Self Checkout Could Soon Come With A 10 Percent Discount
(KMDL-FM) Should you be offered a discount for scanning your own groceries at the grocery store? What about the items you scan yourself at Walmart or Target? The store is saving money by having you do the job of former employees; shouldn't you get a piece of that savings pie?
Legislation has now been proposed that would make stores offer a mandatory 10% discount for any shopper who chooses to use the self-checkout line. Just to give you an elementary idea of how that would work, if you bought $100 in groceries and scanned them yourself, your final bill would be $90.
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Hmmm, that's $10 for five minutes' work. That translates to $120 an hour if my Mississippi math is correct. If stores like Walmart and Target were paying that rate, not only would I scan my purchases, I'd scan everybody's purchases.
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The legislation has been proposed in New York, and there are also bills in discussion in Rhode Island, California, and Connecticut. The premise of each of the bills that are being debated is this. Since consumers are effectively completing portions of the checkout labor themselves without compensation, then providing a discount ensures fairness and acknowledges consumer participation in store operations.
The bottom line is this. You and I are performing a task that was once a paid position. We are performing that task without training or compensation. Name any other job where a company would say, "We won't train you, and we won't pay you, but you can act as if you work here.", okay I've just described a government position, but you get the idea, right?
Some of the other legislation regarding self-checkout involves limiting the number of items that can be scanned by consumers to ten or fifteen, depending on the state. Target and Walmart have instituted self-checkout limits at many of their stores already.
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If any business could benefit from giving employees discounts for helping out around the store, it would be America's dollar store industry. I think they could offer 20% savings for people who just put stuff back on the shelf and don't throw it on the ground. But that's a world I don't think any of us are truly ready for.
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Gallery Credit: Chaston Tavares