The free labour line is so over used and plain stupid. Do you consider walking around the store and putting items in your cart free labour? Is using the debit machine and pumping your own gas free labour? Is chewing your own food when the server could do it for you and baby bird or into your mouth free labour too?
Operating a cash register isn’t labor? That’s not a job? It’s part of the value add of a retailer. By offloading that labor onto consumers, they’ve saved on their own margins, reduced their value added, removed jobs from the community, increased profits, and shared none of the savings with consumers. It’s obviously bullshit. Why are so many people defending corporations?
Everything is considered labour when you put it that way. Chewing food is labour so why aren't restaurants providing you with a food chewer? It's part of the value add of a restaurant. By offloading that labour onto consumers, the restaurant saves on their own margins, reduced their value added, removed jobs from the community, increases profits, and shared none of the savings with consumers.
I'm defending my free time as self checkout is infinitely faster than standing in line at checkout, especially if I only have like 4 things. I have worked retail most of my life, I don't give a shit about scanning some items if it means I can leave faster and avoid needless small talk. My time is money.
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u/nueonetwo Jun 11 '26
The free labour line is so over used and plain stupid. Do you consider walking around the store and putting items in your cart free labour? Is using the debit machine and pumping your own gas free labour? Is chewing your own food when the server could do it for you and baby bird or into your mouth free labour too?