[yreg]

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.

[kennywinker]

They understaffed, and it sucked. Now you do all the work and are apparently happy about it. Go figure.

[Telaneo]

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?

[kennywinker]

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.

[lotsofpulp]

Retail business profit margins have always been low single digit percentages. More staff can only mean higher prices. I'll gladly scan my own stuff to have lower prices and be able to get out quicker.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KR/kroger/profit-m...

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ACI/albertsons/net...

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/profit...

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/profit...

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TGT/target/profit-...

[kennywinker]

> Retail business profit margins have always been low single digit percentages.

And yet overall profits remain high - they’re high-volume low margin businesses.

> More staff can only mean higher prices.

When you’re talking about massive chains that are prioritizing profits, usually on behalf of shareholders, that is true. For smaller businesses, coops, or even gov run grocery stores - things that aren’t as focussed on rates of return for investors - it can just mean less profits for the owners.

> I'll gladly scan my own stuff to have lower prices and be able to get out quicker.

It hasn’t matched my experience that prices fell as self checkouts were installed. I think profits went up, prices didn’t come down. Maybe the “quicker” bit… except only if I have just a handful of items.

[lotsofpulp]

> And yet overall profits remain high - they’re high-volume low margin businesses.

Why would they not be high? The purchasing power of the currency goes down day after day. If nominal profits are not hitting highs day after day, then you are losing purchasing power.

> It hasn’t matched my experience that prices fell as self checkouts were installed. I think profits went up, prices didn’t come down.

Profit margin is the relevant metric to look at for this context. It is possible prices would have gone up 10% instead of 5% if not for the automation. It is also possible the automation fails to reduce costs.

There are no guarantees in life, just bets that may or may not pan out. Long term trends will the story, but for now, the profit margins make me happy that I don’t invest in grocery stores.

[Telaneo]

You're blaming the store, which I agree with. My question was whether you could blame the GP, or the consumer in general. They have little control over how much the staff of their grocery store is being paid.

[kennywinker]

Ah, yes i did misunderstand. No i don’t blame them, but i am confused about their preference because it doesn’t match my own.

[Telaneo]

People have different preferences. What's to be confused about that?

I share their preference. The cashier saves me no real amount of work. The difference between putting my groceries on a conveyor belt and having a cashier scan them, and me myself dragging my groceries past a scanner, is somewhere between minimal and non-existent. The amount of work I perform is functionally the same. The biggest difference is in the amount of time I spend, where the win clearly goes to the self-checkout, since then I can bag my groceries at the same time as I scan them, and there's more self-checkouts available than normal ones, meaning I spend less time queuing if I use those.

[yreg]

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.

[kennywinker]

I tried pre-booking my checkout session, but the safeway never returned my calls.