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As an Oregonian, I'm not bothered by this. As it is, grocers typically have to have a single person at the helm of each bank of four to six machines. The machi

As an Oregonian, I'm not bothered by this. As it is, grocers typically have to have a single person at the helm of each bank of four to six machines. The machines are prone to requiring manual overrides, and often the single machine-herder is overwhelmed trying to keep up; I hear their grumbles. I find myself examining my basket while heading towards checkout and considering whether I think that a human cashier would give a smoother experience. Moreover, whether grocers have these machines is usually a function of their size. Smaller grocers in Oregon, like Green Zebra, don't have the machines, while larger grocers do, like Safeway and Walmart. I have had conversations with employees at the latter stores. The machines were ordained, installed, and configured by corporate order, with only a small amount of local training. Oregonian voters have immense power to alter the law, and so many independent groups aim to refer decisions directly to the voters, rather than trying to work within the bipartisan legislature. In this case, the group will have to successfully convince tens of thousands of us to petition the State to put it on the ballot. I will probably sign the petition. I read the text. It's not bad. There's an exemption for stores which sell only alcohol or only cannabis; liquor stores and dispensaries are a thing in Oregon, but I haven't seen any which have automated checkout robots. Indeed, I'm pretty sure that the liquor law requires humans in that checkout process. While a union is lobbying for this, the union does not stand to directly benefit; its members certainly will, but there's nothing that privileges the union, and both anti-union Walmart and employee-owned Winco will have to obey this law.

tzs 7y ago
The quality of self-checkout varies a lot from store to store. The ones Walmart put in at their stores up here (Western Washington) a few years ago have been fantastic. I have none of the problems with them that had me avoiding self-checkout for years at other stores. They have 9 on the side of the store the groceries are on, and 5 on the other side, with the regular checkout lines between them. One attendant at each set. The self-checkout is almost always way faster than the regular checkout. Most of the time at the 9 unit side there is either no wait or a one person wait. If the law were changed here to limit them to two units, I'd probably switch to doing most of my Walmart shopping in their app, and paying there, for store pickup just to avoid the regular checkouts.
ch_123 7y ago
> As it is, grocers typically have to have a single person at the helm of each bank of four to six machines. The machines are prone to requiring manual overrides, and often the single machine-herder is overwhelmed trying to keep up; I hear their grumbles. I find myself examining my basket while heading towards checkout and considering whether I think that a human cashier would give a smoother experience. I simply cannot understand why this means that there needs to be _legislation_ to limit the amount of self service machines. Presumably if it's really as bad as you describe, there's a strong business case to fix it? Since the situation you describe makes it sound like it has the potential to hurt business. If you are going to legislate for anything, legislate for installing machines which work. They exist - I use them all the time without any issues. > I have had conversations with employees at the latter stores. The machines were ordained, installed, and configured by corporate order, with only a small amount of local training. If the machines somehow failed to operate properly in Oregon but worked elsewhere, this would be a fair point... but presumably they are liable to break down in the same manner, causing the same issues?
- lidHanteyk 7y ago
  The machines often can't come in quantities of only one or two stations, so this actually would have the immediate effect of banning most stations, and requiring retrofitting. So keep in mind that we're actually slapping the businesses in question a bit harder than you might think. And yeah, cry me a river for Walmart. In Oregon, we're capable of prioritizing the good of the community over business interests. Several of the findings orient around the fact that senior citizens have trouble using the machines to purchase groceries. Heck, I have trouble using the machines to purchase groceries; I can empathize and sympathize.

tzs 7y ago

The quality of self-checkout varies a lot from store to store. The ones Walmart put in at their stores up here (Western Washington) a few years ago have been fantastic. I have none of the problems with them that had me avoiding self-checkout for years at other stores. They have 9 on the side of the store the groceries are on, and 5 on the other side, with the regular checkout lines between them. One attendant at each set. The self-checkout is almost always way faster than the regular checkout. Most of the time at the 9 unit side there is either no wait or a one person wait. If the law were changed here to limit them to two units, I'd probably switch to doing most of my Walmart shopping in their app, and paying there, for store pickup just to avoid the regular checkouts.

ch_123 7y ago

> As it is, grocers typically have to have a single person at the helm of each bank of four to six machines. The machines are prone to requiring manual overrides, and often the single machine-herder is overwhelmed trying to keep up; I hear their grumbles. I find myself examining my basket while heading towards checkout and considering whether I think that a human cashier would give a smoother experience. I simply cannot understand why this means that there needs to be _legislation_ to limit the amount of self service machines. Presumably if it's really as bad as you describe, there's a strong business case to fix it? Since the situation you describe makes it sound like it has the potential to hurt business. If you are going to legislate for anything, legislate for installing machines which work. They exist - I use them all the time without any issues. > I have had conversations with employees at the latter stores. The machines were ordained, installed, and configured by corporate order, with only a small amount of local training. If the machines somehow failed to operate properly in Oregon but worked elsewhere, this would be a fair point... but presumably they are liable to break down in the same manner, causing the same issues?

lidHanteyk 7y ago
The machines often can't come in quantities of only one or two stations, so this actually would have the immediate effect of banning most stations, and requiring retrofitting. So keep in mind that we're actually slapping the businesses in question a bit harder than you might think. And yeah, cry me a river for Walmart. In Oregon, we're capable of prioritizing the good of the community over business interests. Several of the findings orient around the fact that senior citizens have trouble using the machines to purchase groceries. Heck, I have trouble using the machines to purchase groceries; I can empathize and sympathize.