Cashiers

I work in retail and I have some some ideas about why automation hasn't already taken over. 1. Retail businesses may not have the profit margins to invest in robots/kiosks, the risk of this investment simply does not outweigh potential gains from it. 2. People are stupid and need help. People get frustrated already with kiosks, between finding things, coupon issues, questions about products, getting heavy things to vehicles. In a lot of retail settings cashiers double as customer service. Tech is ever evolving and it is hard for the average person to keep up, you would not believe how often I have to explain to people how to simply use there credit card. 3. Human to Human communication has a very large impact of returning customers. friendliness ratings have a very significant effects on weather or not a customer returns. robots simply cant recreate this. 4. retail businesses are constantly changing hands. When owners change so does the tech solutions, and integrating systems from different companies has caused many costly problems for retailers. Adding robots that run on these complicated inventory systems is just one more thing that can go wrong and potentially cause far more losses than the cost of an employee. 5. Tech is a business and the wouldn't be pushing for automation in retail without the potential for future profits. competition would lead to planned obsolescence and a lack of industry standards. This will mean that automation will not only be a huge investment, but will also come with routine costs to run. In the long run it may not be at all cheaper to replace minimum wage employees, If it made fiscal sense why hasn't macdonalds already done it? Big companies would have made the transition long ago if it was a guaranteed way to raise profits.

People can't read even those with masters degree

Self-Checkout

***holes took my job 2 years at jack in the box

Well I mean, every grocery store I go to there is almost always a self-checkout so... It's very likely the job will be taken over by robots.

it’s already happening with self checkout

Yes self checkouts exist, but neurodivergent and people with disabilities may not be able to use it as easily. I think we should have both.

Some customers do not prefer self checkout and as menial as it seems, cashiering requires a lot of understanding. I did hear an article say 97% of cashiering jobs will be replaced, but I worked in warehouse with customers from different cultures, accents and English proficiencies, or lack thereof. AI may interpret the words of those accents and proficiencies. AI may also fail to interpret charades of people who do not speak English.

My position required asking if a customer has an account or the benefits of taking a servey. A person who doesn’t understand English might also misinterpret the robot if it’s not built to accommodate their language. Robots can also misinterpret speech impediments, or even alternative augmented communications. Sudden glitches can exacerbate this.

However, some English native speakers are very skilled in understanding and communicating with ppl who don’t speak English compared to the average English native speaker not familiar with their language. You don’t have to be familiar with a person’s native language in order to precisely interpret accents or charades, that is, better than other English native speakers, with or without writing. I could make some of those non English speaking customers understand that they’re being asked about a store account and that they can win money from a survey, with or without writing, and I don’t share an ethnic background with most of those customers. This can make the buying process quicker and less frustrating with human interaction.

Many of the customers mentioned have English speaking relatives or translators, and PCs have translators in virtually every language. The US has no official languages, so they find a way to maneuver without speaking English. Unlike PCs, store computers only have Spanish and English. (I was exposed to people from all continents.)

Verbal communication and body language are the most vital keys to cashiering with people if all languages, and that’s why we still have human cashiers.


Our inventory computer system renews every night and is thus sometimes not accurate, so an empathetic humanistic voice may calm a customer.

A number of native English speakers fear AI replacing cashiers, whether it’s machine breakdown, misinformation, possible machine complexity, or political motivation later in the future (since they might become more human like but won’t get paid, or have some disadvantageous algorithmic agenda.) In the future, customers may feel more comfortable attacking the machine than another person.

Many cashiers have already been replaced by self checkouts.

I can definitely see robots taking over cashiers! No more chatty cashiers LOOOOOL

People need jobs and these will always be available

I am literally certain no doubt they will be taken by automation.

I'm a cashier, they are starting to replace a lot of the registers with self check out, and also getting rid of a lot of my co workers.

Self-serving already exists, we're going to adopt it more and it will get better.

this is so sad "ha ha ha"

OH MY GOD LOOOOK AT THAT im dead

There are already lots of order machines in Mcdonalds.

Online shopping is just becoming a big trend now. So I think cashiers would be likely laid off for that reason.

There are already self check out systems

i think it robots will become cashiers because we already have self checkout booths and its not that hard to make a robot cashier probably