On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 19:12:50 -0600, George
wrote:

"jw" wrote:

Whatever happened to the test McDonalds in Colorado(Denver I think)
that had no active employees? There was a "manager" that loaded all of
the machines in the morning. The customer selected what they wanted
from a touch panel and after swiping a credit card, out it popped at
the other end. This was probably 5 years ago. Obviously didn't take
off in a huge way, but it seemed like an interesting experiment.

I imagine most of it was a "social" problem and not a techinical one
that it has not taken off.

Seems like all the Home Depot's and all the grocery stores around here
have installed do-it-yourself checkout machines.

They first started appearing about a year ago. At first, they just
stood there, not many people used them. Now they are getting a fair
amount of traffic, though it is still not as much as the human being
manned checkout lanes.

Look for a glut of unemployed cashiers in the next couple of years.

I will continue to refuse to use the automated checkouts.

In fact, not long ago, in Home Despot..they practically begged me to
use one. I told them at that time, that if I wanted to conduct my
transactions via computer, Id buy everything off the internet. I would
continue to seek out human cashiers, or take my trade else where. The
manager I told this to, got a bit red in the face for some reason.

**** em.

Gunner

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
H. L. Mencken