The very small Tesco next to me (~800 sq ft or so) had six extra robo-checkouts put in last year. They’ve all been switched off now, because they estimate they’ve lost at least £250K since last November (it’s built into the bottom of a student housing block and is always busy). They were just POS terminals with no bagging scales, which was stupid, but still. Staffing six checkouts at minimum wage 14 hrs a day for 3 months would have cost them just over £9K in wages. Serves the evil fuckers right for replacing people with robots.
Band name, album title/cover and a nifty illustration for the gatefold sleeve all in one post. Nice!
Incidentally, here’s a well-done thingie on Oz’s most famous social bandit:
What’s the likelihood that the name of the guy who made the “total moron” remark is now known to Facebook and will soon be sold to Stop-and-Shop?
Ikea and some bakeries have self-check-outs over here. I hate it because:
- I’m the customer. I refuse to do the work/service the shop is supposed to provide.
- I don’t want to exacerbate unemployment. Low skilled jobs are going away fast enough as it is …
Is your discount card magically refusing to work for people who swiped it? Of a form of photo id?
The inventor of the self checkout machine thinks they all suck:
Amazon’s no-checkout system is probably the next step.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/amazon-debut-store-checkout-downtown-seattle-52514447
With integrated image recognition the banana trick won’t work, unless you get banana shaped steak.
Between this, the wrist monitor and the stories of people crying at Whole Foods due to the new draconian management… Amazon just keeps trying to find ways to keep me from buying from them, don’t they?
Why people think these kinds of things are “cool” is beyond me.
ETA: Also the inventory commingling, the “work old people to death” and the “we can remove anything from your Kindle at any time,” bullshit. Seriously, Amazon is like the evil villain empire from a melodramatic comic book.
To be fair, the management problems at WF related to the OTS system predated Amazon’s acquisition, although some are arguing that the timing of its implementation was related to getting a better price. A lot of their employees are hoping that Amazon can fix the broken system.
But yes, from the HQ to the coding cubicles to the warehouses Amazon sounds like a punishing place to work.
20 years ago, the “conventional wisdom” around the retail industry was that shortage was due equally to three causes: internal (employee) theft, external theft (shoplifting), and accounting errors. I don’t know how the split is today, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still about the same.
I’ve never understood why I don’t receive an employee discount when I use the self-checkout.
And while I’ve never actually done this, there’s an easy way to save on organic produce… when you key in the code, organic produce has a 9 at the beginning, and the four digits after are the non-organic produce code. So if organic bananas (94011) are $.69 a pound, non-organic bananas (4011) are only $.39 a pound. Leave off the leading 9, and the cash register doesn’t know the difference.
I have yet to use a self checkout register that worked properly. Each and every time I scan and put the item in the bagging area I get “PLACE YOUR ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA”. I see I’m not alone in that.
You have to know they gamed this and decided the “shrinkage” from theft is less than the employees they will replace.
I often buy fuel injector cleaner at Walmart and it always triggers a “wait for attendant” .
Now granted I’m 47 but nobody has ever actually checked my id and there’s no way to self scan an Id in.
In a sort-of defense of the “thieves”: these setups are more or less to grocery chains what P2P systems were to audio files back in the 90’s. The difference here, though, is that these are sans-3rd party, meaning that the companies themselves install them in their own damn stores!
“We never imagined such a thing would happen!”
Is that not a meth lab watchlist item?
Could be but I’m thinking Because you can Huff it.
Anything on the meth list is supposed to trigger an actual look at an ID card.
Also I won’t be making much meth with 10oz of cheapass injector cleaner
