Day After Employees Vote to Unionize, Target Announces Fleet of Robot Workers

ROTFLMAO...

We had a large manufacture negotiate with the county where the business didn't have to pay any property tax for something like the next 10 years. The business shut down a couple months later.

No tax bill.

To be honest I have no idea why big box stores, grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc... have cashiers in 2015.

Well, good luck to Target. I won't be shopping there. I never use a self-checkout line. To me, that's just a way of helping a store get rid of jobs and I won't be part of it. For the most part I shop at small local community shops anyway, but sometimes I need things they don't carry - so go to bigger stores. My grocery has self checkout, but I always go to the lane that is opened with a live cashier instead, even if I have to wait in line.

What a business does is dependent, in the long run, on how their customers act.

I hate self checkout and won't use a store without real people checking my order out. They might think that's a win for them, but I don't see it as a win. Time will tell, but there are probably bigger problems with self checkout than employees being protected by unions ... like one ... it's far easier to simply not ring a few items up with self checkout and is there going to be a real person to make sure that doesn't happen?

These employees were pharmacists. Anybody really want automation filling prescriptions for them? lol. Not me. Pharmacists also check your records to see if you are taking any conflicting medications that could cause adverse reactions. They also check to see if people are filling certain prescriptions at a high and unusual rate, such as narcotics.

Now I'm feelin' guilty.

Generation Slacko.

Worse thing is, a whole bunch of people who are dependent on income from all this stuff the robots now have figured are gonna be in big trouble by the time I'm queuein' in the pharmacy for new teeth.

My only hope is that guys like us with all the creative stuff that

1) robots can't do
2) folks tell us is gonna become an increasingly valuable commodity

don't get so flunked out up there in the clouds that we forget about the chrome ceiling our tech-brained fellow humans are droppin' on shops and factories and wherever.

The glass ceiling was tough enough to bust, and not everyone needed to break out the mallet.

The robot apocalypse is coming!! First they destroy our unions, next the world!!

I posted this in another thread, but it's relevant to this discussion:

If robots get to be as clever as hoomans, they ain't gonna take any of this shit either.

No matter how well-written a code is, it can not compete with a human beings abilities to think critically.

No AI that I have seen yet can compete with a human being overall.

While it is true that human beings make mistakes, there are many more mistakes that are caught by human beings, as well.

If Target is saying that they are going to try and replace Pharmacists with robots, then that is illegal. A robot has no license. It has passed no State Boards. Good luck to Target if they try that one.......

Now.....robots have a place in helping not replacing a Pharmacist. There are programs that can cross-reference medications for incompatibilities from medication to medication. I use them as a back up. I still rely on my own critical thinking skills as no computer has yet to be able to achieve the same abilities as a human being.

As for Target....well, that was my first job. They have gone through ups and downs.

As for the article mentioned above, it says nothing about Pharmacists. If they tried that, I would say run as far away from Target or any pharmacy that thinks that they can employ a robot over a person in such a critical role as a pharmacist.

Do you honestly believe that if the employees hadn't voted for the union that Target wouldn't have gone ahead with their plans to use robots?

Why is i it that workers need to be paid less to provide them with an incentive to work harder, yet CEO's and executives need to be paid more to provide them with an incentive to work harder?

To all the people saying they would not use a self check out counter, nobody gives a damn. I'm sure Target doesn't. Target knows that some people, out of principle, will never buy from them. And they aren't targeting (for the lack of a better word) you anyway.

There are a bunch of four year olds running around their homes right now playing games on their mommy's iPhone. These kids, twenty years from now, would want as little human interaction in their buying experience as possible.
When most of you guys were little, you had to GO OUT to meet someone. You probably looked forward to having a friendly convo with the check out counter worker. Not anymore! I'm having 5 conversations simultaneously on my cell phone, and I would prefer the worker doesn't start a conversation with me, cause that would take up too much of my attention. I no longer have to go out to talk to people. They are always there. I can talk to anyone I want, anywhere I want.

Think about it. How many of you guys use Instant Messaging regularly. I mean, like you couldn't live without it? That if you didn't have your phone, you would not have anything else to do? 10 out of the last 10 trips me and my friends planned were exclusively on Whatsapp. If I don't have my phone with me, it's the equivalent of living under a rock! Texting isn't something we do all day in our lives. It is life!

When your generation will be replaced by my generation as the primary customers, we aren't gonna care how many workers lost their jobs because of the robots. And I bet Target and all the other retail stores are looking forward to that. They might lose some money in the short run, but eventually, they'll be doing okay. 'Buy from us because we hire real people' will lose its charm soon and might even be looked upon as pejorative. Look at how much money Target will save. They could amp up their customer service efforts with all the money without worrying about wages increasing! Everything delivered to your doorsteps for no money. Free coupons for your favorite brand of cereal. Awesome!

The point is - Incompetency will be replaced by machines. Competent people will be paid more. Is that surprising? That's not to say you throw the people who can't get jobs under the bus. That's a real problem and there needs to be a solution to that. Taxpayers will have to take care of them in one way or the other. Saying taxpayers are funding Walmart workers is a feeble argument at best. Think about all the people taxpayers will be funding when Walmart doesn't need these workers anymore. But taxpayers funding the poor is far better than artificially keeping the wages high. That just unnecessarily and often unfairly interferes with the market mechanics which is bad for everyone other than the people who are getting paid the higher wage.

Don’t stifle innovation because some people will lose their jobs.

Sumit.

It's all about economic evolution.

Adapt or die.

It really is that simple.

Technological shifts CREATE JOBS at other parts of the economy.

Also, the efficiency UNLEASHED creates CAPITAL which creates opportunities.

Grocery stores should be like a warehouse full of vending machines, swipe your debit card, open the door, grab a loaf of bread. Walk straight to the car. Cya!

Oooooooooooooh.

Technological innovation.

Scawy!

Actually I just read an article earlier in the week - when many Australian retailers are phasing out the automatic Do it yourself check outs and are returning to the cashiers.

Market research proved that on the whole customers preferred the human interaction (sorry Yukon!)

Here's checkout technology that I actually like and doesn't put the duties of cashiers onto it's customers and saves time by not having to stand in line to order and pay. Just go to pick up your order.

Starbucks’ Mobile Pre-Ordering Goes International With London Launch | TechCrunch

This is most suited for restaurants and I would use it at Starbucks. Starbucks is one of the stores that I occasionally go to that does have time consuming lines. I would order pizza and other food from restaurants for take out if they had this.