Cashiers don’t get paid much. Truthfully, it’s a pretty low paying job but it’s a job all the same. It’s regular, and you can get one anywhere with little to no skills other than the ability to pick up an item and scan a bar code then ask the customer if they want to sign up for the special discount card, and put the items into the bag (wait, no that’s going away too, customers will need their own bags, but that’s another topic.)
So really, pretty straightforward.
Go to a Home Depot, wait no, they did away with cashiers, or a CVS, no wait – they also got rid of theirs, maybe McDonalds… uh no, they have kiosks and the app now. So wait… where are all the cashier jobs now? Even supermarkets are increasing the number of self-checkout lanes.
After a while you begin to wonder, where DO all the people who need a regular paycheck, but have less-fancy skills work? And where are all the former-cashier workers now?
I have a hypothesis: by eliminating low-paying jobs, it creates an army of disgruntled, unemployed, workers. Workers who can get angry at other demographics who are willing to work long hours for low wages and probably no benefits at all. Of course, who fired all those workers in the first place? Yeah, the guys who make a fuck-ton of money, the corporation owners, the 1%. Handy right? Being rich, firing your lowest paid workers, and then creating your own mob by feeding them the idea that it’s those pesky, hardworking immigrants who stole their jobs and are taking their security away.
Only it’s not. But when you’re hungry and depressed, sick and unemployed you don’t think too good. Click tok and Faux “News” are there for you though, they’re ready to feed your anger and fill your brain-hole with rhetoric that benefits, well, the people who own those channels and the companies that advertise on them.
Unfortunately when you’re at the bottom of the barrel. When you’re the most vulnerable, it takes effort, initiative, thought, and yes, hard work to a) admit that you need to be better and b) educate yourself in a way that will get you paid, though probably not as a cashier any more.
Hint: voting for people who tell you that it isn’t your fault and if you vote for them you’ll get your due without that hard work? Yeah… that’s called a scam.
For the record, as much as I dislike being out in public, I still prefer the interaction of a human cashier. No matter who they are, what they look like, or what language they speak. I’d rather have you paid, fed, and cared for, because you’re a fellow human being.
But hey, that’s just me.