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1247 points mangoman | 3 comments | 05 Dec 16 14:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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delegate ◴[05 Dec 16 17:27 UTC] No.13107158[source]▶
Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad.

I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement)..

I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables.

I know all the people who work in these supermarkets. The cashier in the supermarket downstairs always sings a quiet song while she scans my products, she knows my daughter and she's always nice and friendly.

The cashier in the other store talks to the customers. She stops scanning and starts talking while the line waits. Some customers might join the conversation. I know she has an old cat that eats an unlimited amount of food if allowed to do so...

There are similar stories about other shops in the neighbourhood - they come to work, they serve the people in the neighbourhood, they go home. They do this until they retire.

These people like their jobs because we respect them for what they do, so they feel useful and they work hard.

I don't mind waiting in line for 3 minutes. Or 5. It's never longer than that, even if the cashier discusses the latest news with the old lady.

The humanity of it has value for us here and that value is greater than the time we'd save by removing the people from the shops.

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1. kristofferR ◴[05 Dec 16 17:34 UTC] No.13107272[source]▶
You're looking at it from the wrong perspective. What you, as a customer, value doesn't really matter. The store owners don't introduce cashless checkout in order for the customers to save time, they do it so they can save money.

Human cashiers will probably exist in the future too, and if you value it you'll be able to pay extra for it.

replies(2): >>13107289 #>>13108169 #
2. mememachine ◴[05 Dec 16 17:35 UTC] No.13107289[source]▶
Thats absolutely not true. Its a competitive advantage to save your consumers time. They do it for both reasons, which makes it seem like, as an outsider, an incredibly compelling technology.
3. Reason077 ◴[05 Dec 16 18:57 UTC] No.13108169[source]▶
What you, as a customer, value doesn't really matter.

If this were true, the shopping experience would be very different for all of us! Stores would look like Soviet-era warehouses, with everything done at the least possible cost.

In reality, customer experience matters a great deal. That's why you see companies like Amazon creating these sorts of innovations.