this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
517 points (87.5% liked)
Technology
60052 readers
2809 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That's never how this works. Business profits go up long before customers see any kind of discount.
You get discounts when there's a surplus of something, and the purpose of these self-check-out kiosks isn't to create a surplus of grocery stock but to conserve and transform labor costs.
I've never seen a customer's eyes light up with joy upon seeing a self-checkout aisle. Customers enjoy shorter lines, but when everything is self-check out you're still all in the same line. And self-check out is slower, so you're often stuck in a longer line.
The one upside of self-checkout is that you don't need staff to operate the machine, so if you're doing a quick in-and-out handful of items purchase during a slow day, it can be faster than waiting in the one line that has everyone in the store backed up behind it. But, again, that's because stores want to conserve on labor. Not because there's some fundamental benefit to self-swipe. If all the aisles were fully staffed all the time, there would be no discernible benefit to self-swipe.