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Comment by sp332 | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure it's cheaper. I didn't get charged extra for having someone check me out at the grocery store, but the baggers are faster than I am.

If I'm paying them a fair wage for their time, how can you call me a burden on society? Is your boss a burden on society when he tells you to do your job?

Are you against all forms of division of labor or just the convenient ones?

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I think the self-service lines vs. serviced lines is a bad example. When I'm in a serviced line, I'm basically left to do nothing, while the cashier scans my items. The cashier is unnecessary, because I'm already there. There are two people to do the job of one person.

Now, interestingly, I really shouldn't be there. The cost of shopping for groceries on a whole is _very_ expensive, time wise. I would rather sit at home (or do something else productive) than walk around the grocery store and wait in lines for 45-75 minutes.

However, I still don't use grocery services, and I know very few people per capita willing to let others shop for their groceries, even though many of them bring home over $75 an hour. Why is this?

I think an economist would tell you it is human irrationality. However, I think there are a few factors - a big one is that a change is as good as a rest. Doing 40 hours development and 10 hours running errands is a nicer balance than 50 hours development, and probably with similar productivity. There's an overhead to hiring help too - setup and management. You're also becoming more removed from everyday life. That might be a benefit or a drawback.

That said, I recently hired a servant to take care of all those things that I don't like to do (I live in a low-wage country). Shopping, Cleaning, Laundry etc. About $400 a month, although it could be a lot less. Wouldn't go back.

Grocery bagging specifically is an interesting point culturally. Bagging helpers do exist in the UK, but 99% of the time you will bag your own groceries as the cashier scans them. It gives you something to do while waiting, and enables you to pre-organise the bags any way you like.

There is something of a time loss if you can't keep up with the cashier, but that's not often much of a problem. The few times I or my husband have started bagging stuff in grocery stores here in California, though, we've gotten strange looks - and often, at Trader Joe's, where the cashier often bags after scanning everything - words of thanks.

I'm with you: if we were seeing a discount at the checkout when I self checked out, then maybe I would argue differently.

When I buy tickets on the internet, I get charged a convenience charge... costing me more for doing it myself. When I drive myself, I have no doubt that everything in, it costs me more than catching the bus.

Unfortunately these are all things that aren't necessarily obvious. "Doing it yourself" is a great idea, but it's not necessarily cheaper.

The baggers are faster than you only in the rare scenario that you are the only customer in line. Self-service checkouts are, at least in theory, always available. Not only do grocery stores rarely keep all checkout aisles staffed, but they don't even set complete elimination of lines as a goal: If there's ten counters, three are open, and each of the three has three people in line, that's just fine from the store's perspective. They'd rather you spend your time waiting than have their counter staff waiting around when customer volumes are low.

Self-checkout works because it's cheaper not only cheaper indirectly (through lower prices) but directly as well: The customer is given the choice of waiting in line for a human or doing it themselves, and they can ponder all of the economic variables, like their preference for not doing manual labor versus the value of their time.

I'm not sure it's cheaper.

I'm not sure how old you are, but gas stations used to have 2 prices. One price for self service and one for 'full' service. Over time I'm guessing more people used the self service to the point where even offering full service didn't make sense.

Tangent: Oregon and NJ gas stations are full service only.

That's because it's illegal to pump your own gas, in those states.

One day soon, RFID will be doing all of this. We won't need cashiers or baggers or the customer to do anything. You'll be told (based on the RFID tags in your basket) what you owe, slide your card, then walk out of the store. It'll be much faster than what we do today.

Bagging the items will be optional, or you can just bag them yourself as you shop.

Interesting that you think RFID will detect which items you owe but that you will still have to swipe a physical card to pay. How would RFID accurately distinguish your products from another customer's? What about fruits and vegetables, or other items either untagged or charged by weight?

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