Ever since self-checkout started to roll out en masse at grocery stores and pharmacies about a decade ago, I have done my best to avoid it. I am an introvert, and I do not crave a conversation with every random check out employee, but I have two clearly defined reasons to continue to seek the human check out, even if that means less convenience or waiting in line.
Reason 1: I want humans to continue having jobs. Humans need jobs, until the time comes when universal basic income is a reality, humans need jobs, even if machines can do them.
Reason 2: When self-checkout is the norm, we all become unpaid labor for faceless corporations. A corporation has taken a job that they used to pay some one to do, and now they want us to do it for free so they can have more money, and frame it as “convenience” to the consumer.
Do you know who else frames unpaid labor as convenience? Online purveyors of contacts lenses. It seems like it is convenient because you don’t have to leave your house. But it is you doing our job: searching for your prescription, typing it into little boxes, hoping you get the little ± signs and the decimals correct, wondering if the brand is the same because the words are different on your box and on the website, and entering your credit card information. All for convenience.
Hey, you don’t have to do that. Just email us. Or call us. We’ll do it for you. We can ship it to your house too! You never have to leave. It is still convenient, and you are not being played as unpaid labor for a faceless corporation. You are in fact, supporting a local business. You, too, can have human customer service in the age of self-checkout.
-Katelyn Rogerson, O.D.
Owner, Eyes on Hudson
