Minimum Wage: What's the Other Argument?

[Commodore]

I've picked up the hobby, when I have the time and am shopping, of roundly screwing up the self-checkout lines in stores so that I can occupy an employee with fixing it. Otherwise I just go to a line with a cashier if I'm in a hurry.

I get my kicks where I can find them, I suppose.

Yay! Let's fight technological progress! Humans rule, machines drool!

Seriously though, what is your issue with automation? Every time the issue comes up, your posts always seem to take on the tone that automation is somehow bad for humanity and it just comes off as the typical paranoid, anti-technologist, fear-of-change mentality that holds humanity back.

 

[Farm Boy]

Nah, it's the same thing that leads me to shop at the mom and pop hardware store when I have a need instead of wishing thier store was gone to make the road a little wider since I can get the same stuff at Lowes. Some inefficiencies are good for people. It's not like I'm mean to the clerks mang. It's why they're standing there drawing a wage. I like them, I think I'll interact with them some.

 

[illram]

I do hate auto check out lines. They are not more convenient for the consumer, and the poor employee who has to babysit them is overworked and not paid any more for an arguably more difficult job (i.e., dealing with annoyed customers and broken machines constantly). I think in retail there is a lot of value in making things pleasant for the customer, so pure automation to save minimal costs in human labor at the expense of customer satisfaction is a bad play to me.

 

[Commodore]

I do hate auto check out lines. They are not more convenient for the consumer, and the poor employee who has to babysit them is overworked and not paid any more for an arguably more difficult job (i.e., dealing with annoyed customers and broken machines constantly). I think in retail there is a lot of value in making things pleasant for the customer, so pure automation to save minimal costs in human labor at the expense of customer satisfaction is a bad play to me.

I think self-checkout lines are a situational thing. Are they good for someone who has a lot of stuff to buy? Not at all. However, for someone who just needs to run in and grab one or two things and get out, they are great. They also help alleviate long checkout lines on days when the store might be short-staffed and can't have a lot of checkout lanes opened.

 

[illram]

When one of those quick things I need is beer, and let's face it that is frequently one of the quick things I need, they are not convenient at all as I have to flag down the lone employee who may or may not be near the checkout lines.

 

[bhavv]

Having worked on self checkouts before, the main issue is the [insert evil expletives] customers who turned up with a trolley and expected me to scan the items for them just because the queue there was shorter, despite signs clearly stating 'self service' and 'baskets only / 10 items or less', and then proceeding to get mad when refused service and told to go to a normal checkout.

Those people are scum.

However I found working on self scanning checkouts much easier as I'm not scanning items all day and just correcting user or technical errors.

 

[Zelig]

I do hate auto check out lines. They are not more convenient for the consumer, and the poor employee who has to babysit them is overworked and not paid any more for an arguably more difficult job (i.e., dealing with annoyed customers and broken machines constantly). I think in retail there is a lot of value in making things pleasant for the customer, so pure automation to save minimal costs in human labor at the expense of customer satisfaction is a bad play to me.

They're more convenient at stores where clerks are just there to upsell you stuff you don't want.

Grocery stores here actually have signs by the human clerks saying that you get free stuff if the clerk forgets to ask you about the weekly deal.

10 items or less

I ignore these for being grammatically nonsensical.

 

[bhavv]

Grocery stores here actually have signs by the human clerks saying that you get free stuff if the clerk forgets to ask you about the weekly deal.

Well that's actually a pretty dumb thing to have. As an employee with a customer service qualification, the correct thing for me to do according to my training in that situation would be to ask each customer:

'Would you like to know about our weekly deal or would you like to have free stuff?'

Because in that situation I am offering each customer the best service that they choose from the two options.

Also forcing information about offers onto customers is probably the single most annoying marketing tactic that any company can choose to do.

'Buy a car now and get free mats!!!' Ain't nobody curr about that.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Also forcing information about offers onto customers is probably the single most annoying marketing tactic that any company can choose to do.

WH Smith auto-tills do that in the UK now when I try to buy a newspaper.

At least with humans one can enjoy rolling eyes at them.

 

[bhavv]

Oh similarly Morrisons self service machines always repeat 'have you something about match and more card?'.

One time I needed a double charge for a carrier bag amending and it played, and the guy working there said 'No and he's not gonna!'. Those automated craps are useless.

At marks and spencer, we have a big desk advertised with such offers, and a person working there, and the customers approach the desk / staff and ask about it if they want to and sign up (e.g. The recent new Sparks card thing, and on other days its a taste testing booth with free nom noms). Much better.

 

[sophie]

When one of those quick things I need is beer, and let's face it that is frequently one of the quick things I need, they are not convenient at all as I have to flag down the lone employee who may or may not be near the checkout lines.

Are you even allowed to do this anymore? I thought CA changed the law so now you have to go through a cashier check-out for buying alcohol. Which is the most inconvenient thing getting stuck behind a mom with 2 full shopping carts of stuff and all you got is your one six pack.

 

[Farm Boy]

Are you even allowed to do this anymore? I thought CA changed the law so now you have to go through a cashier check-out for buying alcohol. Which is the most inconvenient thing getting stuck behind a mom with 2 full shopping carts of stuff and all you got is your one six pack.

Drive through liquor stores m'friend! I think they'll serve bikes if there have been, erm, problems in the past. Maybe not. Probably not on the bikes thing actually.

 

[bhavv]

You're allowed to use self service tills for buying alcohol in the UK, when doing so the age verification approval will flash up on the clerks overview till, and they will pop by to check ID and verify the sale.

Legally the problem isn't with the person buying the alcohol, its with the person selling. If a minor buy alcohol, the person that sold it gets the blame, not the minor.

 

[sophie]

Drive through liquor stores m'friend! I think they'll serve bikes if there have been, erm, problems in the past. Maybe not. Probably not on the bikes thing actually.

We don't have those out here.

 

[Farm Boy]

Booo, yuppies. I thought ya'll liked your beer. ()

 

[onejayhawk]

I thought this thread was about why a minimum wage is not the same as a living wage. My bad.

J

 

[Commodore]

Drive through liquor stores m'friend! I think they'll serve bikes if there have been, erm, problems in the past. Maybe not. Probably not on the bikes thing actually.

I do love the drive through liquor stores. We don't have many left here in my part of Ohio, but the ones we do have are pretty awesome.

 

[bhavv]

I thought this thread was about why a minimum wage is not the same as a living wage. My bad.

J

Well in Apeil 2016, the UK is introducing a minimum living wage for anyone 24+, of £7.20 an hour.

I guarantee you that £7.20 an hour still is no where near a suitable living wage in the U for a single person.

 

[Flying Pig]

It depends where you live, and how many hours you work, surely? Going by the age-old index of working out living costs by the price of beer, there are plenty of (mostly northern, mostly dingy) places where you can still get a good pint for £2, whereas you're lucky to get much change from £5 in parts of London.

 

[Daw]

working out living costs by the price of beer, there are plenty of (mostly northern, mostly dingy) places where you can still get a good pint for £2, whereas you're lucky to get much change from £5 in parts of London.

I was in London and briefly in Cambridge in 2005 and got my pints of John Smith's at £2.5 IIRC everywhere (it somehow tasted differently in different places though). Did the prices change that much since then?