Beside chain owners, who likes switch to self-checkout? [View all]

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By Aurora Hernandez / For the Los Angeles Times

Something incredible happened four years ago. People suddenly realized that my grocery store co-workers and I are essential. It had a lasting effect on me, but some people clearly need a reminder; especially the leaders of the conglomerates that dominate the industry. These bosses have rewarded our essential frontline service during the pandemic by trying to replace us with machines.

California’s grocery workers are on the front line once again as we face the challenge of automation. This time we’re pushing back by supporting California’s Senate Bill 1446, which, among other things, limits the number of self-checkout stations grocery and retail drugstore workers have to oversee at any given time.

The corporate strategy behind self-checkout is clear and heavy-handed: lower labor costs by forcing customers to do the work themselves and pass the increased profit on to Wall Street. Most of my customers at the Food 4 Less in Boyle Heights refuse to make the change.

Instead of learning to navigate the bank of self-checkout machines our store recently installed, they line up deep into the aisles to be helped by a human being. And those are the customers who have time to wait: Every day I see customers give up and walk out the door without buying anything because the line is too long and they are frustrated by the problems they’ve encountered when trying self-checkout.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-beside-chain-owners-who-likes-switch-to-self-checkout/