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Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#151

Post by falcolas »

chrisseaton wrote: post #89
devoutsalsa wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Efficiency. Chat and shop. It’s a twofer. And if you like interaction but not having to get to close, it’s great.

But it's not efficient, is it? These people could be doing something more productive with their time than staffing a checkout in order to make small talk.

More efficient for the company, perhaps (though self checkouts are typically still manned, though at a reduced rate). But much less efficient for the customers.

Who do you optimize for? IMO, ideally not the company.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#152

Post by ryukafalz »

wil421 wrote: post #111
ryukafalz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Expected to have, engage with and be active on a smartphone And not just any smartphone: a smartphone controlled by Apple or Google. Further cementing their influence over society.

Would it have been any better if Nokia and Blackberry had dominated the market?

Not particularly, if that just means you're beholden to those companies instead.

My issue is not that you need to be using Android in general for example (base Android is FOSS, so the user can in principle have full control over their device), but that often for these things you need to be using Android with Google services, with all the tracking and such that entails.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#153

Post by megous »

msh wrote: post #124
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

machines implement stupid broken ux patterns which make shopping hell. on edit: evidently people would like their supermarket checkout experience to be as pleasing as the typical online shopping experience, thus a quick downvote.

I think the average online shopping experience is, at least for me, far preferable to the average supermarket experience with queues and so on.

Maybe to you, but until online shopping will be realizable via user chosen User Agent (like e-mail, etc.) via open API, online shopping will continue to suck horribly for anything but single items. Shopping for groceries online is complete hell, for one.

There are queues online too. They are just at the delivery side, not at the checkout side.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#154

Post by m12k »

eertami wrote: post #102
m12k wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Efficiency is the reason we can have this conversation instead of standing out in a field, manually trying to coax a living out of the unforgiving soil every day. Efficiency isn't the goal, but it's one of the best tools we have for improving what a human life can be - like for example giving us enough leisure time to be able to read, have hobbies, do art or spend more time with loved ones.

>like for example giving us enough leisure time to be able to read, have hobbies, do art or spend more time with loved ones. You say that like it is a universally accepted truth, yet the American worker allegedly takes less vacation time than a medieval peasant[0]. Going even further back, prior to agriculture we likely had even more "free" time[1]. Efficiency is a goal is nice, but the modern work day does not striv…

Sure, the American ass-in-seat mentally is not efficient. The American for-profit healthcare system is not efficient. And the American way of leaving its poorer citizens to fend for themselves instead of investing in them is not efficient. That's not an indictment of America's belief in efficiency, that's an indictment of its blind belief in the market as the best source of all solutions.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#155

Post by elindbe3 »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #131

Envious of Sweden. If that store were in America everything would have been stolen the first day.

They have Amazon stores in the US. There's one I know of in downtown Chicago. I don't know if it did particularly well but it wasn't robbed bare every day.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#156

Post by riffraff »

nherment wrote: post #106
eCa wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So this is basically run on a trust basis, right? No, from the OP: > works in conjunction with BankID, a secure national identification app operated by Sweden's banks You are identified, so it should be easy to see on camera who steals and then they can send the cops on you. My worry is more about tourists[1]. As someone who has travelled extensively in rural Europe I would not appreciate a growing network of store…

Thats a really good point regarding EU citizens having access to this service. Swedish services are thoroughly tied to the bankid/personnal number. There is a EU regulation [1] somewhat related to this that prevent sellers from discriminating the availability of goods based on your place of residence. I wonder if this regulation applies to these shops. A couple of paragraphs are particularly interesting, #18 and #19:…

I'm pretty sure the regulation is violated all the time everywhere, i.e. vending machines that require some local electronic card (e.g. to prove your age for sigarettes).

It's a pity, of course, but not a "new" problem.

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#157

Post by adamcstephens »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #19
adamcstephens wrote: post #3

So how will the people who would have worked in a shop like this, afford to shop for food? In Sweden this probably isn’t as big of an issue, but not every country is as socially conscious.

How many people would have worked in a small grocery store for a town of 1000? I'm no expert, but I know there's small corner shops that have just one person running them with maybe another one or two people helping them. Full rotation staff, maybe 10? That's 1% of the local workforce. I mean what do the 1000 people in the town do for a living to buy food?

Let’s extrapolate then. Assume these stores spread to an entire country, since they’re not just located in rural areas. We'll also stick with 1% of the population losing jobs. In the US that’s over 3 million people. What should those people do instead?

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#158

Post by draw_down »

qmmmur wrote: post #133
random_upvoter wrote: post #104

I worked in a supermarket for a while and there was plenty of old people who came to that shop almost daily just to interact with another human being.

What's your point? That people should be indentured in low paying jobs to be old people's friends?

Thanks for posting

Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

#160

Post by chrisseaton »

falcolas wrote: post #151
chrisseaton wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's not efficient, is it? These people could be doing something more productive with their time than staffing a checkout in order to make small talk.

More efficient for the company, perhaps (though self checkouts are typically still manned, though at a reduced rate). But much less efficient for the customers. Who do you optimize for? IMO, ideally not the company.

> But much less efficient for the customers.

I don't know what your experience is, but I always find self-checkout massively more efficient for me and I'd always prefer it and would choose shops that offer it over those that don't.

I can just breeze through with my AirPods still in listening to my podcast, not having to wait for anyone else or have anyone else wait for me, not having to say anything, and just get on with the rest of my day and what I really want to spend my time doing.

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