Retail Without People

 

I don’t go to retail stores often, but I recently went to several, and I notice a very disturbing trend; they are getting rid of cashiers. I will not tolerate this. If I owned stock in a retailer, then I would be even more annoyed with this trend. I wasn’t surprised to see that Wal-Mart is going with those business killers, just as I wasn’t surprised that Home Depot started using them a few years ago; they were clearly for overflow and to speed some contractors through. But I was surprised to see those things in a CVS.  

CVS is the kind of store that requires communication with the customer, at least in some cases, when the clerk suggested that I use one of those things, I simply refused, and the clerk rang my order.

I suspect that CVS will abandon the things after a short test, because they will find that they require too much attention from people, because they don’t do a good job. Those things cost more to run that do human clerks, even though the manufacturers put out marketing material that claim lower cost. I also suspect that Wal-Mart will keep the things and claim that they save money. But those machines may be the beginning of the end for Wal-Mart.

Retailers have been living in paradise for the last several decades. They have been making money in all sorts of markets, but recently I have seen signs that retailers are not doing well. In addition to store closings there have been reductions in store size, and stores are just not as busy. The endless recession is doing its dirty work on another kind of business.

But back to Wal-Mart. I looked at a few things and decided not to buy, because what I wanted was mismarked, so I went to Target and found a store that was pleasanter, neater, better stocked, and having power prices than the W place, and their Pharmacy looked as good as or better than CVS, and Target doesn’t have self-service checkouts. Why did I waste my time going to those other places?

I wonder if Wal-Mart and CVS and other stores that use those things realize that they are throwing away customers by having those things. The people who used to be cashiers are out of work, so they can’t afford the luxury of buying things. It’s one thing to insult your customers, but throwing away customers is stupidity. There may be a small after-tax advantage to those things, but after they will be written off without a significant tax deduction, then they will be costs. By then customers will have learned to go to stores that treat them a little more respectfully, and the cashiers will have new jobs. There is no sea of new customers, so sales would not increase to cover the costs. Maybe it’s close to time to sell Wal-Mart.