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Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

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191–200 of 428 posts

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

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not only that, it's the fact that the stores have externalised the checkout process to customers themselves. I could never understood why should I, as a client, do the work that someone else can do for me (and more reliably, of course)? It's win-win, I'm not stressed at doing something wrong, I can do something else while my products are checked out and that person doing the product checkout also has a job. But…

In these stores, cashiers are waiting around most of the time. That's the issue. They couldn't stay in business because they had to pay for the cashier to checkout as well as wait around. By letting customers checkout, there's no more wasted money spent on employees waiting around. Also, the stores that are most promising don't require checkout at all, so that's an entire category of human effort eliminated, for bett…

Most stores keep one person up front when they are not busy, the rest of the checkout clerks wonder the store looking for things out of place, stocking shelves, finding or customers to help. Each store has their own set of duties but for the most part there are plenty of tasks to do when people aren't waiting in line.

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you have to scan your bank card (which apparently in Sweden is a secondary ID card) to enter. I wonder if they do an extra verification to make sure you just didn't steal someone's card, maybe with a PIN? Hah, I guess for the vandals, being blacklisted by the network would be a big hassle...

I wonder what will the non-banked people do in the future? Their life is in many cases miserable enough as it is, not being able to purchase basic groceries because you don't have a credit/debit card is next-level capitalist dystopia.

In some countries, and I wouldn't be surprised if Sweden is one of them, it's a requirement that you be allowed to have a bank account. You can't be refused.

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

#193

Earlier 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.

Hopefully something more useful to society. We still need better mousetraps.

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

#194
post #133

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?

It's a little bit... weird to think of "working in a grocery store" as indentured servitude. You know, not everyone has to be a software engineer or full-stack whatever. There's absolutely nothing wrong with working in a grocery store, it's a fine way to make a living!

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

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’m slower also, but I still think it’s worth doing myself to avoid interaction.

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

#196
post #162

There 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…

>wouldn't trust a computer to recommend a cheese to with a certain kind of crackers.

What stores are you going to now where this is the case, every time I buy some food I need to know exactly what I want. I wouldn't expect some 19-year-old clerk to be a culinary expert either.

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

#197
post #150
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Isn't people work at these jobs because there's no other options available for them?

Where I'm at, the vast majority of employees working "grunt" positions in supermarkets are high schoolers along with some elderly and disabled folks. Given those demographics, I strongly suspect most of them are not working there to make a living.

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

#198

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.

There are supermarkets here that have a special slow lane for those people. I use the self check one.

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

#199
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many shops have a barrier/qualification to entry; membership at Costco for example. Smartphones are now cheap as dirt. The bigger problem would be having a bank account.

A Swedish bank account with Swedish Bank ID. Do they have a work around for non Swedish users?

You don't need to be a Swede to get bankid, but you do need a national registration number which you can apply for if you intend to live in Sweden for something like a year or more.

In other words, if you live in Sweden you'll likely have bankid. As a tourist or seasonal worker, not so much.

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

#200
post #24
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I see more problems with this than benefits. Sure it's nice to have during corona times but what about after it when it's not necessary anymore?

It’s not always about what is necessary because customer preferences can change, too. The automated ordering on machines in fast food restaurants or self-checkout in supermarkets may have been introcued to save businesses money and reinforced to limit interactions under COVID, but some people just prefer not to have that human interaction when it’s not absolutely required. As more people get used to and come to prefe…

Yeah! I have a very soft voice. I’ve practiced to make it bigger, but even my loudest voice is not terribly loud. Ordering things behind the counter can be tough for me especially if there’s background noise of people chattering or machines whirring like in a coffee shop. Kind of an odd situation, and I’ve been able to get through life fine without self order kiosks, but I’m glad when they’re there because I just feel like I’m easier to deal with as a customer.
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