We usually agree on a lot, mdterp, but not on this. this is EXACTLY what is happening!
My wife manages a grocery store, and cashiers have really become a problem, which IMPLODED during the pandemic. Grocery stores are "essential" businesses, like the medical profession and banking, and could not be shut down for safety's sake during the pandemic. And while there are many jobs in grocery, cashiers are the one job that are REQUIRED to interact with customers. During the pandemic, this was a great concern, despite mask mandates. Truthfully, it started before then, but the pandemic just accelerated things to warp speed.
She has a few good cashiers....friendly and personable to the public, and keeps the lines moving. But generally speaking, those folks are her most experienced cashiers. Because of their experience (seniority), they don't want to work evenings, weekends, or holidays. I can understand that desire, but guess when the majority of people actually shop for groceries? Her best cashiers don't want to work during the busiest hours of the business, which is when the most $$$ is made. A closed register/line is lost revenue....you gotta keep folks moving through those registers or you're not making money!
Simple solution....hire more cashiers, right? Easily said, but much more difficult to do. In fact, it's her hardest job to fill....generally speaking, most people just don't want to do that job. They'll work in deli, produce, backroom, stock shelves, front desk, cash office, customer service....cashier is always the most difficult position to fill and has the highest turnover by FAR. Referencing the above statement regarding her best & most experienced cashiers....they don't want to work during the peak hours of business. And if you MAKE them, they'll quit. Or even worse, they'll call out "sick" with no warning. In theory, you call in someone else to work. But it's the weekend/holiday, and no one wants to work on a moment's notice....they either avoid the call (easy to do in today's world of caller ID) or "already have other plans." This causes a cascade of labor issues through internal re-shuffling of department labor, and NO ONE wants to work the register. To avoid/minimize these scenarios, she has tried to accommodate with rotating schedules, giving everyone opportunities for weekends & holidays off, but it's a retail business.....at some point you have to work a weekend or holiday and if you can't or won't do that, it's a problem. Referencing the previous statement that cashiers are the position with the least number of applicants, today's teens generally don't possess the social skills (nor desire) to interact with customers. They'll do anything BUT that. Don't want to talk to people, or interact with them....in fact, prefer not to even SEE people. She's got a waiting list of teen applicants for 2nd/3rd shift "stockers", which generally involves NO INTERACTION with anyone! Go figure...
And now that everyone makes $15/hour, that wage is insufficient; now they want $20/hour. And MANY folks complain to her on a DAILY basis about the increased cost of groceries. While increased cost of product is a big driver of increased shelf prices, more than 50% of "overhead" in the grocery business is LABOR. Customers complain about "not enough cashiers" because that's the only job that impacts their customer experience, but when she is able to hire a sufficient number of cashiers (at a higher wage), she still gets complaints about the higher prices.
Self checkouts address ALL of those issues. They work nights, weekends, and holidays without complaint. And generally speaking, while all mechanical items fail at some point, they generally work when they're scheduled to. When 1 goes down, it doesn't cascade into your "back room" operations and throw your entire operation into disarray. The only downside to the self checkouts are the customer complaints about lack of cashiers. Which I understand....I'm one of them....i HATE them. But I also understand that the choices in today's world is that I can self-checkout in a timely manner, or wait in line 5-10 customers deep because only 1 cashier showed up for work today. Welcome to the new reality...