Humans 1, robots zero in latest store automation matchup. Wait . . does this mean we WON'T save "billions" in labor costs?
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[i][b]Photo above[/b] - Walmart shopper Hazel Nutella was recently arrested for theft at a self-checkout. Hazel says her "customer experience" won't be enhanced if the store goes back to human cashiers. But she plans to apply to work there after she posts bail.[/i]
The robots are coming! The robots are coming! This was (allegedly) going to “save consumers billions” when we go shopping. Because cashiers and other clerks are too expensive. However, Walmart just decided its robots weren't worth the trouble. They're pulling them out and replacing them with bona fide humans. (see link below).
About that saving billions part: almost all the McDonalds I go to now have self-service kiosks. THOSE things apparently aren't going away. And if Big Mac prices have gone down, I failed to notice it. New York City recently claimed the brass ring for the world's most expensive Big Mac - $18 and change. To be fair, a small fries and coke WAS included with that order . . .
So how did McDonalds' robots triumph – even if they didn't reduce consumer prices – while Walmart's robots got fired during the probationary new hire period? We have crafty shoppers in Cleveland to thank, apparently. Ohio Walmart shoppers quickly figured out that you could steal almost anything smaller than a 65-inch flat screen TV during self-checkout. By printing your own barcodes at home, and gluing them to boxes.
Walmart, of course disputes this is why they killed all robots. Execs claim this was about [i]“improving the in-store experience for customers.”[/i] Well, I betcha the people stealing Taylor Swift tee shirts and Raid bug spray don't see it that way. Their customer experience was actually enhanced by robots during self-checkout.
McDonalds order kiosks don't let you steal anything. Their mission is to test our resolve, and hunger level, by forcing us to spend 5 minutes plowing back and forth through menu options to complete an order that would have taken 30 seconds with a cashier. This is why so many McDonalds customers are now going to the drive-thru. Where they must endure a barely audible McJobber asking if we already ordered online, or are going to do make them take it through the $hitty microphone and speaker. McDonalds makes no pretense about enhancing the customer experience.
Theft, fraud, and general lawlessness are thus the way to prevent AI and in-store robots from controlling humanity's fate. If I'm shopping for tee-shirts or roach spray, Amazon already saves me billions anyway. If I want fast food, I have fewer options. And if you want REALLY slow fast food, go to Jersey Mike's and start reading "War and Peace" while they individually slice the meats and cheese for your half-footlong sub, which costs $10 . . .
This “kick 'em to the curb” attitude toward Walmart and other robots didn't start with Cleveland of course. Earlier this year, there was a top post about Uber drivers in California who found an instant way to disable any competing robotic ride shares: simply put a traffic cone in the middle of the hood. This stops robo-taxi in its tracks, blocking EVERYONE . . . including police, fire, ambulance, and Amazon delivery trucks. I'm sure we will soon hear about Amazon delivery drones shot from the sky with 12-gauge pump action shotguns. To get the prescription meds they're carrying.
I'm just sayin' . . .
[b][i]Walmart removes self-checkouts and swaps back to 'traditional' lanes - but it's not because they care about customer service | Daily Mail Online[/i][/b]
It's like NCR, as far as I can tell. Before the Beep! Beep! of an NCR cash register reading your bar code, the cashier used to enter the prices on a mechanical adding machine on a cash register, pull a lever to add it all up with a "Kaching!" sound, and punch a button that opened a drawer full of cash. She took your money and gave you correct change. The old cash registers were a bit faster and more accurate than the new beep, but we all got the new beep by 1990. Self checkout is a bit faster than the new registers with a cashier, almost like the Soviet supermarkets of 1988, so slow you could scream. It's like apple computers in classrooms. They were a definite negative in education value, but everyone got them or got fired by 1994. We can't stop corporations from revolutionizing everything. We aren't communist. We killed that stuff. We are the final solution. It's going to be high tech death for us all.
[quote]Their mission is to test our resolve, and hunger level, by forcing us to spend 5 minutes plowing back and forth through menu options to complete an order that would have taken 30 seconds with a cashier[/quote]
30 seconds with a cashier, after waiting TWENTY MINUTES IN A LONG LINE.
The self checkout centers are much faster and much more efficient, labor wise.
@Reason10 except when people steal. however, i'm in agreement that stores have deliberately understaffed cashiers to force customers to use self checkout. that appears to be changing now.
not that being a cashier is anyone's ticket to success.
@SusanInFlorida e[quote]xcept when people steal. however, i'm in agreement that stores have deliberately understaffed cashiers to force customers to use self checkout. that appears to be changing now. [/quote]
Might as well put this in talking points: 1. Labor is always the highest cost of any retail business (or any other business for that matter.) Walmart is able to offer such low discount prices because of high bulk buying and because of labor saving items like the self checkout. Two self checkout monitors can handle TEN checkout stations, which is an enormous savings in labor. 2. As far as stealing goes, Walmart tends to focus on the higher cost items to monitor. There's always an employee at the exit who says hello, goodbye and occasionally checks receipts, if there are some high ticket items. And all carts have to go through the sensors to get out. The sensors detect anything that hasn't been scanned and paid for. Is it perfect? Is anything? But is is a high tech way of cutting down on high priced items (printer cartridges, laptops, etc) from walking out the door unpaid for.
