[pukexxr]

Touchscreens have replaced lots of human jobs. Self checkouts have replaced lots of human jobs. I worked in one of the very first grocery stores to have a self checkout added. They told us it wouldnt affect our jobs. If you go into any grocery store in the country you will see ~25% staffing compared to the late 90s/early 2000s. If you are askibg this question you are just too young to have noticed, or perhaps of a social standing that you just don't notice the people who are being swept aside by automation.

[chadcmulligan]

But they're not robots - they've just outsourced the checkout job to the customer and made it so they require minimal training. Technology has made this easier, but it's not robotics.

[HermanMartinus]

It depends on how you define “robotics”. It’s physical technology that has displaced workers, even if it doesn’t have mechanical arms.

That being said, I think the robots that have taken peoples jobs are generally in warehouses and manufacturing and hidden away from the public eye. Think Amazon fulfilment centres, or auto manufacturers. There are a lot of robotics at play there replacing a lot of people.

[samemail88]

Yes, I agree. All these kiosks and self checkout machines aren't what I think of when I think robots/automation. More like automating the job to the customer. Its equivalent of saying the software writing has been automated but in reality, its been outsourced to folks to India.

[lupire]

There are too kinds of automatic: logic automation to replace worker training, and physical automation to replace worker movement.

Self checkout is logic automation, making the checkout job easy enough that customer can be trusted to do it.

Checkout used to have two jobs: a checker and a customer standing around waiting. Self-checkout merged those two jobs into one.

[Teever]

Three jobs in many instances actually. The bag boy would put the products into bags and possibly walk it out to your car.

[mdrzn]

This is a US-only thing as far as I know.

[tough]

Mexico has those too

[easytiger]

That's just turning the screen around and making the customer do the same thing as the employee based off the fact that CCTV systems will work with people's decency so as to not steal. It's not automation, the same actions still occur.

[flakyfilibuster]

are ... we going to be replaced by robots?!

[lupire]

That only works because of the previous success in semi automating checkout, and scaling up the efficiency of security via CCTV.

[easytiger]

Checkouts weren't previously automated, they were digitised. The reporting of data was no longer a manual process so you could argue the backoffice tasks were automated.

[moomoo11]

I went to the grocery store a few weeks ago for the first time in like 3 years (been using delivery) and I was surprised that everyone in line was an instacart shopper.

It was pretty surreal. I used to enjoy going to the grocery store with my parents as a child.

[midhhhthrow]

They just made their customers do the work for them

[anothernewdude]

Conversely there are people who pick the shelves, and drive vans to deliver groceries.

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

I think online shopping has also taken a bite of that traffic.