What happened to Sweden anti-confinement stance? Finland, Norway, Danmark are all below 1000 death from COVID total. Sweden is above 10 000 death...
Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
171–180 of 428 posts
Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#172There will be a market for both automated and manned grocery stores in the future. Until we have developed artificial general intelligence, I wouldn't trust a computer to recommend a cheese to with a certain kind of crackers. In stores with a reasonably wide selection of goods, I usually have to ask for the location of at least one thing. Although locating stuff _could_ be solved by looking it up with an app, I would…
Couldn't this be replace with roaming alexa style bots on r even something stationary at the end of each aisle?
Given the quality and scope of most state of the art chat bots and personal assistants I can only imagine this being an immensely frustrating experience.
Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#173I remember visiting a fully automated store already in the 90's in Tromsø, Norway. It was like an extended vendoring machine. It was quite fun watching the robot hand go up and down based on your order. I believe such stores were already common in Japan at the time. The shop didn't make it, though, and was discontinued after a year or two. Today automated checkouts are popping up in more and more shops in Norway, tho…
In the Coop stores (at least Coop Obs) you can use both the coop app and one of the handheld scanners to scan products while you pick them. Then you scan the device or your app in the checkout to pay.
Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yesterday on Spanish local tv show they showed how in a small rural town without banks / ATM's, a pharmacy dubbed as a bank / cash retrieval service in a rural town... In another town the banks shared an office and each day of the week was for one of the banks to recieve customers lol. WeBank Could have the same but backwards, give cash, recieve e-coupon, scan e-coupon in store.
Why not just install an ATM in the pharmacy or don't Spanish banks allow their atms's to access other banks? Having a mobile bank that drives around is another solution.
> Why not just install an ATM in the pharmacy
In Netherlands we used to have ATMs in loads of places. Stores had semi-moveable ones. That stopped due to criminals blowing regular ATMs up. The explosives sometimes took out entire walls and made the entire building unsafe. Most stores removed those semi-moveable ATMs. Similarly, loads of regular ATMs were removed, especially ATMs close to a house.
As Netherlands tried to do something about it the criminals started to attack the ATMs in Germany more. The criminals also often stole really quick cars, so Dutch police recently and finally have a few quick cars again. Before the quick chase cars the criminals often just outran the police. Oh, Dutch police take safety into account (try to minimize the risk for others).
Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I can do something else while my products are checked out But the point is we don't need the 'while my products are checked out' step. We could skip that. You save time, save more people handling what you're buying, save them having to staff a checkout and freeing them to do something else instead. That's the real win-win.
> freeing them to do something else instead. Yes, the'll be busy looking for other jobs.
I think it's demeaning to employ people to do something that is so clearly not necessary. If we want to create and possibly subsidise jobs for people let's create useful, productive jobs.
Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Which EU countries have cigarette vending machines? I've never seen such a thing, in the countries I shop they're behind a cashier. Sometimes even hidden so that if you don't know what to ask for you're not getting it.
Germany, Austria, Italy at least.
Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have heard from employees at supermarkets that shrinkage with self checkout is elevated to the point it does not really matter.
You mean theft? Isn't shrinkage just term for employee theft?
I do mean theft. I am not a native speaker and thought shrinkage applied to both.
Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
My favorite supermarket has regular and 'quick' checkouts. I enjoy the interaction with the employees.
Do the employees enjoy the interaction with you, I wonder?
I was recently at a CVS and the cashier shouted out that she’d help us as we walked towards the self checkout. She was very friendly and wanted to talk about everything from the upcoming time change to the vaccine. Some people just crave interaction and with the current pandemic they may be too isolated.
Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did the manure shovelers' families all die in squalor once Henry Ford brought the auto assembly line to scale?
You’re comparing two labor intensive efforts. This is an article about a store that has no in-store employees. What jobs does such a store have to offer as a replacement?
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Re: Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
My favorite supermarket has regular and 'quick' checkouts. I enjoy the interaction with the employees.
I love the quick self service checkouts and will line up for them even when a regular staffed checkout is free. I’m just the opposite and instead dislike interaction I guess.
Whenever I use self service checkout, it always takes much longer time for me to get through. I guess I am not so good at quickly juggling and locating bar codes at each item as the staff working at checkout are. So I leave it to professionals.