As IF Times

link: https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/lululemon-workers-fired-calling-police/

By now, most people are aware of the trend towards self-checkouts in many retail store chains.  From Wal-Mart to Whole Foods to Home Depot, we’ve all encountered those electronic kiosks at which you can scan and pay for your goods instead of having a live person do it for you.

Someone must think this is a good idea since they have gone way beyond the experimental stage and such kiosks are everywhere.  Someone must have done some calculations and determined that not having to pay wages, employment taxes and dealing with troublesome employees would result in huge benefits to the bottom line.  We can see the marketing spin on this; the customer can do it as fast as a clerk and it will be more “convenient”.  In reality, anyone who has stood behind someone unable to properly scan an item is already aware that this is neither faster nor more convenient,

There’s that key word, convenient.  This one word is the basis for so much change in the consumer landscape over the past decade and a half.  Marketing of any product or service must have at its core, the aspect of convenience.  In reality, it’s a euphemism for catering to lazy people. We may still recall when that concept was applied to grocery stores with limited items where one could ‘conveniently’ buy a loaf of bread or a jug of milk without having to go through the horror of wading through an entire grocery store.  This concept became the basis for the 7-11 store chain; although in practice, 7-11’s sell mainly meat jerky and sugary drinks the size of small kegs. They also serve as training grounds for robbers.

Whole Foods is pushing the idea of convenience even further by inviting people to experiment with chips embedded in their hands that would allow someone to not have to go through the onerous process of taking out a wallet to pay for their goods.  Just wave their hand over the scanner and they can be off to pursue their urgent lives.  Of course, this is sold as convenience.  Not lost on some is the similarity to cattle that have electronic sensors attached to their ears for tracking purposes.

While all of this push for convenience is going on, some businesses are pushing the envelope even further.  As the linked story above details, a Lululemon store has punished some employees for having the temerity to call the police on some clients who were only enacting their advanced ideas of convenience by just walking out the door without paying at all.

This is a whole new level of retail technology.  Not only do you not need cashiers, you don’t even need to pay.  Clients can simply browse through the goods and leave with whatever catches their fancy.  This certainly eliminates the trouble of having any kind of seasonal sales campaigns, because they’re no longer needed.  This whole notion dovetails with the oft proposed idea of a cashless society.  Who needs cash or currency, when you can just take what you need?

Strangely, this is at odds with another trend we see more often in certain urban centers wherein the aisles of the retail stores are encased in glass doors and an employee is required to retrieve the goods for the customer. What’s especially odd is that these stores often serve exactly the same customer base in the same city.  Gee, I wonder which model of customer convenience will prevail?

Source: Why Amazon is eating the world | TechCrunch

By now we know that Amazon has become ubiquitous in our modern lives.  The erstwhile bookseller has become THE 800 pound gorilla in the retail space as its shadow looms over all types of commerce.  Not content to just sell books, Amazon’s reach extends to every consumable product imaginable and recently, they’ve made a foray into the grocery business by buying upscale grocer, Whole Foods.   Lesser known perhaps was the purchase of the Washington Post newspaper by owner Jeff Bezos, giving them a political platform as well.

After reading the convincing story in the above link, we feel that Amazon is not done with world domination.  There’s no reason to think that they would not one day push into the field of pharmaceutical delivery or even for medical services.  Why not legal services, dating services and pet adoption?  Home and car buying are probably already in the works.  How much easier would it be to get a new spouse online?  A few convenient clicks, no expensive dating required and especially if they have the no hassle return policy.

Amazon is not as some think, a technology company.  They are the epitome of the most efficient logistics company.  They are able to provide consumers with the cheapest, largest selection of goods in the most convenient way for customers.  As Bezos famously said, “I’ve never had someone come to me asking to be charged more and to have it delivered more slowly”.  That is the nub of the business model: people want convenience.

How lazy have we become as a society when we can’t even be bothered to go to the mall to buy shoes?  Are we really that busy?  What are we doing that’s so important that we can’t do a stroll to buy something?  There was a story today which claimed in despondent terms, how customers at McDonald’s would now have to wait….one extra minute for their burgers because they were going to  use fresh meat instead of frozen!  The horror!  How is the company going to survive?

In unrelated developments, the rush is on to introduce self driving cars, because apparently, driving and parking are too much trouble for a stressed populace; and besides it’s easier to use Amazon apps to buy stuff if you’re not actually driving.  It all sounds good as a marketing ploy; convenience, cheap and likely green, but aren’t many of these inventions and services created in search of a use? Sort of like an electric dog polisher or an automatic nose picker? How did the world get along before expecting things to happen instantly?  How are we better off because we received the latest shoe 3 days earlier than by standard means?  How did our time become so precious, that saving a bit here and there is essential for happiness?

A friend remarked about how purchasing the latest space age bicycle seat post on his $7000 road bicycle would shave 150 grams from the curb weight of the machine.  In reality, a quick trip to the bathroom would save just as much if not more weight.  But it all sounds good, so it must be better.