A jobs threat worse than mass store closures could fire more than 7 million retail workers

[yallerdawg]

When robots replace slave wages, then what do we do?

Source: Business Insider, by Hayley Peterson

*****

Roughly 6 million to 7.5 million retail jobs "likely will be automated out of existence in the coming years, leaving a large portion of the retail workforce at risk of becoming 'stranded workers,'" according to the 56-page report by investment advisory firm Cornerstone Capital Group.

Retail cashiers, 73% of whom are women, will suffer the most job losses, the study found.

The losses will also disproportionately affect the working poor, since most hourly retail workers live below the poverty line. 


Most hourly retail workers live below the poverty line.

"This in-depth examination of retail automation gives investors insights as they consider investment risks and opportunities," Lukomnik said in a news release. "While the findings are important to investors, they should sound the alarm for economists and political leaders. The shrinking of retail jobs in many ways threatens to mirror the decline in manufacturing in the US. Moreover, in this case, workers at risk are already disproportionately working poor, so any disruption may cause strains in the social safety net and stresses on local tax revenues."

*****

Read it all at: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-automation-will-impact-the-retail-industry-2017-5

Living with a target on your back.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I refuse to use self check out. I asked a worker in a Walmart

Neighborhood store where she wanted me to leave my full cart since none of the 3 lanes with cashiers was open. I told her if Walmart couldn't afford to have someone check me out they could keep the stuff. So she took the cart to a self checkout and she checked out my stuff. But I think she got the message.

Like all things, people just go with the flow, allowing technology to take money out of the pockets of fellow citizens. Just say 'no'. Not using those things.

Told Home Depot I wouldn't shop there if there weren't people at checkout, told same to Target, and now looks like I'll have to say the same to Lowes.

[yallerdawg]

3. Back in the '80's, had a similiar feeling about technology.

I was a bank teller.

Why would anyone ever use an "Automated Teller Machine"?

[CK_John]

7. In the very near future people without work will be offering to do

your checkout for a few bucks. Of coarse this will lead to gangs who will control who does the checkouting and the price for getting your items out of the stores.

In Settle there is testing system where you swipe your card and start shopping. Everything you take off the shelf is added to your card.

If you don't want something you put it back and the price is remove from your card, except if is not in the right place there is a fee for restocking.

So get rid of the fear of technology and learn to live with the future your biggest problem will having an income.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Afraid not. I have no worries about income and hope to be living in an

'quaint, old-fashioned' Irish village where the green grocer and meat man know my first name , starting in 2018.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Sounds like a dream. I would love to live that kind of lifestyle.

Do you know exactly where you plan on settling? I love Ireland - such a beautiful country and such friendly people.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Might be Burdoran, County Donegal.

[smirkymonkey]

15. Looks like a beautiful place!

Are you a surfer? It's a big surfing spot, apparently. Anyway, best of luck to you!

[sinkingfeeling]

18. Not a surfer and will only spend summers in Ireland. Looking at southern

Spain or Italian coast for winter months.

[smirkymonkey]

20. I'm envious - That sounds like my dream life!

You must be looking very forward to it. I hope you send photos and viewpoints of the locals once you are there. I love to hear about perspectives from abroad.

[SoCalDem]

16. We sort of live that way now...in Washington state

I buy veggies at the veggie store..meat, eggs, butter and some frozen stuff at a meat market a few blocks from my house.. we buy milk at the neighborhood sundry store at the end of our block..

my husband shops at an Ace hardware nearby..

we do use Amazon though.. I get paper towels, cat litter, cat food, tp, and assorted other things..I do like having bulky/heavy things delivered to my doorstep..

Our downtown is like stepping back in time..Everything there is circa 1930/40/50..tons of antique/junk stores.. Our favorite is "the tub man"..he specializes in what else? antique bathtubs..and loads of other funky things I never knew I needed..

Most of the restaurants in town close at either 2PM or 8 pm.. They are ALL Mom & Pop, with everything made from scratch..with local ingredients.. We also have a downtown farmer's market with fantastic local produce..

[sinkingfeeling]

17. That's how I want to live the rest of my life when I'm not traveling to see as

much of the world as possible.

[KingCharlemagne]

2. Yay, capitalism! Comforting the comfortable and afflicting the

afflicted. It's as American as cherry pie.

USA! USA! USA!

[FLPanhandle]

4. It's not a popular opinion here, but I prefer technology to interacting with people

Whenever possible I shop online, if I have to go to a store, then I prefer the self-checkout.

Slam me if you want, but many people feel the same way. The world is changing and I don't know what the solution is for displaced workers. However clinging to the past and forcing people to go to a human cashier when many would rather not, isn't an option.

[Generic Brad]

5. There's room for both

Retail does not have to be one or the other proposition for consumers. Some of us prefer human interaction and seeing the goods we are buying in person before we buy. Others prefer private experience.

[yallerdawg]

6. What 'the bosses' have to understand is...

they are not just eliminating a worker and an expense.

'The bosses' are eliminating a consumer/customer and THEIR OWN income!

Robots don't buy shit!

[lostnfound]

9. Makes me feel good about shopping at Costco

I've always picked them over Walmart for that reason. This is striking.

[Calculating]

10. Between the retail apocalypse and automation things are looking grim

Just where exactly are we supposed to find jobs in the future?

[Foamfollower]

11. And damn those EVIL horseless carriages putting those buggy whip makers out of work!!!!!

[Johnny2X2X]

12. Better have a skill

The next 20 years is going to be cataclysmic for many fields, and some of them will be shocking.

Self driving vehicles will absolutely decimate truck drivers. Automated trucks will eventually be safer. Won't need to stop for breaks. Get better gas mileage. And be much cheaper. Self driving vehicles will eventually eliminate 98% of all driving jobs.

And highly skilled trades won't be immune either. We now have software that can write software. We now have software that can write software and system requirements. Software engineers better know more than just coding.

Machine intelligence is about to pass human intelligence in every measurable way. In our lifetimes AIs will be used for creative engineering solutions over humans. Not sure what will happen, but the changes of the next 50 years will dwarf the changes of the last 50.

[Hortensis]

19. Profits start with demand. Demand requires purchasing power.

The intersection of newtechnology with enormous production capacities with the needs of producers for purchasers for products and with the needs and tremendous power of the electorate will inevitably result in shorter workdays and workweeks, longer vacations, plus some kind of guaranteed national income.

Unfortunately, the transition may be a rough, delayed one thanks to the development of mindless opposition serving the wishes of only some of the new ultrawealthy class, foolish little people whose limitations only allow them to see what they want now.

But we will get there, and I imagine sooner than those who forget that every change causes more changes imagine could be.

231 million people were eligible to vote in 2016. 90 million didn't.

But just wait until it becomes a matter of survival -- not a bunch of whining about uncertainty and resentment at overpriced furniture stores they can't afford to shop in, but grave, immediate fear because there really are no jobs that will support their families. Including those who once shopped in those furniture stores. Engineers, accountants, investment counselors, analysts of all kinds will be scrabbling for income also.