I’ve been shopping at the same grocery store for eight years now. It’s one of the major chains, nothing fancy, in west-end Toronto.
I shop frequently because it’s only a five-minute walk from my home, and anyway, I like grocery shopping.
The store was recently renovated. A wall of beer coolers was installed and I’ve heard rumours that self-service check-out machines will be installed, too.
The thing is, what I like most about the place are the cashiers. I’ve gotten to know them a little bit over the years. I know that one also works in IT and that another is originally from Chatham. (“Hey, buddy, did I ever tell you that Hawaiian pizza was invented in Chatham?”) I know that one’s sister works at a nearby store and that another briefly had a pet lizard they found lurking in the bananas.
I am happy to see them every time I’m there. Even if all we ever say to each other is “How do you pay?” or “Nope. No Air Miles,” I feel connected to them and I would miss them if they were gone. And if the rumours are true, they’re going.
Head office would probably say that it’s all for the benefit of the customers, that we’ll be able to check out more quickly and maybe prices will come down once they’re no longer paying the wages of so many cashiers—though they certainly wouldn’t be so direct about that.
The reality is that machines replace people because a machine will work for considerably less than the minimum wage, which means that already-wealthy shareholders can get an even bigger dividend and maybe spend more time in the Bahamas in winter, or buy an even bigger home.
What a machine won’t do, though, is make me smile because it kind of reminds me of Bela Lugosi. I will never feel the urge to tell a machine that it’s looking even prettier than usual. A machine will never say to me, “I like your t-shirt: I Bike TO. Cool.”
Some people believe greed is a good thing because it leads to innovation, which benefits everyone. Maybe, but this particular innovation will leave me poorer in spirit, and that’s worth a lot more to me than the remote prospect of quicker check-outs or lower prices. I hope the rumours aren’t true.