https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-costco-kroger-facing-self-checkout-reckoning-2023-10

Some are finding they still need employees to combat theft, assist with purchases, review IDs, and check receipts.

Praxis

  • barrbaric [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don't think the bourgeoisie really innovate at all anymore because there are now professional workers who have that job instead. Production engineers improve production methods and processes, for instance, and there's a whole genre of "supply chain management" jobs. This is of course ignoring the actual engineers and programmers who design the big new "innovative" products (see: Tesla, Spacex, Amazon).

    But yeah I think self-checkouts and the like are a transparent attempt to cut costs, and this article is them being pissed that actually this is one corner that can't be cut as much as they'd like.

    • Tachanka [comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yes, that's true. It's the workers educated in technical and professional fields who do the real innovation. But since the booj own the means, they decide in a top down way what those workers work on. I.e. they "steer" the "innovation" in a direction meant to benefit them. And it seems that they're even bad at that part, now.