Jack in the Box CEO reconsiders automation, kiosks
businessinsider.com.au
businessinsider.com.au
More importantly, there were still a lot of people working in this section. People were directing customers to registers, guiding people through checkout, and (my favorite) putting things that people left behind back on shelves immediately. Although it was still hard work, the job definitely seemed preferable to standing behind a register and moving things past the scanner.
I am still confident that short-term automation will improve environments and turn bottom-tier jobs into more productive roles (in Jack-in-the-Box's case, maintenance teams for the kiosks, software developers to code the kiosks). In the debate about minimum wage increases, a lot of people see automation as a negative. It may hurt in the short-term but we will see a major benefit faster than people assume.
This means I can sort and bag my groceries into reusable bags as I shop, with no need to first put everything in my cart and then remove it all at checkout only to put it back in my cart again. I just grab and scan what I need, then pay and walk out. Employees will randomly check a sample of my cart once in a while (I've been checked maybe three times in a year) to make sure I'm not hiding anything I haven't paid for.
It's a fantastic system and has made my grocery trips hugely more time-efficient.
While I don't think we should artificially protect such bottom-tier jobs, this transformation is still going to be very disruptive.
98% of US population used to be farmers for sustainability. Automation of farming freed up that workforce, today only 2% of the population directly farms. That (insanely high) percentage of displaced workforce is what allowed other other industries to spring up. Yes, jobs don't exist for those 9k workers - but the workforce being freed is exciting as it opens up entire potential markets that were simply impractical prior. There will always be growing pains - how do you retrain a cashier to be ~anything else? Same with Toll Booth workers on highways and the like, what else will those people do? But that's where the Govt should step in, ease the point edges of progress. Free market is great, but it does leave significant portions of individuals behind in the shortrun.
Like what? Name a single potential market that exists today, and is being held back by a lack of unskilled or semi-skilled labor.
When people moved off of the farms, it was because there were factory jobs to be had in the cities. It was possible to see where people would end up even before farming automation made most farmers unnecessary. As far as I can see, no such transition is apparent today. Unskilled workers are being made redundant with no new labor market to take them.
Some of these workers may get some training and become developers and robot mechanics, but many unskilled workers can't make that jump for whatever reason. It's not realistic to expect all of these people to become skilled workers.
If they were free to do anything else, they would've already considered not working in a minimum wage job. It's impractical to expect low skilled workers to suddenly pick up skilled work with no training and effort.
I think if you don't want to leave those people behind (you don't, it's societally disruptive to have a bunch of unemployed people who used to be able to kind of support themselves) government bodies need to step in and sponsor more retraining programs.
There is no need to artificially preserve such jobs, the market provides for them just fine. What threatens such jobs, at least today in California, is price controls on labor.
Also, I’d argue that self checkout is not faster than having someone checkout and someone bag for me, maybe it seemed faster in that scenario, but it’s unliekly faster in general.
However a kiosk allows 1 person to work the 10pm->5am shift - this shift is not profitable with 3 high wage employees, but if one person can cook and deliver food it might make sense.
They work well, especially if there's a long line or you're hungover and don't want to talk to anybody.
What I'm wondering is when they're gonna figure out how to replace the cooks with machines (though that's a different task from kiosks, you need actual robotics) and staff the place with a single manager to deal with customer complaints.
Note that I said safety. They were not thinking about labor costs, they were thinking about how it would not splash hot oil on kids. I think it is fair to say that every fast food would accept a 1% loss of profit margin (that 4% to 3% profit margin) just to not have humans interact with burning hot machines.
In busy restaurants the kiosks do allow a massive backlog of orders to build up. The kitchens cannot keep up.
edit: added 2nd para.
This sounds like it could be understaffing, but if not, they should just put a pause on all orders. Of course, managers would never want that because they're averse to turning down business even if it worsens the quality for everyone.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna_(novel)
It is available to read for free on the author’s web site.
One interesting thing I've noticed is that with ordering kiosks, I'm much more likely to be upsold.
Having all the option laid out in front of me, and no pressure from someone trying to "sell" me I find it far easier to select add ons.
This says to me that there is a profit motive beyond simple efficiency. It creates opportunity for better sales as well.
I think this might is problem with automation. If you automate everything and you hire no people then who will buy your products. I think its why Henry Ford paid his people so well. So they could buy cars.
Henry Ford would have automated if he could.
For example there are a lot of people that work in a law firm but there are no secretaries typing up what someone else is dictating.
It's actually the opposite. Automation makes us all better off.
Clearly, it is optimal strategy to automate because other industries will take longer to automate.
If they can find a way to replace workers with machines, my guess is they will. My local walmart has one worker managing about ten self-checkout stations now. Panera Bread has stations where you order your food; no cashier needed. And the wage they are paying here is well above minimum wage, anyway.
CEOs will eliminate all the employees they can, because they consider that their job. And then they'll give out executive bonuses as massive as they can get away with.
There is no reason why the minimum wage should be so low that no one could make a living off it.
Just in case anyone was curious.
An easy example with the fast food restaurants is that they keep opening new locations.