Self Check-out Terminals (SCTs)

The concept and subsequent arrival of SCTs in larger retail outlets has grown to be a fairly substantial burr under the saddle of more than just a few shoppers in the Western free world, and these individuals have been quick to voice their seemingly abundant self-righteous opinions on the matter on every social media platform available. I confess that I have frequently used said terminals in several different stores, including Shoppers, Costco, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot. I found all of them to be quite simple and easy to operate. They seem to expediate the check-out process and significantly untangle the cash-out queues while certainly eliminating the check-out rage that tends to build when low-item-number shoppers end up in a line behind someone who has just won the lottery and is now stocking up on some of the items needed to survive the imagined upcoming apocalypse. I have noticed that the self-check terminals are seldomly used by anyone with more than 10 items in their carts. Likewise, anyone with items of produce that need to be coded or weighed, very likely end up at the regular cash-out counters. And, to this point anyway, SCTs seem to be used less often than regular check-out counters so I don't think anyone's job security is in jeopardy yet. Self check-out terminals have always seemed to me to serve a worthwhile purpose and have not appeared to be causing that much of a problem. Why then, all the fuss? Even though self-check-in terminals and passport self-checks have been around airports FOREVER and people don't seem to be complaining at all about them, I still decided to do a little research for myself to make sure that I hadn’t overlooked some other fundamental problem with the situation.

One of the problems with self-check terminals often cited by non-fans of the machines is that they displace real live human beings who are trying to eek out a living by manning the regular cash register till check-outs in the large retail stores. The cry is that every time we, as shoppers, use a self-check terminal, we take away a chance for an employee to have a job. First of all, how many people really want to be live check-out clerks at a store like Costco or Wal-Mart for the rest of their lives anyway? The turn-over rate for till clerks in those stores is through the roof. Employees of Home Depot and Wal-Mart and Target stores would much rather be the person or persons in charge of assisting customers who are willing to do their own checking-out. So, why would we want to save a job for someone who detests that job in the first place? And, if you don't believe me on this point, ask either the assistance clerks or the regular clerks which job they would rather have, the next time you are in one of aforementioned stores - get the goods straight from the horse's mouth so to speak.

Furthermore, let's assume that every self-checkout terminal takes away a job from one real-live human sales clerk. If there are ten self-checkout terminals in a store, then a full ten people have been displaced by technology. (This is also assuming that new positions have NOT been created elsewhere in that particular store or company-wide because existing personnel have been freed up at the cash-out tills). However, ALL stores ALWAYS have at least two employees on hand in the SCT area of the store to assist customers trying to navigate the system - so that means that only eight people have actually been displaced.

In addition, self-checkout terminals do not magically appear in stores out of thin air. They are manufactured and programmed somewhere. They are then packaged and shipped by truck, rail, or plane to hundreds of locations throughout North America and the world. They are then unpacked, installed and maintained by store personnel or by company employees. Each machine may take away a job from one store employee but that same machine has probably created at least ten additional new and different and more interesting jobs somewhere else on its way to your neighborhood Costco or Target Store. Yes, I know, the new job created is not a cashier's meaningless piece-of-shit job - rather the new jobs that are created by these machines require a little more creativity and skill and probably do more for one's psyche and morale than punching keys on a cash-out till for eight to ten hours a day for months on end. If one takes a narrow-minded view of problems created by these machines, they will certainly fail to see the real possibilities they bring about.

Others object to these SCTs because they create more work for them as paying customers in the retail outlets they frequent as shoppers. The attitude follows the same lines of thinking first made popular by Yosemite Sam on the Bugs Bunny Show when he uttered the line, "I paid my two bits to see a high-divin' act, and I'm a-gonna see a high-divin' act." Some shoppers are totally indignant about the fact that, even for the sake of convenience, they cannot do their own check-out and bagging when it is time to tally up their spoils at the end of some shopping spree - like it's beneath them or something. Have these people never done the self check-in at the airport or served themselves in a buffet line at a restaurant, or used a self-serve car wash? What the hell? I can hear them whining as I speak, "I paid good money for these groceries. Am I also expected to count them, bag them and carry them out of the store by myself? Do these guys think I work here or that I am some sort of volunteer?" To them I say, "Get over it. You are not that special, that you can't get your hands a little dirty, bagging your own groceries. If you hate checking out one person's items so much at the end of your shopping episode, how can you expect that some poor soul will, for a minimum wage, actually find fulfillment in checking out dozens or even hundreds of shoppers like you, in a work week?" Maybe all stores should get rid of that particular job altogether and find different and more creative positions for their employees. Actually many have. I would like to know if any of the negative doom-sayers of self check-out terminals have actually researched or investigated the alleged diminishment of jobs created with the advent of Self-checkout terminals? Or is this just another lazy, urban myth created by the conspiracy-fostered thinking rampant on social media. It may be the case that stores are now actually hiring MORE employees to assist their customers on the floor throughout the store or at the SCTs area while checking out their purchases - both being much more meaningful and satisfying positions than performing the tedious and repetitive punching of keys on a cash-out till machine. Let's not forget that one of the promises made at the advent of technological development, way back in the twentieth century, was that boring, repetitive, menial, assembly-line types of jobs would disappear and that the Brave New World would afford us the opportunity to be bold and creative in the work place. Well folks, guess what, it's happening! So, let's start embracing it, instead of reverting to some archaic, used-to-be, world-view, in a wasted effort to cling to a no-longer-functional past.

Anyway, I realize that people will make up their own minds regarding this issue, no matter what I say or think. They will continue to assume as they have always assumed and they will not be swayed by, or even bother to read, articles that do not validate what they already think. So, for those people, I will here raise the possibility of some even-more-disturbing notions associated with the whole affair. I will add much-wanted fuel to their fires of despair and discontent, perhaps heightening the rage in their arguments against this colossal travesty.

Digging a little deeper into the deployment of SCTs in various retail stores, I did indeed wonder if this practice is actually the deep-rooted, sometimes indirect cause of some fairly significant domestic as well as some truly world-wide problems. These problems will no doubt surface on the horizon of various social media platforms to supplement those that already exist. They are certainly worth mentioning at this point, and if they are indeed valid, I can fully understand why so many shoppers would choose to voice their concerns and distaste with the self-checkout terminals used in so many retail outlets around North America in the past few years. In the list that follows, please find the results of my mental pondering and, in no particular order of importance, eleven of the most crucial potential problems caused by SCT usage in urban North America.

1. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent war within that country.

2. There has been a relationship discovered between global climate change and the increased incidence of SCTs.

3. World hunger in third-world countries.

4. The Stanley Cup drought experienced by the Toronto Maples Leafs since their last championship in 1967.

5. The erosion of quality public education and the disintegration of appropriate teacher pay and status.

6. The annoying interruption of Wifi service and additional buffering problems in many urban locations.

7. The original election of Donald Trump as president of the United States and, his subsequent defeat due to possible ballot tampering.

8. Hurricane Ian and several lesser-known hurricanes, tornadoes, and other smaller gales.

9. The burning and destruction of the Amazon Rain Forest (even though much of that occurred prior to the advent and use of SCTs).

10. Increased sales, property, and personal income Taxes.

11. Some sources actually believe that the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic and even cancer and ultimately death itself may be related to self-checkout terminal usage in stores.

There are a gazillion problems out there in the world. Many of those problems are life- or planet-threatening and need to be dealt with as early as yesterday. These problems need our immediate attention because they ARE really important. The use of Self-checkout terminals in retail outlets is NOT one of those problems. If one finds it necessary to complain about self-checkout terminals in stores on the social media platform of one's choosing, then indeed, that individual has way too much time on his or her hands and, NOW may just well be the right opportunity to take on a more worthwhile project or cause. Let’s move on folks. We’re living in the 21st century in case we hadn’t noticed. As Bob Dylan mentioned way back in the 1960s – “The times they are a-changin”. Maybe it’s time that all of us learned to change with them.