viola_lopez30•11d agoTop Commenter

Saw a self-checkout kiosk replace two cashiers at the grocery store near my house

I was at the Albertsons on 5th Street last Friday getting milk and eggs, and they had six new self-checkout machines. Two cashiers I recognized from last year were gone, just replaced by a single attendant watching over the machines. It hit me that this is happening EVERYWHERE, not just in factories or call centers. My cousin works at a bank and they just laid off three tellers for an AI chatbot. How do we even start pushing back on this when it feels like every store is doing it?

3 comments

3 Comments

cooper.drew11d ago

Yeah that's tough. I started asking for a human cashier every time, and it actually made a difference at my store.

irisowens9d ago

Are we really at a point where six self-checkout machines and a couple of laid off cashiers mean the end of the world? I get that change is hard, especially for folks like @claire_young76 who've watched family members lose jobs they had for over a decade, but this isn't exactly new. Stores have been replacing people with machines since the automatic telephone switchboard came along. I remember when my local gas station switched to pay-at-the-pump in the 90s and everyone said it would destroy jobs. Look around now, there are still plenty of people pumping gas and ringing up groceries. The truth is, most of those banking jobs my cousin lost came back as new roles in customer service or fraud detection, just different titles. Maybe instead of fighting progress, we should focus on helping folks retrain for the jobs that are actually growing.

claire_young7611d ago

That really stinks about the cashiers you knew, its tough seeing people lose jobs like that. My sister-in-law worked at a Kmart for twelve years before they closed the whole store, and she still talks about how it felt to just be replaced by a machine overnight. The worst part is people act like its just progress, but those were real jobs supporting real families. I feel like we need to start talking to store managers more, letting them know we want to see actual humans working the registers when we shop. Its a small thing but maybe if enough of us speak up it might make a difference somewhere.