by Jessica Vazquez
I work at CVS/pharmacy were being a normal cashier is out of the question. Self checkouts have taken over, and become a major part of our everyday life. They are in your local grocery store, and now “for your convince”, at your local pharmacy. They are an alternative way to get you the customer in and out of the store more quickly. In the economy that we have today, is self checkouts really what’s best? On a regular day at work I get at least four to six complaints about them. Not because it is not functioning correctly, but because the customers feel like the self checkouts are putting people out of jobs. As a cashier there, I really never seem to mind them much. It gives me a chance to do other task throughout my day, also allows me not to have to interact with nasty customers. What I had to ask myself was is that really standing up to having true customer service? Not at all, some people including myself believe that the one on one interaction with the customers seem to make a difference. Something else I had to think about was that instead of having four cashiers on that shift with the self checkout all they need is one. In my opinion the shelf checkout only benefits the retailer. The retailers save money on reducing the number of staff they have.
Karl Marx’s had a theory which they now call Marxism. He believed that are social economy was ruled by the wealthy upper class simply for their own benefits. Marx’s brought socialism to the light. Socialism is having the social owner ship of a production or management. Self checkouts are only benefited by the corporate enterprises. A machine is taking the place of a job that a human being may need to support their selves or family. So, does replacing a person’s job with a machine really make it more convent for the customer or the company?
I personally find the 'self checkouts' to be overall easier to use. If I had a dollar for every time I was trying to check out quickly and go about my day, but was held back by an incompitant cashier who didn't know how to do their job, I would be a very rich man.
ReplyDeleteI've worked retail before and spent 5 years of my life working retail management, alot of the time people working in the store have plenty to do besides ring out customers. Self check outs make their lives easier because it gives them more time to get things taken care of all around the store!
The downside to this is malfunctioning machines and of course the whole 'people in general are idiots' thing, so there are likely to be other incompitant customers that are taking forever to figure out how to use to self check out anyway. So really, with or without the cashier, incompitent people will always slow down the shopping process of others haha. No real way to win entirely right?
Great post though, one day retail jobs won't exist, and everything will be run by machines.