Comment by yreg
1 day ago
The difference is that where I live stores that used to have, say, 10 counters out of which maybe 6 were open on average now have 4 human counters and 20 self-checkout counters.
So for me it is in effect automating the part where I need to wait in a queue. We should surely keep some human counters for accessibility reasons, but I as a person able to scan my groceries in the 3 minutes it takes I'm perfectly happy to do just that.
By the way there are also RFID counters where you just dump your goods in a bin and it scans everything automatically. Wouldn't solve the problem with items priced by weight, but makes the rest significantly easier.
They understaffed, and it sucked. Now you do all the work and are apparently happy about it. Go figure.
No they did not understaff. It is normal to wait if you want an unscheduled 1on1. It was always like that and it was always normal.
I tried pre-booking my checkout session, but the safeway never returned my calls.
Given that every store (and damn near every establishment for that matter) has been understaffed for the past 20-ish years, can you blame them?
Yeah, actually I can. Understaffed just means you’re not paying well enough.
Look what happened recently in new york. $30/hour to shovel snow got them a lineup out the door of people wanting to work.
Those companies made the choice to prioritize profit margins above staffing.
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