The new wireless checkout that Walmart, Target, and other retailers are rolling out for the holiday season may lower stress for shoppers — but tension may be building among the roughly 3.6 million people nationwide who work as cashiers. It’s another nail in the occupational coffin. Amazon opened its first store with checkout-free shopping and automatic billing almost two years ago, and self-checkout at Walmart, Target, grocery stores, fast food restaurants, and some department stores is further reducing the need for people manning registers.
Technology continues to race ahead. The question is whether artificial intelligence, automation, robotics, and other developments will cut job opportunities for people who may have few alternatives.
Cashier jobs are hardly the only ones eyed for replacement. Short squat robots in Washington, D.C. roam the city, delivering take-out food to customers. Self-driving cars could eventually replace cab drivers and people moonlighting for Uber or Lyft.
“Walmart is embracing the technology of a company called Bossa Nova Robotics,” said Howie Choset, a professor at The Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. The company, started by a former graduate student of Choset, makes inventory robots. “It’s a tall, skinny robot with lots of cameras and bright lights,” Choset said. The device roams up and down the aisles late at night, taking count of products on the shelves. Inventory counts at retail stores have long been a staple activity of regular employees or temp workers.
Those who support various forms of automation point to historical patterns back to the Industrial Revolution. “I do think there are going to be jobs that are going to be created that are net new,” said Todd Lohr, a KPMG principal in the consulting firm’s digital enablement practice. “I think there’s opportunity for organization to do right by the workforce.”
The theory is that people will shift into new types of work. Drones that make deliveries will need specialized maintenance personnel. Computerized manufacturing equipment requires people to run, program, and monitor it. People need training
The problem is a “misconception” about whether the U.S. labor force is dynamic, said Fordham University Senior Lecturer of Economics Giacomo Santangelo. There may be new jobs, but displaced workers likely lack the training and education to smoothly move into them.
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