Have Automated Store Clerks Taken Over?
Full disclosure: I dislike automated tellers and self-check out lines. Why should I ring up my own sale and bag my own groceries without some form of discount off the bill?. In other words - if the owner of the store is saving money by not paying human beings to wait on me, why shouldn't I be entitled to a discount off the purchase price. I don't want to be used by the stores that I shop at.
Most of my colleagues chide me for not using ATM's and self-checkouts. They think that I'm backwards. I think that they're being taken advantage of.
Apparently, I'm not alone.
A Wall Street Journal blog writer has recently come to my defense - albeit unknowingly. Farhad Manjo suggests that the perception that self-checkout lines are faster than those manned by a human being is wrong. It makes for interesting reading.