-
Hey @wsdot I’d love it if you guys could please get a grip on all the super dangerous potholes in Seattle! Second time in the last few months. 😡
-
Lil Finder Guy is adorable! I’d like to see him in a webcomic with Discord’s Wumpus. 😆 basicappleguy.com/basicappl…
-
It’s Self-Check or Get Out
Towards the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader tells a surprised and frustrated Lando Calrissian, “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” Over the last decade, amidst the rise of automation, an increasingly normal part of the retail experience is self-checkout at the grocery store. Introduced simply as a time-saving supplemental convenience for customers, its use has shifted into a means of aggressive cost-cutting. This has both severely diminished the customer experience and revealed a more nefarious long-term goal pursued by the operators of large retail chains: The elimination of virtually all cashier roles.
Consider that it’s late on Friday evening, about eight-thirty, and you decide to get a jump on the weekend by getting some shopping out of the way. You drive over to your local supermarket and fill up your cart full of items for the next week. Then you head up to the front, and what you find is distressing: An array of regular cashier stations, which, although spacious and plentiful, are closed, and one poor attendant who is tasked with oversight of 8-12 cramped self-checkout stations.
Given that going through self-checkout with a packed cart is a nontrivial task, you don’t find this to be convenient at all, and although you would prefer not to be a bother, you ask politely if there’s anyone around who can do normal checkout. Eventually, a manager arrives who is curt and dismissive of your request, and before you’ve even had a chance to verbally express a word, she’s already issued an ultimatum to you, “You’re just going to have to use self-checkout.”
I left.
Automation has played a vital role in the advancement of human civilization, but it doesn’t require one to be a Luddite to recognize that something different and new is happening here: Management views providing a basic customer experience as a chore, rather than a vital part of their business strategy.
This situation isn’t going to get better. It was recently announced that Kroger (a conglomerate including QFC and Fred Meyer) and Albertsons (a conglomerate including Safeway and Haggen) are going to merge, pending regulatory approval. This will leave us with fewer choices and less competition, consequently resulting in increased grocery prices.
In our own backyard, Amazon (owner of Whole Foods) has been brazen about its pursuit of a cashierless future. In 2018, the very first Amazon Go location opened up to the public right here in Seattle. Although Amazon has since closed a number of these stores, they have been offering this technology to other retailers, as BBC News reported in March 2020. While their “Just Walk Out” implementation is significantly more convenient than what’s currently on offer at most local supermarket chains, the future of the role of cashier is clearly in jeopardy.
An added dystopian dimension to the story of retail automation has been the narrative of increasing retail theft and the addition of highly prominent teams of onsite armed security personnel appearing in place of folks tasked with augmenting the shopping experience. It would seem to be an unintended consequence of removing humans from the transaction as a cost-cutting measure. At a time of price hikes we should be asking ourselves what these changes mean for the future. What’s next?
For what it’s worth, I reached out to Safeway’s corporate office regarding my own experience at the E Madison St store and specifically asked about their policy regarding self-checkout. A spokesperson for the company stated that their policy is to ensure that at least one regular checkout stand is available at any given time; clearly, there’s a misalignment of expectations from corporate and the reality in the field.
This story originally appeared in the April 2024 issue of Leschi News on page six.
-
Can’t get Michael Brecker’s lines in Arc of the Pendulum out of my mind: youtu.be/awwj-W7BR… 🎵
-
THR: The Orville might get another season www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-new…
-
Was gifted a great coffee recently called Amantolli cafe con vanilla. Very tasty – finished that up way too fast!
I’ll be brewing Kitty Town Coffee vanilla buttercream today. ☕️
-
If you’re trying to export a document from Pages on macOS, try not using the built-in PDF exporter. Instead, use File… > Print > PDF… > Save as Adobe PDF and check Smallest File Size. This may only work if you have Acrobat installed. Went from 2.6MB -> 23KB. Hell of a reduction!
-
Kayla and I visited the Lombardi Trophy when it was at Bellevue Square. ✨
-
Merch Store – A Shopify frontend w/ order fulfillment by Penny Arcade: micro-blog.brianward.us/projects/
-
Artbook – Basically it was Facebook for the Runic art team: micro-blog.brianward.us/projects/
-
Web presence refresh for Runic Games: micro-blog.brianward.us/projects/
-
I finally got around to adding a projects page to my website. Check it out here: micro-blog.brianward.us/projects/
-
My girlfriend knows me too well! 😆
-
It’s been good times in Seattle sports lately:
- Sounders won the MLS Leagues Cup.
- Mariners almost made the World Series.
- Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl on Sunday.
- Seattle is hosting the FIFA World Cup this year.
- There’s a real chance the NBA will restore the Sonics.
-
An update about my most recent post
I thought I’d provide an update to my previous posts about the attack on my house last week. Over the weekend, my friends came over and we rebuilt the stairs. While this is far outside of my scope of knowledge, I have some really wonderful friends who came through in a big way. Thank you to everyone who checked in or offered support. Those stairs are better than they were before and they are held together by friendship as much as anything else.
Yesterday a contractor came by and repaired the vandalized roof sections, support framing, and fascia boards. He did this work on an emergency basis to prevent further water damage. Gutters will be installed later in the week. This nightmare is finally ending.
In these uncertain times, coercion, duplicity, and extortion by those who would seek to exploit you are no match for the support of people – friends and family alike – who care about you.
-
This day took a real turn 😵💫
Got scammed today. Watch out for people who offer to fix minor problems with your house. Police report filed — apparently it’s a known scam that they have encountered recently. A $100 staircase repair quickly spired out of control into a ~$14k demand for payment and part of the roof of the house on the ground with a guy pressuring me to pay him. Beware, stay safe, and don’t talk to strangers. ❤️
-
I’m saddened to hear that Stewart Cheifet has passed on. obits.goldsteinsfuneral.com/stewart-c…
-
Can’t catch me, eh?
-
I just learned a neat trick: Ask ChatGPT to search a restaurant menu to quickly find high protein entrees!
-
JD Vance.
-
Kirk here!
-
I’m skeptical that secular humanism will be restored to its rightful place as the core ingredient of the Star Trek secret sauce. gizmodo.com/a-brand-n…
-
Go back this Doug Drexler documentary on Kickstarter. It’s currently got 71% funding and 7 days to go. I wanna see it! www.kickstarter.com/projects/…
-
We shouldn’t be surprised that Schumer caved again. The Democratic Party establishment is not fighting for you. Their motivation in the two-party system is to drain effort and energy from real leftists so that we don’t get organized and get shit done. We are watching kabuki theatre. 🎭
-
Please put this guy in charge of Windows. www.youtube.com/watch
subscribe via RSS