The advance of technology helps facilitate our lives a great deal, but do we pay a high price when it comes to relying on the machines way more than we should?
In order to speed up the process of running errands and shopping for groceries, Walmart introduced self-checkouts. What they didn’t expect, however, is to face backlash because of this decision that many of the customers consider controversial.
The self-service machines aren’t something new. In fact, they were first introduced in the 1980s to lower labor expenses.
But this service faced plenty of obstacles and customers complain to the added responsibilities.
For example, certain items may have multiple barcodes, whereas the produce, including the meat, fruit, and vegetable, typically needs to be weighed and manually entered into the system using a code, which might be time consuming for the ordinary shoppers. Other times shoppers won’t hear the “beep” confirming an item has been scanned properly.
Another issue is the increase of theft. Walmart announced that thefts at its stores has reached an all-time high.
The machines not only fall short at their purpose of making shopping easier at times, but they also make it harder for the employees they were meant to help.
Christopher Andrews, a sociologist and author of The Overworked Consumer: Self-Checkouts, Supermarkets, and the Do-It-Yourself Economy, says the system “doesn’t work well for anyone.”
He continued: “Everyone feels like they have to have it. Companies are thinking: ‘If we can just get more people on this, maybe we can start reducing some overheads.’”
What’s most, most of the customers have reported that they miss the human interaction while shopping.
Randy Parraz from Making Change at Walmart perfectly summed up customer sentiments by saying, “You can’t convince customers to do the job of a cashier just because you don’t want to pay for the work.”
Walmart decided to listen to what their customers had to say and instead of further expanding automation, the retail giant will hire additional cashiers to provide their customers with a pleasant shopping experience and service.
What Walmart and the rest of the retailers, among which Costco and Wegmans, learned is that efficiency is important but maintaining a balance with positive experiences remains crucial.
Kelly Rizzo shows incredible strength in the face of grief
Kelly Rizzo announced her new relationship to the world during a 2024 Grammy Awards viewing party. She has now made her relationship with actor Breckin Meyer official on Instagram.
On Tuesday, the widow of comedian Bob Saget wished her partner a happy birthday on social media, which was their first joint message in the public domain. “Grateful for your birthday! Rizzo, 44, wrote on social media, “To the man who is kind, sweet, silly, thoughtful, completely hilarious, handsome, understanding, charming, forever curious, compassionate, witty, warm & wonderful.” “Today should be spent celebrating you forever!🎂❤️🎉,” she continued.
Actress Jana Kramer replied, “I love this so much,” and actress Caitlin Crosby wrote, “Oh it’s instagram offish!!! 🥰🥰🥰.”
Even though Rizzo didn’t require Bob’s daughters’ approval, it was important to her to have their blessing because it fit her perception of what was right in that circumstance.
The journalist remarked, “It would be wonderful to think that Bob would want me to be happy too, but to hear it from them is just a totally different level.” Simply hearing, “Hey, we trust you,” meant the world to me. We cherish you. We want you to be happy and we believe you’ll do what’s right.
Saget and Rizzo were wed for four years before he passed away in 2022.
About Rizzo’s new partner, Breckin Meyer, he is most recognized for the cult favorite Clueless from the 1990s.In addition, Meyer has produced and written; she was the brains behind Men At Work.
Deborah Kaplan, a filmmaker, and Meyer were previously wed from 2001 to 2014. The couple has two daughters together.
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