I may have made an earlier posting on this subject. Jim
Hightower devoted one of his brief audio commentaries to it several months ago.
The following article was printed in the Business Section of the Toronto Star on
May 25, 1999.
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SCAN-IT YOURSELF CHECKOUTS TRIED
Tidal wave of automation engulfs groceries
by Jennifer Brown, Associated Press
RICHBORO, Pa. -- Julie Lawson's two young children love to go
grocery shopping since their supermarket installed automatic checkout
machines.
Bud, 6, and Julia, 4, slide cookies and tomatoes across a
scanner, listen fir the computer voice to announce the price, then put the
goodies into bags. All without the help of an employee.
"When you have to drag these two around on errands, it's great
to be able to do your own thing at your own pace," Lawson said at the
Superfresh. "They do not let me use the regular line."
Self-serve checkouts are the latest in a tidal wave of
automation that has already overtaken banking, investing and gasoline retailing.
Auto-checkout machines are in about 300 supermarkets around the United States,
most installed in the last few months. In addition the machines are being tested
in Wal-Mart and other stores.
"It allows shoppers to take control of the check-out process,"
said Michelle Logan, spokesperson for Productivity Solutions Inc. of
Jacksonville, Fla., the leading maker of automatic checkers.
So far the idea hasn't taken off in Canada, although a few
stores are trying out pilot projects. Canada's biggest grocer, Loblaws, has been
monitoring the progress of automatic checkouts in the United States but hasn't
seen much consumer demand for such a service.
"I think customers still want a certain amount of customer
service," said Geoff Wilson, vice-president of industry and investor relations
for Loblaws Co. Ltd.
"If there was a groundswell of interest, we'd certainly look
at it more closely."
Self-checkout works like regular cashiers with a few
anti-theft additions. The customer slides each item over a laser scanner, puts
the item on a conveyor belt for weighing and lets each roll under a camera for
measuring.
The weighing and measuring prevents theft by comparing each
item to computer information about everything in the store.
The final bagging area also includes a scale, where the total
weight must match the sum of the items purchased.
Customers then get a receipt and pay a human cashier, though
some of the newer auto-checkouts include machines to take cash or use credit
cards.
The system isn't foolproof. On a recent visit to SuperFresh
customers had problems scanning a gallon of milk, a single bread roll, a 12 roll
pack of paer towels (too big to fit on conveyor belt) and six ears of
corn.
"She didn't say there were six ears there, and the computer
knows how much an average ear weighs, so it was confused," said Bill Hunter, who
rushed to the aid of the customer.
Over all, shoppers were pleased.
"I always use this. I'm always in a hurry and don't want to
waste time waiting in line," said Alex Matthews of Richboro.
Marybeth Malloy of Churchville said the self-serve aisles may
not be faster since she's a slow scanner, but they feel faster: "I hate standing
in the line. This way, it at least feels like I'm doing something."
The Richboro store hasn't reduced employee hours because of
the new machines, instead is keeping more lanes open, store manager Charles
Swartz said. The union representing store workers said they had been notified
before the change, but didn't object, saying, the machines make workers' jobs
easier.
"I find the day goes faster," said Hunter, who preferred
supervising four self-checkout aisles to working at a regular cash
register.
Eventually the machines will be used to make up shifts that
are hard to staff or to fill vacancies at understaffed stores said Andy Carrano,
spokesperson for the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, SuperFresh's
parent company. A&P said the self-checkout ideas account for about 30 per
cent of the business at the 50 test stores.
Customers should get used to dealing with a computer instead
of a person, economist Jeremy Rifkin said.
"The bottom line here is that the cheapest worker in the world
will not be as cheap as the technology coming online to replace them," said
Rifkin, who predicts automation will replace a majority of the 3.5 million U.S.
supermarket workers by 2020.
Still some people aren't ready to give up human
cashiers.
"I'm a people person. I still enjoy when people check me out
and help me," said Susan Wexler of Richboro, but she was using the
auto-checkout: "It's faster than waiting in long lines when they have only one
cashier open."
*******
Comment: This is obviously a threat to jobs--and income as
long as the job remains the only socially acceptable means of receiving income
for ordinary people. There are many ordinary people who are quite willing to
work for a living but do not have the aptitude and interest to become rocket
scientists or IT personnel. Our society is eliminating the jobs they have
traditionally held while providing no alternative jobs. The last paragraph
indicates what will happen. More and more supermarkets will have only one or two
human-operated checkouts available, and even the people who prefer this service
will be forced to use it. I think it's worth noting also that there is no real
reduction in labour. What the supermarkets are really doing is offloading paid
work (scanning and bagging) as unpaid work performed by the consumer.
Nevertheless this technology will be irresistible if the only alternative is
waiting in a long line.
Victor Milne
