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Anyone in NYC who regularly shops at Trader Joes or Whole Foods knows how badly this is needed. There are literally two employees at Trader Joes whose job it is
by dawhizkid 9y ago
Anyone in NYC who regularly shops at Trader Joes or Whole Foods knows how badly this is needed. There are literally two employees at Trader Joes whose job it is to hold a sign that says "End of Line" because the line is always almost out the door on weekends and weekday evenings.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoBut won't someone please think of the poor, unemployed "end of line" sign holders? Whatever will they do!
- sundaeofshock 9y agoGet some torches and pitchforks? Seriously, what do you think will happen when we have millions who lose their jobs due to automation?
- pps43 9y agoSame thing that happened when manual switchboard operators lost their jobs to PBX, or manual typesetters lost their job to linotypes?
- stale2002 9y agoSame thing as been happening for the last 50 years as automation has vastly replaced human labor, without bringing about the revolution? Or in other words, people will get a different job, and there will be winners and losers, but on AVERAGE everyone's lives will be way better (as has been proven for the last 50 years).
- iagooar 9y agoWhy not use these people as cashiers? I wonder if this endless line thing is something typical in the US. I've been to many European countries and other than before Christmas, you never feel like staying in line is something to even think of, because the longest you usually wait is maybe 5 minutes. In Switzerland, now that in many shops you get to scan the cart yourself (after shopping or during it) there is just no congestion at all, even on a busy Saturday. How is it in your countries?
- dawhizkid 9y agoTo be fair this is mostly just a crazy nyc thing. I’ve never been to a Trader Joe’s elsewhere like the Trader Joe’s in NYC. They must be the top grossing stores by far. It’s always packed.
- sundaeofshock 9y agoThe Trader Joe’s at Fifth & Market is almost always packed. The line for the cashier ends up running through the aisles and it can take 15 minutes to see one of the 16 cashiers on duty. This, in a small-format store with no dedicated parking.
- paulie_a 9y agoSelf scan lines tend to be filled with people incapable of the basic mechanics of using the technology. I prefer to use them. But if I see five people in the self scan line and ten in the normal line...I go for the longer line and am out the door in less time
- jjoonathan 9y agoSometimes it's the machines. Walmart, I'm looking at you and your recent "upgrade" to what feels like an Electron app running in a VM on a raspberry pi. Button presses take whole seconds to register and loading a different page (e.g. payment or product code entry) takes tens of seconds. It's demoralizing.
- paulie_a 9y agoInteresting.. Previously Walmart was the best for scanners in my opinion. It was instant had a clear notification the item was scanned without beeping. It's off topic but I am annoyed that every device has to beep at me constantly
- Corrado 9y agoI haven't been to Walmart in quite a while but their UX used to be horrible. They had buttons with white lettering and the button background used to cycle between light blue and white. Half the time you couldn't read what the button was for and the other half of the time it was difficult to make out.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoI avoid Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s because they are almost the only grocery stores without self checkout. Even Uwajimaya has self checkout now (ok H mart doesn’t, but they are rather quick anyways).
- srtjstjsj 9y agoTrader Joe's NYC is cramped for space. It's unlikely Amazon's system would help, since it requires a lot more space to separate product SKUs.