There’s a new presence gaining increasing space in shops,
something creeping surreptitiously into our retail lives almost without being
noticed. I’m talking about automatic checkouts or as they are optimistically
known Self Service Checkouts. Of course they are not actually self-service because
you are at the mercy of a voice that will stand for no nonsense. We’ve come a long way in customer services
from the disinterested girl chewing and swiping your goods nonchalantly but now
people are in danger of being completely replaced by machines. And not just any
machine either. Progress is great if it actually moves things forward but the
new breed of self service in large shops opens up a new front in the ongoing
issue of how technology is destroying viable jobs. Plus it is prone to quirky
behaviour.
