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Won’t the productivity of stocking shelves go up if, for example, technology makes grocery stores more profitable? Perhaps technology helps stores order locally

Won’t the productivity of stocking shelves go up if, for example, technology makes grocery stores more profitable? Perhaps technology helps stores order locally customized inventory that will sell better (and waste less), or perhaps delivery or curbside pickup systems help stores compete better against online stores. Even packaging improvements could increase productivity. The fact that the stores themselves are physically able in practice to enjoy this increase in productivity without increasing pay to the people stocking shelves says very little about how the productivity of stocking shelves has changed.

jrsj 5y ago
Up to a point this would work but there is a point where stocking shelves at all is no longer worth it when the labor reaches a certain price, and they would probably just start tossing pallets of goods directly onto the sales floor and only support self checkout. And then probably invest in robotics to automate moving the pallets around. You could have an entire Walmart ran by fewer than 10 employees
- tshaddox 5y ago
  Sure, robots might be able to do it cheaper in the near future, but that’s unrelated to the question of whether productivity has gone up.
  - jrsj 5y ago
    There are many things that may just not get done at all though if they can’t be automated, or if automating them would be too costly. Stocking shelves in particular is probably one of those things. It’s hard to argue the labor is worth $26 an hour based on the total productivity increase of the corporation if they would just stop having you do it at all if it cost that much. The idea that an individual workers productivity is derived from the total productivity of the business isn’t entirely accurate. In the case of stocking shelves, the value is mostly aesthetics and executing a marketing strategy. The value of stocking shelves is based on the value that stocked shelves provide, which doesn’t increase linearly with the productivity of a store.

jrsj 5y ago

Up to a point this would work but there is a point where stocking shelves at all is no longer worth it when the labor reaches a certain price, and they would probably just start tossing pallets of goods directly onto the sales floor and only support self checkout. And then probably invest in robotics to automate moving the pallets around. You could have an entire Walmart ran by fewer than 10 employees

tshaddox 5y ago
Sure, robots might be able to do it cheaper in the near future, but that’s unrelated to the question of whether productivity has gone up.
- jrsj 5y ago
  There are many things that may just not get done at all though if they can’t be automated, or if automating them would be too costly. Stocking shelves in particular is probably one of those things. It’s hard to argue the labor is worth $26 an hour based on the total productivity increase of the corporation if they would just stop having you do it at all if it cost that much. The idea that an individual workers productivity is derived from the total productivity of the business isn’t entirely accurate. In the case of stocking shelves, the value is mostly aesthetics and executing a marketing strategy. The value of stocking shelves is based on the value that stocked shelves provide, which doesn’t increase linearly with the productivity of a store.