First being tried at Fayetteville, AR. A Walmart with all automated checkout.
Interesting to note, according to this article, Store Manager Carl Morris, says the new layout seems to be having a positive effect on the employees and their customer service. Now out from behind a cash register, they are less focused on speed and more focused on each customers’ needs.
“We will go to any register, and we will help you in any fashion you want, whether it’s checking out one item or all the items. Any questions you have, we’re right there for you,” Morris said.
Interesting. Employees freed from being as tethered to the machine. The customer is more tethered instead?
I've noticed, at automated checkouts, that one employee now has responsibility for several checkout lanes. In some ways, they are even busier and their focus is scattered across more lanes. Not necessarily a more human, less production line experience.
As for the customer, each store has a different type of automated kiosk. Customers, including myself, are pretty clumsy and stumbling so checkout is slower. Clerks are more expert at checkout than the customers, themselves. Also, since automated checkout is not standardized across various retail outlets, customers stumble through the learning curve for each store.
Still, I think this is a wave of the future. I hear that eventually, the market basket will tally items as the customer puts items in the basket. Maybe an easier experience.
Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang talked about basic income as things, like artificial intelligence, take away lots of routine work. Are there more interesting things that people can do?
Are there other goals in life besides speed and efficiency? People often choose the shortest, quickest line for checkout. I often use other criteria, like how attractive is the clerk. Some of the clerks, I know, so there might be other reasons for conversation; like; Tim's working today, I'll go through his line.
Some people boycott Walmart, but my main reason for not shopping there is the automobile sprawl around Walmart. Me, being a bicyclist and pedestrian; I usually just avoid the whole part of town that Walmart is in.
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Saturday, June 12, 2021
Home value inflation begets other inflation
There is quite a bit of talk, especially among people on the political right, that inflation is coming back.
Guess what. Inflation has been rampant for many years. At least 3 significant items, that are considered important in people's lives, have been going way up in cost during recent years. The cost of housing, the cost of healthcare and the cost of a college education.
Now some of the rest of society is trying to catch up with these costs. For instance raising the minimum wage so workers, in places like supermarkets and restaurants, can afford rent. Government spending has been increasing also; for instance subsidizing the cost of healthcare with Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare.
In my opinion, attempts to create a more fair society does have the side effect of spreading inflation across wider sectors of the economy. Prices, such as found at the supermarket, have been dirt cheap for many years relative to these other things. Society has become used to low prices, at places like Walmart, on the backs of an army of low wage workers.
Technology and globalization has brought down the costs for many goods and services that we have become accustom to. We just can't "have it all." In some ways, we, as consumers, have become spoiled.
In many cases, business gets the blame, but quite a bit of business does operate on a thin margin.
In small businesses, the owner sometimes makes less than low wage employees after bills are paid.
In the case of large corporations, there may be a handful of overpaid executives, but the bulk of the budget pie still goes to the cost of the goods on supermarket shelves and a large army of low wage workers.
Many economists will say that inflation is caused by the Federal Reserve creating too much money. More money chasing the same number of goods and services. They also will say that there is too much government spending. Government pumping this new money into the economy. There is an element of truth here, but the problem is that it isn't easy to turn off the spigot. Turning off the spigot is painful and creates a situation where lots of people can no longer afford things like housing, healthcare and college.
Turning off the spigot also pulls the "punchbowl" away from vast industries; for instance healthcare. It creates painful situations where landlords and homeowners become "upside down" in their mortgages.
Speaking of the printing of money, it seems like government spending needs to be propped up by the Federal Reserve. Idealistically, government revenue would come from taxes, but taxes are never popular. Republicans are pretty much all anti tax to the point of even talking about a "no new taxes" infrastructure bill.
Democrats are not enthusiastic about taxes either. Taxes are a nonstarter on the campaign trail. There is also the fear that taxation will "slow down" the economy and job creation.
It's like no one wants to say it, but consumers and voters are kind of spoiled.
We can change our culture and look more at the big picture, beyond our own self interests, but that takes a new way of thinking.
It's like we can't get beyond blaming government, corporations, "the bad guys," "the welfare moms," or whatever for these problems. What we really need is a cultural evolution.
Guess what. Inflation has been rampant for many years. At least 3 significant items, that are considered important in people's lives, have been going way up in cost during recent years. The cost of housing, the cost of healthcare and the cost of a college education.
Now some of the rest of society is trying to catch up with these costs. For instance raising the minimum wage so workers, in places like supermarkets and restaurants, can afford rent. Government spending has been increasing also; for instance subsidizing the cost of healthcare with Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare.
In my opinion, attempts to create a more fair society does have the side effect of spreading inflation across wider sectors of the economy. Prices, such as found at the supermarket, have been dirt cheap for many years relative to these other things. Society has become used to low prices, at places like Walmart, on the backs of an army of low wage workers.
Technology and globalization has brought down the costs for many goods and services that we have become accustom to. We just can't "have it all." In some ways, we, as consumers, have become spoiled.
In many cases, business gets the blame, but quite a bit of business does operate on a thin margin.
In small businesses, the owner sometimes makes less than low wage employees after bills are paid.
In the case of large corporations, there may be a handful of overpaid executives, but the bulk of the budget pie still goes to the cost of the goods on supermarket shelves and a large army of low wage workers.
Many economists will say that inflation is caused by the Federal Reserve creating too much money. More money chasing the same number of goods and services. They also will say that there is too much government spending. Government pumping this new money into the economy. There is an element of truth here, but the problem is that it isn't easy to turn off the spigot. Turning off the spigot is painful and creates a situation where lots of people can no longer afford things like housing, healthcare and college.
Turning off the spigot also pulls the "punchbowl" away from vast industries; for instance healthcare. It creates painful situations where landlords and homeowners become "upside down" in their mortgages.
Speaking of the printing of money, it seems like government spending needs to be propped up by the Federal Reserve. Idealistically, government revenue would come from taxes, but taxes are never popular. Republicans are pretty much all anti tax to the point of even talking about a "no new taxes" infrastructure bill.
Democrats are not enthusiastic about taxes either. Taxes are a nonstarter on the campaign trail. There is also the fear that taxation will "slow down" the economy and job creation.
It's like no one wants to say it, but consumers and voters are kind of spoiled.
We can change our culture and look more at the big picture, beyond our own self interests, but that takes a new way of thinking.
It's like we can't get beyond blaming government, corporations, "the bad guys," "the welfare moms," or whatever for these problems. What we really need is a cultural evolution.
Sunday, June 06, 2021
The vaccines are a game changer.
Vaccines have been a game changer as society seems to be opening up fast. As things open up, being unvaccinated is now more risky.
Too bad there are still lots of people who aren't able to be vaccinated for medical reasons. In cases where folks have compromised immune systems, the vaccines are less effective.
The rest of society isn't waiting for these people. I still do wear a mask in stores as some stores require them while others don't. I would guess Bellingham Food Coop might be one of the last mask holdouts.
I still see more masks than not in stores I go to. One is usually only in a store for a few minutes; so it isn't real hard to wear a mask.
Much of the last year, I've either been in my apartment or outside so I haven't had to wear a mask all day. When I was working, I was in the building alone.
Now I am starting to go back to indoor restaurants. Masks are not worn while eating, but still in transition while away from one's table.
In the last few days, it seems like more masks are coming off in restaurants; even for the staff.
People with compromised immune systems are likely at risk, but that's a subsegment of the population. Too bad, but it may be inevitable. Life moves on. Could be like being thrown under the bus.
Speaking of the bus, I often bring up the accepted risk of car accidents. Around 35,000 people die, each year, in car accidents yet our transportation system still relies on cars. The bus is a lot safer.
The Strong Towns feed, that I follow, has posted quite a bit about designing streets for lower speeds. That would save many lives. We design our streets for too much speed and then rely on law enforcement to cool the speed. Then people complain about the police. In an ideal society, street design would slow traffic down naturally.
I've also read that the death toll goes down in larger cities. This is because traffic has to be slower when there is more congestion. On the wide open road, death tolls go up per trip.
Apparently, during the pandemic, there was less traffic, but what traffic there was went faster and the death rate, per trip, went up. One good thing about congested, slow moving traffic is safety.
I got to thinking that since I-5 is so often slowed to just a crawl in the Seattle area, it might as well be surface streets. Surface streets are friendlier to adjoining neighborhoods; like in Vancouver, BC where the freeways don't carve through the center of the city.
Another headline, I saw, in Strong Towns, says that the future of the electric car is not the Tesla, but the golf cart. I'll want to read that article. I notice a lot of electric bikes on the roads and trails. Kind of like the golf cart, I guess.
Bellingham City Council recently had a meeting to discuss speed limits on the trails. 15 mph works fine for me.
Some of the electrics go quite a bit faster. It's easier to regulate speed than to try and decipher whether an electric vehicle qualifies as a bike. What about electric wheelchairs?
I haven't heard the outcome of that meeting, yet, but just saw some headlines in the Herald.
I guess, if people grumble about slower roads, I can always say, "we have the airplane." There is even a new supersonic plane being developed that can get across USA in 3 hours.
The military is working on a way to deliver cargo anywhere in the world by dropping it from a space rocket. Delivery time in 1 hour.
My ideas beyond just masks to weighing safety, I guess.
Yes, it is good to see things open up remembering that with cars, society has accepted death as a part of life anyway. It's always like the preverbal tight rope walk. How much risk is acceptable versus living life?
Too bad there are still lots of people who aren't able to be vaccinated for medical reasons. In cases where folks have compromised immune systems, the vaccines are less effective.
The rest of society isn't waiting for these people. I still do wear a mask in stores as some stores require them while others don't. I would guess Bellingham Food Coop might be one of the last mask holdouts.
I still see more masks than not in stores I go to. One is usually only in a store for a few minutes; so it isn't real hard to wear a mask.
Much of the last year, I've either been in my apartment or outside so I haven't had to wear a mask all day. When I was working, I was in the building alone.
Now I am starting to go back to indoor restaurants. Masks are not worn while eating, but still in transition while away from one's table.
In the last few days, it seems like more masks are coming off in restaurants; even for the staff.
People with compromised immune systems are likely at risk, but that's a subsegment of the population. Too bad, but it may be inevitable. Life moves on. Could be like being thrown under the bus.
Speaking of the bus, I often bring up the accepted risk of car accidents. Around 35,000 people die, each year, in car accidents yet our transportation system still relies on cars. The bus is a lot safer.
The Strong Towns feed, that I follow, has posted quite a bit about designing streets for lower speeds. That would save many lives. We design our streets for too much speed and then rely on law enforcement to cool the speed. Then people complain about the police. In an ideal society, street design would slow traffic down naturally.
I've also read that the death toll goes down in larger cities. This is because traffic has to be slower when there is more congestion. On the wide open road, death tolls go up per trip.
Apparently, during the pandemic, there was less traffic, but what traffic there was went faster and the death rate, per trip, went up. One good thing about congested, slow moving traffic is safety.
I got to thinking that since I-5 is so often slowed to just a crawl in the Seattle area, it might as well be surface streets. Surface streets are friendlier to adjoining neighborhoods; like in Vancouver, BC where the freeways don't carve through the center of the city.
Another headline, I saw, in Strong Towns, says that the future of the electric car is not the Tesla, but the golf cart. I'll want to read that article. I notice a lot of electric bikes on the roads and trails. Kind of like the golf cart, I guess.
Bellingham City Council recently had a meeting to discuss speed limits on the trails. 15 mph works fine for me.
Some of the electrics go quite a bit faster. It's easier to regulate speed than to try and decipher whether an electric vehicle qualifies as a bike. What about electric wheelchairs?
I haven't heard the outcome of that meeting, yet, but just saw some headlines in the Herald.
I guess, if people grumble about slower roads, I can always say, "we have the airplane." There is even a new supersonic plane being developed that can get across USA in 3 hours.
The military is working on a way to deliver cargo anywhere in the world by dropping it from a space rocket. Delivery time in 1 hour.
My ideas beyond just masks to weighing safety, I guess.
Yes, it is good to see things open up remembering that with cars, society has accepted death as a part of life anyway. It's always like the preverbal tight rope walk. How much risk is acceptable versus living life?
Friday, June 04, 2021
Looking back on one of my career goals and why it didn't happen.
I look back on a career I thought I might have when I was in high school. Broadcast journalism? Radio interested me more than television, but this 1972 brochure from a Radio / TV station I admired shows more TV than radio. TV more colorful.
That career never happened the way I had envisioned it. My nervous conditions and unusual personality was a factor. While having my aspirations, I also worried that I might freak out, flunk out of school or flunk out of college. That didn't happen either.
The industry, I thought I might go into, has it's problems also. On radio and also television, most of the creative programing comes from the top down. It's fed from the national networks. That was true in my high school days and still today; to some extent.
My high school self would have had no idea what the term "social media" met.
It didn't quite work out the way people envisioned, back then, but I have expressed many thoughts, mostly on social media. I made my living in a fairly peaceful way as a custodian.
My life, during my working years, might have been a middle ground between failure and fame. Modest, but I would like to say still worthy. It does kind of make sense, to me, how it turned out.
On a trip from Pullman, where I grew up, to Spokane, I wanted to tour some of the radio studios. My dad took me to a few. KREM, KJRB; also KHQ.
At the wonderful world of KHQ, a staff person playing tour guide ask me what specialty I wanted in broadcasting. Sales, news, cameraman (back in the pre feminist days).
I hadn't decided so I was stumbling for an answer. My dad tried to fill the void by saying, "he wants to be president of the company."
The person giving the tour was taken aback. He said, "well, you really can't start there." I was a bit embarrassed. I basically just was interested in an overview tour.
See also How my career plans got changed and I ended up in Bellingham.
Wednesday, June 02, 2021
Broader based inflation may be the price of a more equitable economy.
For a long time there has been a disconnect between things like the cost of housing (in so many metro areas where people want to live) and other parts of the economy.
It's not just low wages for essential workers, it's also bargain prices for a large number of consumer goods and services that people have taken for granted.
There has also been a disconnect between the wages for high end professionals and other workers.
A round of wage increases and public assistance has been due. As the cost of wage increases gets passed on through the system, inflation will likely become broader across a wider range of consumer prices.
Yes, a little inflation, or maybe even more than a little, but consumers can't expect to "have it all."
I've often thought that maybe the problem is that the cost of living, such as housing costs, is too high, rather than wages being too low. I guess that would mean the need for a crash in things like the housing market and homeowners becoming "upside down" in their homes; like in 2008. A difficult situation in it's own way.
Maybe it's always easier to bring wages and prices up, rather than trying to drive things down. Hopefully the goal is less income disparity, not just between the 1% and the rest, but within the rest as well.
As for the owners of business, some business does operate on a thin margin. Great accumulation of wealth is sometimes still needed as its the capital that is the business. It can be the buildings, equipment, patents and so forth. If it wasn't there, the business might not be there.
In other cases, wealth is truely wasted. How many vacation mansions does one need?
Beyond just the very top, I think upper middle class needs to be part of the solution as well. Upper middle class creates much of the market and by voting, the political climate that shapes business. Why do we remain dependent on cars and sprawl? Market and political forces play a role.
For everyone, here comes some higher prices to benefit one's neighbors who work at places like restaurants.
It's not just low wages for essential workers, it's also bargain prices for a large number of consumer goods and services that people have taken for granted.
There has also been a disconnect between the wages for high end professionals and other workers.
A round of wage increases and public assistance has been due. As the cost of wage increases gets passed on through the system, inflation will likely become broader across a wider range of consumer prices.
Yes, a little inflation, or maybe even more than a little, but consumers can't expect to "have it all."
I've often thought that maybe the problem is that the cost of living, such as housing costs, is too high, rather than wages being too low. I guess that would mean the need for a crash in things like the housing market and homeowners becoming "upside down" in their homes; like in 2008. A difficult situation in it's own way.
Maybe it's always easier to bring wages and prices up, rather than trying to drive things down. Hopefully the goal is less income disparity, not just between the 1% and the rest, but within the rest as well.
As for the owners of business, some business does operate on a thin margin. Great accumulation of wealth is sometimes still needed as its the capital that is the business. It can be the buildings, equipment, patents and so forth. If it wasn't there, the business might not be there.
In other cases, wealth is truely wasted. How many vacation mansions does one need?
Beyond just the very top, I think upper middle class needs to be part of the solution as well. Upper middle class creates much of the market and by voting, the political climate that shapes business. Why do we remain dependent on cars and sprawl? Market and political forces play a role.
For everyone, here comes some higher prices to benefit one's neighbors who work at places like restaurants.
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