Minimum Wage Increase Not So Bad For the Economy - Maybe

[Simon_Jester]

Irbis, I think you may be somewhat missing my point: that the low-skilled jobs in an economy actually can sometimes shrink as a result of automation. This does not mean that the net number of jobs in the economy decreases, but it does have consequences for people who lack the education and background skills to easily acquire high-skilled jobs.

Thus, it is not entirely disingenuous to point out that if the minimum wage goes to fifteen dollars an hour, a number of low-wage jobs in food service may be replaced by automation.

That is the entirety of my point, no more and no less, and while you are well within your rights to disagree, please confine yourself to responding to what I actually said. Kindly do not waste time accusing me of "ignoring" things that are irrelevant to my argument.

[Scottish Ninja]

Interestingly, in my area (Chicago suburbs), self-checkouts seem to be disappearing at the local supermarkets - the store I work at (Mariano's) doesn't have them, after replacing a Dominick's in the same location which did (though Mariano's tries to play a 'premium' supermarket with high quality service, more so than other local chains), and even the local Jewel (slightly lower-end, has largest market share in the Chicago area) got rid of theirs after a remodel.

Interesting to note too that Aldi (at least the ones in my area) doesn't have self-checkout, despite their emphasis on minimal staffing and relatively high wages (starting at $13/hr).

[Borgholio]

Costco also pays it's cashiers very well and doesn't do anything automated. They also offer very good benefits. I think it's the appearance of well-paid employees willing to actually help you with stuff that makes all the difference and in the long run will make you more money than slashing wages and replacing people with self-checkout lanes.

[Lost Soal]

I think they made be finding its also the customers being unwilling to use them. I can go into a small Tesco's in town with three checkouts and two self service which had three people in a que waiting to be served by staff and no one using the self service. Even in the bigger ones there are plenty of people who will wait longer in a que to be served by an actual person than use self service, even if it would be faster.

[Borgholio]

I only actually use self service anywhere if I have like one or two things. If I have enough to need a cart or basket then I go to the register.

[General Zod]

I think they made be finding its also the customers being unwilling to use them. I can go into a small Tesco's in town with three checkouts and two self service which had three people in a que waiting to be served by staff and no one using the self service. Even in the bigger ones there are plenty of people who will wait longer in a que to be served by an actual person than use self service, even if it would be faster.

I always go for the line that's moving fastest. If that's self service or using an actual person I don't care. Though in the rare instances I'm buying something like produce I'll tend to default to a real person.

[Raw Shark]

I generally tend to prefer self-serve when it works, because making somebody who makes eight bucks and hour pretend to kiss my ass makes me mildly uncomfortable and I don't want some douche ringing all my cheap-ass produce in as organic out of inattention or petty malice (true story), but there's never somebody actually manning the damn thing when I usually shop (3-4am). I waited about five minutes this morning for the security guy to page a cashier to drag ass up to give me my change after the machine shorted me. On the other hand, there's no cashiered check-out line at all around then, and there's always a self-serve clerk watching the dozen or so machines when there is a traditional line available. During those times, I frequently see the cashiers from those lines come over to the line at the self-serve to inform us that they're not busy, at which point several people get out of line in front of me and I stay put.

[Elheru Aran]

What's kind of ironic is that the cheapo big-box stores like Walmart and (to a lesser extent) Target are notoriously stingy with their cashiers in quantity. Most of the time when I come in to one of those stores, you'll see 20+ registers, and only 3-5 of them are actually being manned unless it's something absurd like Black Friday or whatever.

It's extremely annoying at Target in my location because that one has no self-service registers. And of course the only open registers are all the way over at the other side of the store. Just the way it goes, I suppose...

[Guardsman Bass]

I think they made be finding its also the customers being unwilling to use them. I can go into a small Tesco's in town with three checkouts and two self service which had three people in a que waiting to be served by staff and no one using the self service. Even in the bigger ones there are plenty of people who will wait longer in a que to be served by an actual person than use self service, even if it would be faster.

That's rather interesting, because it's the opposite around here (Salt Lake Valley) - the self-check-outs are popular and have spread to basically every grocery store chain that I know aside from Target and Costco. If I go into a store during busy hours, you'll see a line of people waiting to use the eight self-check-outs at the Smith's I usually go to, while the cashiers will have 1-2 people or no one at all.

I really like them. I find it's a lot more comfortable to check out, pay, and bag my own stuff rather than to go through a cashier.

It's extremely annoying at Target in my location because that one has no self-service registers. And of course the only open registers are all the way over at the other side of the store. Just the way it goes, I suppose...

The Target nearest to my house does that too.

I figure Costco doesn't use them because of the large item sizes, plus the fact that you expect to be waiting in a line at Costco. You'd need some type of extendable hand scanner for some items if you wanted to put a self-check-out there.

[bilateralrope]

I wonder how much a problem theft is at self checkouts. The ones at my local supermarket expect an item to be placed in the bagging area for every item scanned. Even if the item scanned is from the collection of barcodes the staff use to make sure you're charge the correct amount for items which aren't in the system.
So having the machine scan a barcode for a cheaper item with approximately the same weight seems an effective was to steal things without anyone noticing.

I only actually use self service anywhere if I have like one or two things. If I have enough to need a cart or basket then I go to the register.

Same here. Or if the item doesn't have a barcode, I go to the checkout. The interface for looking up the item myself isn't very helpful.

[Mr Bean]

Every grocery store here has self checkouts, our Coscto has them as well, as does the Sam both come equipped with gun scanners to quickly scan everything plus a traditional glass plate scanner.

[Raw Shark]

I wonder how much a problem theft is at self checkouts. The ones at my local supermarket expect an item to be placed in the bagging area for every item scanned. Even if the item scanned is from the collection of barcodes the staff use to make sure you're charge the correct amount for items which aren't in the system.
So having the machine scan a barcode for a cheaper item with approximately the same weight seems an effective was to steal things without anyone noticing.

There are different but-equally-effective ways to get stuff past a live cashier, I anecdotally recall from my adolescent period of dishonesty longer than statute-of-limitations ago.