Whenever I have been forced to commit the act of Walmart, I will often look at some of the larger stores and see 20-25 registers.
It always makes me laugh because it seems that they would never have that many registers open except for a few times out of the year. It also makes you look at those self checkout aisles and how much the employees are really valued by their company.
They know that they can plain as day be replaced by a robot at any moment, yet so many of them in an entry level job are asking for minimum wage to be raised to fifteen dollars.
The problem with all of this is that Walmart and so many other companies have access to tech that can serve as several employees in one.
Just look at Sam’s Club for example. Half of their registers are self checkout…
Via AWM:
Shopping trips often take longer than you planned.
Not only can be it be difficult to find the items you need on the shelves (especially in big box retailers that are bolstering their online presence while stripping away their store experience), it can take forever to pay and get on with your day.
Checkout lines can stretch five, six, and sometimes ten customers long when they are at the height of busyness.
That’s why many retailers have added the self-checkout lanes.
Not only are they useful for people only buying a few items, but they also reduce the amount of staff the companies need to pay. But now Walmart has made an announcement that they are no longer going to try to increase the number of self-checkout lanes in their litany of stores. Here’s why.
Walmart introduced the “Scan and Go” technology for customers trying to get in-and-out as fast as possible. They were allowed to scan items on their phone as they browsed the store and then pay easily as they left. Then they would just go through the Mobile Express lane before leaving for a simple security check to prevent shoplifting.
Walmart was trying to solve a need. Customers want things faster than ever before, and the largest company in the world thought this would help. Not only did they think this could help a segment of customers, but they also hoped it would cut down on labor costs, making it great for their profits and shareholders.
