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Robots Could Wipe Out Another 6 Million Retail Jobs (cnn.com)
According to a new study this week from financial services firm Cornerstone Capital Group, between 6 million and 7.5 million retail jobs are at risk of being replaced over the course of the next 10 years by some form of automation. "That represents at least 38% of the current retail work force, which consists of 16 million workers," reports CNN. "Retail could actually lose a greater proportion of jobs to automation than manufacturing has, according to the study." From the report: That doesn't mean that robots will be roving the aisles of your local department store chatting with customers. Instead, expect to see more automated checkout lines instead of cashiers. This shift alone will likely eliminate millions of jobs. "Cashiers are considered one of the most easily automatable jobs in the economy," said the report. And these job losses will hit women particularly hard, since about 73% of cashiers are women. There will also be fewer sales jobs, as more and more consumers use in-store smartphones and touchscreen computers to find what they need, said John Wilson, head of research at Cornerstone. There will still be some sales people on the floor, but just not as many of them. Rising wages are also helping to drive automation, as state and city governments hike their minimum wages. Additionally, several major retailers including Walmart, the nation's largest employer, have increased wages in order to find and retain the workers they need. The increased competition from e-commerce is also a factor, since it requires retailers to be as efficient as possible in order to compete.
More painters, more singers, more writers and some people to create art I didn't even know I'd love. I want to spend less of my income on the things I need and more on the things I want and experiences with the people I love. My job is automating things, at least in part, and there is plenty of room for it in my industry. It doesn't look like there is any chance of automating my part anytime soon, more's the pity since I'd rather be drawing and painting. I'd even consider chef, though I don't know if I have the innate talent; Still, I'd be willing to give it a shot.
Retail, fast food and cashiering are fine if that's the job you can get, but they kinda suck. Nobody should really have to do those jobs if there is money to be made in the creative world instead. How does the creative job pay as much? It has to be because that's what becomes valuable due to the shrinking value of obsolete professions.
Drinkable water is tremendously valuable and was worth a lot of money before it was made common. Ditto for electricity. Imagine you're a serf in the middle ages given your first cheeseburger and being told it would only cost you ten minutes of your day's work to have it. For three hours work you could feed your family for the whole day. For a whole twelve hour work day you could eat better than your local lord.
Really that's an understatement. The local lord could, maybe, hope to have something close in quality to a McDonalds burger, but the fries, fresh produce, bread made the same day, fries and soda would have been shockingly high quality compared to what even the richest had available, particularly in the off season. Add to that reliable lighting, the ability to travel hundreds of miles in a day, communicate with anyone in the world, all the facts you could ask for at your fingertips... Our lives are amazing and we hardly appreciate it. Even the worst healthcare in America is better than what was available to kings a few hundred years ago.
Some of the progress will suck. There is no denying that some things will suck for some people. I wish it wasn't that way, but we can't pretend everything will be wonderful. That said, everything has been getting better for most people most of the time for the past several hundred years. I am optimistic the trend will continue.
B) Eliminate all the stupid users. This is frowned upon by society.
Just have a headline reading "AI to take over all jobs forever." and renew it every week with a link to which jobs it'll be replacing this time. Honestly, it'll just save everyone time.
Try to buy 24 cans of cat food, dog food, or similar products.
Oh.. or .. all 3 bags are full. I have to call for assistance as I move one of the bags to the cart.
The code for this vegetable is not available. Search for it by name. You happen to have the code for onions, bulk memorized?
Oh... Beer. Wait.. wait.. wait..
Beep (didn't scan)... beep.. beep... beep. wipe off moisture on glass.. beep. straighten crumpled bar code.. beep.. call for assistance.
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Banks are not charging them a fee in MY neighborhood. They even get free *everything*. You want to drive off a customer with a six figure checking, savings, and brokerage account over a teller fee?!?!? Young and stupid might perhaps.
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Yes, self service will continue to improve.
And packagers and managers and executives will continue to cut corners negating some of the benefits of that improvement.
Cashier lines are 2x to 5x faster if you have over 20 items that includes frozen products and more if you have coupons or booze. Cashiers know the code for bulk onions is 4335 off the top of their head. They can approve a booze purchase in under 30 seconds.
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I agree ATMs are great now. But bills and checks are a much simpler use case. The more likely replacement is "click and save" where you order on your smart phone and pull up and they load your car with the already paid for groceries which they picked for you. For an up charge of $3 to save you at least 15 and maybe up to 30 minutes of your time.
Self service are not appropriate for many of the use cases. And they will be until you can pull your basket up and simply load the products onto the belt and it processes them without manual intervention.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
In self checkout, I end up doing all the work that the cashier used to. Checking out quickly and professionally is a service I'm willing to pay extra for, I don't care about self checkout even if makes the prices a whopping 1% lower.
Don't blame the cashier for that, blame the upper store management. Think wells fargo and what happened with the fake accounts so the peons could keep their job. If you were a cashier, and the boss told it has been commanded, you shall push store credit cards or you shall be fired, would you push or be fired? The big stores have demanded this kind of behavior.