acting in collective, which is true, but the fact of the matter is that they basically never collectively act on the economy to their own immediate personal detriment. The only times things like that happen are when they are legislated, like New Jersey banning people from self-pumping their own gasoline.

And on the other side of that, how many grocery stores have offered free pickup since the pandemic. That's how I do all of my shopping now. So there is a person who is putting stuff in a box for me that wouldn't have been doing that before.

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Times change, technology marches on. Any job can be replaced, but new jobs arise. It’s the way things are.

If you're doing the work for free, that means someone else is not being paid to do that same work anymore...