Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 428 posts

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

#91

Post by prepend »

chrisseaton wrote: post #80
the-dude wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite supermarket has regular and 'quick' checkouts. I enjoy the interaction with the employees.

> I enjoy the interaction with the employees. If you want to pay for someone to be social with you why not do that separately to shopping? Seems funny to try to mix the two.

I’m not aware of any decent services that let you be social for only 90 seconds.

I like human cashiers because they are faster than me+robot. So I tolerate the chitchat for their efficiency.

And I never really want to optimize for typing in codes for the price of lemons and whatnot.

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

#92

Post by null0ranje »

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.

They are. It's called building goodwill.

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

#93

Post by zurn »

dagw wrote: post #64
zurn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smartphone penetration seems to be 40-80% in industrialized countries, according to 2019 figures from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_smartphon...

In the Nordic countries it's over 90% https://www2.deloitte.com/se/sv/pages/technology-media-and-t...

That percentage is of "consumers", might not include the entire population.

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

#94

Post by martindbp »

mrweasel wrote: post #63

I believe Sweden has pretty good policing, and the Swedes are just about as honest as you could ever expect a nation to be, but if this was in "rural" Denmark and someone decided to raid the store, there would be very little stopping them. Police is in many cases at least 30 minutes away, if not more, and have no resources to investigate the theft of 10L of milk. In many cases the staff is a store is just as much pre…

People in rural towns are also as honest as they come, but even so I'd expect trouble by youngsters. But maybe the cameras are enough of a deterrent.

I could also see a solution where you need to identify yourself in order to be let in through the doors. If you have been spotted letting someone else in who proceeds to steal or vandalize, that person could be held accountable.

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

#95

Post by the-dude »

chrisseaton wrote: post #80
the-dude wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite supermarket has regular and 'quick' checkouts. I enjoy the interaction with the employees.

> I enjoy the interaction with the employees. If you want to pay for someone to be social with you why not do that separately to shopping? Seems funny to try to mix the two.

You are stretching things out of proportion. I am not paying them for the interaction.

The casual interactivity is what I would call the 'gravy' of society. They know I recognize/know them, and I know they recognize/know me.

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

#96

Post by msh »

tasogare wrote: post #87
dhimes wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grocery store has a self-scan and checkout that works on trust basis with random audits. Some stores had to get rid of it because of stealing, but thankfully mine has kept it. I find it very fast and don't mind the occasional audits at all. Small price to pay, and still faster than if I had stayed in line.

The value the self-scan systems have for the shop owners is not in automation but the fact the work is reported on customer, with of course no price reduction. That should be forbidden. I boycott those systems and wait for the human clerk to do his job, this way a little of the money made by the shop is redistributed.

I would rather do it my self for very little extra time use, rather than waste even more time waiting in line.

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

#98

Post by guerrilla »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #36

I used to work at a major multi-billion dollar retailer. One of the biggest complaints from customers was waiting at the check out line, especially for small, quick orders. This is the future of grocery stores, like it or not. Employees are expensive and make mistakes, whereas machines are cheap, don't take breaks, and work pretty reliably once you set them up correctly.

> This is the future of grocery stores

It was already the present in most of Sweden before this too. Almost every store has automated checkout im addition to manual checkout.

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

#99

Post by colejohnson66 »

program_whiz wrote: post #61
aboringusername wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you're excluded, simple as that. We're rapidly approching the point where you're: a) Expected to have, engage with and be active on a smartphone b) Be accessible via the mobile network (have an active phone number that can get SMS) c) Be "always online", frequently checking the bank in 'real time' to verify transactions, account balance etc d) Have battery life on your device. It's no good if you have just 5% an…

Just want to point out that the same people who say "sorry if you don't have a phone you can't shop" are probably the same who claim requiring ID to vote is "voter disenfranchisement" and that disabled people should have special exceptions made for them. The claim "sorry you don't have a smart phone you can't buy food / clothes" has implications for people (children, the elderly, the disabled, the poor). Just replace…

> why should we have to cater to people who aren't normal?

Because (in the USA) the ADA exists, and has been shown to help even non disabled people. Elevators were mandated on multi floor buildings because of wheelchairs, but they have a benefit of also being available for non disabled people who have their hands full of groceries.

Also, what is “normal” to you won’t be the same as someone else. Is a wheelchair bound person normal? A highly autistic person? What about high functioning autism? If you’re going to define “normal”, you’d be drawing a line somewhere where you can’t please everyone.

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

#100

Post by gambiting »

mpclark wrote: post #85
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…

Spot on. I remember trying to get petrol in Belgium at night sometime in the late 90s. The country had its own smart debit card programme (very leading edge) and garages there had unattended pumps that would accept these cards to cater for out-of-hours customers. But, being a UK tourist without a local payment card, I was stuffed. Stopped at every garage along the way, getting increasingly concerned, before coasting…

I've had that last summer driving through Germany - stopped to charge my car, only to discover that all charging stations at that particular Auobahn station will only accept a German-issued[0] debit or credit cards. As a tourist....tough luck I guess?

[0]I knew it because of course you had to use an app to start charging, and the app had a pre-filled and unchangable country set to Germany for billing details.

Post reply on HN