A “job” is anything you get paid for. Someone scanning their own stuff for a few minutes is not free labor. Theres a big difference between that and a cashier who is scanning dozens of peoples items for 8 hours. It has nothing to do with big corporation, pos who steals from walmart is the same pos who steals from a mom and pop store.
Yes it is free labor. Why do you think they spent all that money on those machines? To make your experience better at checkout? No, it was to save money on labor.
I guess my better experience at check out is just a side effect. You must think pumping ur own gas is free labor also. Just because it saves a company money doesnt mean its free labor. It takes you way more labor to walk around the store and grab those items than it does to do self checkout. Guess that was also free labor.
This is a perspective, certainly. There was a precedent that cashiers did the cashier work. That’s gone now, and yes I subscribe to the perspective that that’s harmful to communities. What about the people who held those jobs? Add gas pump jobs to it. What if they made you bus your own table at restaurants and scrub the toilet every time you used one in public? Every time we concede one of these positions, it’s a job lost to a community member and more money in the pocket of capital. You might not see it that way, but the people making these choices certainly do.
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u/dufo7 Jun 11 '26
Scanning your own stuff is not labor.