Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Is Bad News For Store Cashiers And The Fight For $15 Minimum Wage

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Is Bad News For Store Cashiers And The Fight For $15 Minimum Wage

Panos Mourdoukoutas

The Amazon-Whole Foods deal will have winners and losers. Among the winners will be consumers, as Amazon’s technology and superior services will provide more grocery options, saving them time and money at the same time. ... Among the losers will be traditional neighborhood stores, which won’t be able to compete with Amazon’s razor thin operating margins – and minimum wage employees like cashiers, as Amazon’s technology will make them dispensable and speed up a trend already underway in traditional retail chains…and in the process, make the $15 minimum wage irrelevant.

While it’s still unclear how Amazon will re-organize Whole Foods, a video released on Amazon Go stores last year may provide a good hint—there will be no cashiers. They will all be replaced by technology, which monitors customers entering the store, records what they buy, and ensures that they are charged the appropriate amount.
....

The trouble is that other store chains will also have to do away with cashiers to keep up with Amazon, accelerating and broadening a trend already underway in the retail industry. Wal-Mart and Target have been using technology to replace labor that is usually paid the minimum wage.
....

While minimum wage mandates help low paid workers bring home a higher pay in the short term, they send these workers to the unemployment lines in the long term, as companies replace labor with machines. ... That’s how a good cause turns into a bad one, an ugly truth for the fight for a $15 minimum wage.

[katmondoo]

1. I like to look at what I buy in the grocery store

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Wal-Mart, Stop&Shop and BJ's around here have self-serve aisles that I use. BUT...

although they are handy at times, they regularly screw things up. Codes aren't read, or haven't been entered into the system. Coupons and sales prices aren't always read or updated. And, the actual time checking out tends to be longer than with a real person.

I'd say about 10% of the time I have to call for help because something screwed up. None of this bothers me much as a shopper, but it's unacceptable for a retailer who uses it as a primary system.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. I went to the grocery store yesterday. I used the self-checkout station.

As always, it doesn't grasp the notion of "I brought my own bags." It stopped several times to ask me to remove my items from the bagging area. The attendant came by twice to reset the system.

It beats waiting in line, but the system isn't perfect.

This was at a Giant Foods in Alexandria, Virginia. The same thing happens at the Safeway too. I bought a case of beer at a Harris Teeter on Thursday. That went quickly, even though the attendant had to look up from her station to confirm that a) I was old enough to buy beer, and b) I'm also old enough for a senior discount. I was in and out in minutes.

Thanks for writing.

[progree]

8. "I bought a case of beer at a Harris Teeter on Thursday. That went quickly"

Holy Cow! Good job! No wonder they wanted to get you out of the store!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. Let me rehrase that. I mean, the purchase went quickly. I still have most of the beer.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Thanks for the laugh.

Miller Genuine Draft. It's hard to find 24-can cases of it around here. Bottles? Impossible.

[Ilsa]

4. Slowing it down is one of the reasons I use self-check.

So many times I have left the store, gone over my receipt after getting home, and finding a pricing mistake, usually full price instead of sale price. When I check myself out, I go reasonably fast, but I do take time to look at what the machine says I'm being charged. There is less pressure to hurry through self-check because one line serves all scanners, versus people in line at a checker (trapped in line) get annoyed if you do something to slow it up.

If the checkers slowed down, I might be more inclined to use them.

[elfin]

5. I never use self serve aisles.

I much prefer people and real baggers who know how to distribute items properly.

Yes, I am a geezer, but my local store takes care to hire and train mentally challenged kids for bagger duty, and the register people are quick to see that I have my own physical limitations and tell me I don't have to lift heavy items on to the scanner area because they know the price.

Pay just a bit more, but so worth it.

[Kittycow]

7. Personally, I make it a point to use cashiers.

I'm also disabled and can't lift things, but even when I was in better shape I wanted the cashiers to keep their jobs.

[left-of-center2012]

6. I shop Walmart

Sorry, but I'm low income, on Social Security.
I stopped at an Albertson's the other day and my first thought was:

"Holy crap, they're so much more expensive than Walmart".

(One example, the English muffins were almost twice as much)

[Jake Stern]

11. Albertsons didn't used to be that way

Prior to their hook up with Safeway they had really good sales. I remember the buy one, get two free offers on meat. Since the merger I haven't seen it. Prices have shot through the roof.

[left-of-center2012]

12. "buy one, get two free offers on meat"

I remember that,
but no more.

[airplaneman]

9. I hate arguments like this one

"While minimum wage mandates help low paid workers bring home a higher pay in the short term, they send these workers to the unemployment lines in the long term, as companies replace labor with machines. ... That’s how a good cause turns into a bad one, an ugly truth for the fight for a $15 minimum wage."

And they expect us to believe automation wont happen if we settle for the lousy wages we are getting now. I just don't believe them.

-Airplane

[progree]

13. I'd be much happier if they offered some reward other than a discount on gasoline

There's two supermarket chains near me in suburban Minneapolis -- Cub Foods (a wholy owned subsidiary of SuperValu Inc), and Hy-vee. They both have a loyalty rewards card and the only "reward" is a discount on gasoline. The discount lasts only a month and then it's gone. I don't drive much and I've used only a small fraction of these "rewards".

The last thing businesses (or government) need to be doing is subsidizing fossil fuel prices. In this day and age these clueless fuckheads still haven't figured this out?