As a loyal Whole Foods shopper I am EXTREMELY excited by this development. The worst part about grocery shopping anywhere is waiting in line. There are a ton of jobs at Whole Foods that have nothing to do with running the cash register, and as long as Amazon keeps those jobs intact I am all for the automation revolution.
I have never worked as a cashier, but I can't imagine it's a very fun job. Automating out those jobs seems like a win-win, as long as the former cashiers can find a job doing something else.
>> I have never worked as a cashier, but I can't imagine it's a very fun job. Automating out those jobs seems like a win-win, as long as the former cashiers can find a job doing something else.
Stacking the shelves isn't anymore fun that working the checkout. As someone who has done both I'd say checkout is the preferred role as it's much less physical (stacking shelves gets tiring after 8 hours) and you get chat to customers.
Good point. I'm an introvert so talking to people for 8 hours wouldn't be my favorite thing in the world, but sometimes I forget not everyone is like me.
When I was talking about the other jobs at WF I was thinking about like.. the ice cream scooper, and the smoothie maker, and the customer service rep at the front for when people want to return items. That's not to mention all the the chefs that make the food for the hot bar, or the bread and cookies for the bakery department, or the sushi. All of those jobs could have a social element to them.
Never been to a WF (we don't have many here) so didn't know those other jobs existed. Seems like they do have a lot of work to go around then instead of just stock work/checkout work.
Time flies in the cash registers (unless the store is dead). Stacking shelves and organizing them is so boring that your four hour shift will feel like eight.
Having done both, I prefer stocking. But that comes with a caveat that I've never worked more than a four hour shift. I can imagine that an eight hour shift of stocking would be brutal.
Coming back after mid-shift break for another 4 hours was always pretty hard. With stocking there was always something to do as well (staves off bordedom but also tiring). Checkouts often have peak times so you often get long periods where you're really just chilling with your co-workers.
As far as lines go, one of the things I love about Whole Foods is that they always seem to have enough capacity at the registers so that there's one with no line. Worst case, one person in front of me. And the average cart is small there, so it's quick.
Contrast that to other grocery stores (Shaws and Wegmans, for instance) that seem to calculate exactly how many cashiers they need such that no line is more than 3 people deep, but none of them are idle, ever. And the average cart is full-to-the-brim, so there's always a wait. It can be 9pm at night with 3 customers in the store, but there will still be a wait.
Honestly, I'd be thrilled if they simply added an Amazon Locker at each WF location. I'm in the north Dallas/Ft Worth area, and occasionally buy pricy stuff from Amazon that I'd rather not have sitting on my front porch with all of the package thefts that happen nationwide. A nearby locker would be great. Example: I'm near McKinney. The nearest Amazon Locker is either at a 7-11 in Garland, or way out at a QuikTrip gas station in Greenville. (Yes, Greenville!)
A locker would get me into Whole Foods more often for sure.
Having done both, and having once been an otherwise unemployable 15 year old, I'm saddened by this development. I learned some valuable skills at that job. I'm not sure there are many other entry points to the job market for young people that want to or need to work.
I'm sure the point isn't just to get the technology into Whole Foods, but rather to use Whole Foods to advertise the technology to every other retailer.
It's like how Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, except for if he had just bought Harvard.
