Are We Beating Ourselves?

The new feature popping up in supermarkets and grocery stores around the country is the self-scanning checkout option. A great invention, and something that significantly saves time and speeds up the shopping experience, this sped up option is a feature that has been a long time coming.


While it is indeed revolutionary, there is an aura of too much too soon, in my opinion. There are still workers working many of the checkout lines, but I worry that soon enough they will be replaced by machines. Are we really going the way of Terminator? Highly doubtful. But it is bothersome when you see how our technology is hurting our economy.



I have not personally cheated the self-scanning checkout station, but from looking at how it is layed out and how one uses the machine, it looks fairly easy to "forget" to check out the sweet potatoes you just bought. What do stores do if there is no bar code on the food you just bought? There is a way for people to type in their food and weigh it, but what's stopping them from taking a small piece of produce?



I fear that we are maxing ourselves out. That our technology is moving too fast, and the jobs that once filled the country, are now being lost to a cheaper more accurate option. Not just with the self-scanning checkout option, but with other things as well. Record stores and book stores are becoming rapidly extinct due to IPods, legal/illegal downloading, Amazon/Ebay/Half.com, and the Kindle/Nook. Personally, I do not like the idea of owning an ebook reader over a solid book. Book's were made to be read on binded paper, not an electronic screen.



On a personal note, my grandparents own a pharmacy in Bangor, ME. It has been the best independently owned pharmacy since they first started in 1957. A few years ago they purchased a robot to assist in counting large quantities of pills to fill orders. They still have a large staff, who many are still instructed to count pills for orders. The robot, however, has saved money and time. Our economy has obviously hit a snag, and there is a legitimate claim to worry about maxing our technology out, and taking away people's jobs.



We are entering a time where certain tools are becoming necessities, not just for the wealthy, but for every member of society. I consider credit cards to be rather essential, and I consider having a computer and knowing how to work its basic functions as being an absolute necessity. Everyone should have a computer in today's world. There are too many everyday functions that are being used on computers, and they make life simpler (despite how frustrating they are at times).



There are, and will always be problems with the self-scanning checkout lines. Machines were made to be perfect and fast, but also have been known to collapse or falter. Some stores don't keep enough cash registers open, so having the self-checkout option is rather necessary. I wouldn't mind seeing more registers being open, with actual people working behind them. We should recommit ourselves as a whole to protecting jobs and limiting technologies stranglehold upon us.