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As I watch stores and fast-food outlets switch to store designs which are highly secure to protect workers from violence and product from theft and damage. I wo
by quitit 3y ago
As I watch stores and fast-food outlets switch to store designs which are highly secure to protect workers from violence and product from theft and damage. I wonder if it is changes in societal norms which are forcing retail to catch up.
We've had bad areas before, we've had widespread poverty before. What is new are certain normalisations that it's ok to escalate to violence with staff and that damaging property is fair for settling disagreements, disappointments or even normal as seen in various TikToks trends.
Are open counters and accessible product going to be something that goes away in retail, or is this just a reaction to rising cost of living expenses? Seems like we're entering an era where retail approximates a midpoint between looking like a bank and a vending machine.
- vorpalhex 3y ago> Are open counters and accessible product going to be something that goes away in retail No, expensive areas with private security and access control will still have open racks of merchandise, people walking around to assist you and generally be lovely. Poor areas without those things will look more and more dystopian, be more hostile and generally offer less items and less help. I suspect the automated self checkout will takeoff. One of the reasons to publically fund the police was to remove the market for private security. Once upon a time it wasn't uncommon to hire a spare coachman to "ride shotgun" which meant literally manning a shotgun. I suspect deliveries to these areas may see the "shotgun messengers" return...
- coffeebeqn 3y agoThe next step is a robot police next to the self checkout that will grab shoplifters
- vorpalhex 3y agoSolution is easier than that. Charge people $99/year to enter the store. It won't be sold that way. It'll be bundled. You'll pay your fee for free shipping and some music/video access and oh also here are retail stores just for "members".
- mcphage 3y agoOr go back to the old fashioned model of "you tell the clerk what you want, and they fetch it for you". The last store I'm aware of that did that faded away in my lifetime. (Brand Names, although maybe it still exists somewhere). I remember going to Toys-R-Us as a kid, and to purchase video games, you took a ticket off of the wall, and paid for it, and then exchanged the ticket for the actual item at a locked booth near the exit.
- Avshalom 3y agoWe've been moving back to that. Curbside/instore pickup (and now curbside returns) is a thing at most of the major retailers. It got a big push during pandemic store closures but e.g. Target had been doing it since 2014ish
- mcphage 3y agoI didn’t even make that connection, but you’re right—that’s basically the same thing.
- Avshalom 3y agoCostco/Samsclub are already there.
- houseatrielah 3y agoSubway sandwich shop encased in bulletproof glass pic https://preview.redd.it/sjkdeavpg7r31.jpg?width=1024&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=1a53d6cd1cd519c6296722c16f994826effd9ed3 https://preview.redd.it/sjkdeavpg7r31.jpg?width=1024&auto=we... https://whyy.org/segments/council-vote-set-bulletproof-glass-measure-dividing-philly-community/ https://whyy.org/segments/council-vote-set-bulletproof-glass...
- lmm 3y agoThe future of culture is even harder to predict than other aspects of the future. But for my money we're in for the long haul. Americans no longer feel like they're all part of the same society. Look at countries in colonial Africa where tribal identity is much stronger than national identity for the kind of environment that leads to.