Steve Frank writes, "I would not be surprised if the stores had a special surcharge for having real people check you out for your bread and milk":

A few years ago the grocery industry [in California] went on a 20 week strike. It was a lose for everybody, most especially for the strikers, some of whom went into bankruptcy and many others who still work in the industry, but get fewer hours and less pay and benefits.

It was inevitable, before reality set in.

Since then Albertsons have been installing self check out stands, with one employee helping 4-8 counters at the same time—fewer workers. There was no way Von’s, Ralph’s and Albertson’s could pay the high wages and benefits, without raising prices. Even today, there is resentment by customers for the slashed tires, the yelling and name calling by the union strikers.

Last November, the people of California voted $10 billion for schools. LAUSD just gave a 6% raise to the teachers—so most of the money for new facilities is actually going to go in wages, in the end, The grocers don’t have the luxury of raising taxes or bonding to pay for increased pay or benefits.

Should there be another grocery strike, they will lose even more customers, workers will have even fewer hours to work, and those self check out stands will be in the majority. I would not be surprised if the stores had a special surcharge for having real people check you out for your bread and milk. The day of the grocery clerk is over, the union murdered them.

My local Albertson's supermarket has an aisle consisting of four self-serve machines, which each combine a barcode scanner, credit/debit card processing machine, and bagging dispenser. It seems to work reasonably well, despite the inevitable 20-point IQ drop that each customer faces when confronted by the self-serve's GUI (even here in bleeding-edge high tech Silicon Valley). As the programming of these relatively new machines improves over time and they become increasingly user-friendly, I think Frank is right: more and more, clerks will become the province of both higher-end boutique stores, and smaller, non-union businesses.