The store remained open through the early stages of construction. Then they closed for, I'd estimate, about six weeks.
Before the expansion they had four checkout stations, with one being in use during light business and two when it gets busier. Now, with the increase in space, they just have two. Two that staff might work at anyway. There are a good eight or ten miniature self-serve stations. So if the hope was that they were going to bring on more employees, I guess not.
2 comments:
It's interesting that Aldi's has decided to place new self-checkout stations when a number of companies are removing them, including Walmart and Costco stores in the U.S., because of 'customer complaints'.
British supermarket chain Booth's is leading the way, removing them in all 28 of its stores. Managing director Nigel Murray said: “Our customers have told us this over time — that the self-scan machines that we’ve got in our stores … can be slow, they can be unreliable (and) they’re obviously impersonal.”
What he didn't mention and what's become a major problem for stores that use them is theft, shoplifting in other words. To scan or not to scan, that is the question. Anyway, here's an amusing post written by Quoth the Raven last month called 'The Degradation and Humiliation of the U.S. Consumer'. If it's too long I suggest you scroll down to Bill Burr's two minute comedy routine.
I've been back a couple of times and I've yet to see anyone actually using the self-checkout. No doubt there have been many complaints. In addition to the issues presented in the italicized text, many of these machines will then ask for a tip. Who exactly are you tipping?
When they first started appearing I refused to use them because I didn't want to see store workers losing their jobs. I've continued to not use them, for various reasons. Not sure I've actually saved anyone's job, though.
Both the Quoth the Raven piece and the Bill Burr routine he embedded were funny. Oddly enough in Providence I haven't seen a lot of crazy security measures in the stores that everybody uses. Maybe theft isn't as big a problem as it is in the really big cities. We do have our share of homeless and hard drugs, though.
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