The other day I went to the Glenmont Walmart. 🛒They’ve done away with most of the cashiers in favor of self-service checkouts, even in the big checkout non-express aisles. They instead just employee checkout supervisors who monitor multiple aisles. There is a few non-self service check-outs left,🛍 but most of them are self-service.

I am sure the conservatives will blame the higher minimum wage for the investment in technology over workers, while liberals will suggest that Walmart needs a union that can promote featherbedding (hiring unneeded workers for the sake of busy work).👩‍⚕ I am not sure if I agree with either of those statements — technology has replaced the job of the check out clerk. They’ll be gone from all stores sooner then later.

Times change, old jobs go away and are replaced with other jobs. Walmart with it’s reputation of always trying to cut costs wherever possible may be the first, but all grocery stores are going to eventually get rid of cashiers.🥘 They’re really is no reason for this job, especially now that self-serve checkouts are getting better.

It’s been well documented that self-service checkouts have a much higher rate of theft — both accidentially and purposefully. Customers have little incentive to carefully swipe merchandise when they go out to check out themself.🤑 If a supervisor doesn’t notice, and redirect a customer to swipe twice when bar is code is not read, chances are pretty good that that customer will walk out without paying.

Obviously, they can video record transactions, and try to encourage customers to be honest, but things can tend to walk out on their own when you rely on customer to check out. There are techniques for catching suspicious behavior,👮‍♀ but once a person leaves and the transaction is complete, it’s very hard to go after them with just their picture, especially after a $2 container of toothpaste as part of a $100 order that was paid properly for that could have accidentally not been scanned.

I am sure they’ve run the numbers and found the extra theft isn’t worth the money it costs for labor. The prices of material things continue to drop thanks to automation and labor increases in price.👨‍⚕ Human services like education and healthcare are where the low-skilled jobs of the future👩‍🏫 — things not easily automated due to need to deal with oddities of human behavior.

I am actually not all that phased by it all. I like the bright screen that clearly shows what you have purchased and the amount. I found the checkout process to be fast and reliable, the belt moved the groceries along, and I had control in bagging it.👜 No mixing frozen, so you can keep frozen, cold, and non-cold things seperately.🍌 I like controlling the number of bags and how things are bagged myself. They don’t appear to use scales at Walmart to confirm accuracy in bagging. That’s always annoying at many of the self-check out kiosks at other stores.

I do wish however that they had more cashier supervisors to ensure that when problems occur or when age-restricted products like ammunition or beer are purchased, they could be quicker at helping out the customer.🍻 I guess the trick is for people to purchase those things last, and be prepared to wait slightly for assistance.