Comment on They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back.
NateNate60@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
This is a good intentioned, well-principled idea, but it’s a ham-fisted implementation that isn’t going to have the intended effect and extremely easy to work around.
isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
Doesn’t seem that easy to work around. A checkout is either self checkout or it isn’t. Write the law to define a self checkout as “a check out where the majority of items are scanned by a customer rather than an employee.”
NateNate60@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
That’s because you don’t have the mindset of a sleazy corporate lawyer who is paid $500,000 a year.
Try this: Raise all the prices by 10 per cent. Give the 10 per cent discount to self-checkout customers, as required by law. Pocket the extra for people who are stupid enough to use the self-checkout. Don’t forget to give a middle finger to your local elderly people or disabled people. They’ll now pay extra for the privilege of shopping.
isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 hours ago
You do realize that the prices in the store right now are already the maximum the stores can charge, do you not?
Corporations are soulless and greedy. They don’t set their prices by buying from a supplier and increasing them by a fixed percentage. There is no point where a company will go, “well, we could charge more and still have the product sell, but that would be improper.” They already set their prices to the maximum the market will bear. They cannot raise prices further without a net loss of income. They set their prices for the maximum product sales cost and quantity sold.
And why can’t the elderly or disabled use self-checkout? If you’re capable enough to walk through a store and grab items from shelves, you’re capable enough to slide them past a scanner. If they’re shopping with a caretaker, then the caretaker can run the check-out instead. The level of dexterity required to use a self-checkout is the same as needed to grab items from shelves, inspect and bag produce, etc. Sure, some people are too disabled to use a self-checkout, but those folks are also too disabled to shop for themselves at all. That was literally how these systems were designed. The companies didn’t want to have to deal with scores of people who were dexterous enough to shop, but not dexterous enough to run the self-checkout.
missingno@fedia.io 6 hours ago
What do you mean maximum? There's no cap, as we've seen from the way prices have already been rising.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 7 hours ago
The market doesn’t see the price hike. You pay $100 today, before I hike the prices. I hike the prices to $111.11, but my shelf labels show you the “discounted” price of $100. You keep paying the $100 price that the market currently bears.
That point was completely irrelevant. If someone can’t use the self checkout, ADA compliance requires accommodation, and the business can’t charge them extra. They get the same discounted price as the self-checkout. So, they put a handicap placard on the cashier stand, train the cashier not to ask any questions about disabilities, and give the same “discount” to anyone who uses the register.
NateNate60@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
4.90
Includes self-checkout discount. Price without self-checkout discount: 5.44
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 8 hours ago
For ADA compliance purposes, the human cashiers have to give disabled customers the same rate as the self checkout. If I’m running a store, all my staffed checkouts will have handicapped placards, and cashiers will be trained not to inquire as to disability status, but merely “accommodate” everyone in line.
Now everyone is getting the “discount”.