Supermarket self service checkouts.

[emordnilap]

I wonder what would happen if one Supermarket bucked the trend and stayed with people on check outs?

Would they get most customers because people liked the human touch, or would the shareholders demand they follow the leader?

Most people will go to where their perception is that they're getting most for their money and Tesco are particularly good at this type of deception.

[frank_begbie]

I wonder what would happen if one Supermarket bucked the trend and stayed with people on check outs?

Would they get most customers because people liked the human touch, or would the shareholders demand they follow the leader?

Most people will go to where their perception is that they're getting most for their money and Tesco are particularly good at this type of deception.

Agree. Its a total myth that supermarkets are cheap...they sell their merchandise at the highest price they can get away with.

[adam2]

I have deleted a number of posts in this topic that consisted of insults, and replies to these insults.
Please try to remain reasonably polite.
Nothing wrong with differences of opinion, but insults are liable to be deleted.

[emordnilap]

Nothing wrong with differences of opinion, but insults are liable to be deleted.

Overdue for a change in moderation rules, I think.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

On the other hand a company that improves it profits usually sees a rise in dividend and a share price rise both of which are good for anyone whose pension fund is invested that way.

What is good for employees is bad for ex-employees and soon to be retirees.

It has long been thus and self-service tills are just a modern incarnation of Cartwright's loom.

Which leads us where exactly?

Good question. Unfettered capitalism ends with all the capital having flowed to the top. That is why governments use taxation to re-distribute wealth and why inflation was deemed a necessary fiscal reality.

Ever since pension funds became investment vehicles that relied on the profitability of other companies as measured in their stock prices (as opposed the pile of money that your own employer set aside from profits for the pensioners) then one man's future has relied on a vicious circle of 'beggar thy neighbour'.

No one has to shop in supermarkets. If anyone doesn't like paying less for their weekly groceries they are free to go and shop somewhere else. Very few do though.

[DominicJ]

A job is only real if it provides a living. Paying say £4.00 an hour doesn't allow somebody to 'live' therefore it's not really a job as other income would be needed to make up a living wage. That could come from other higher paying work the jobholder does, in which case the other employer is effectively supporting your £4.00 an hour. Or it can come from the government (i.e. out of my{and others} tax payments) rather than being used for the public good.

Two options are on the table
Someone is unemployed, and entirely reliant on government support.
Someone is poorly paid, and partialy relient on government support.

No one is yet to explain to me why the first is better than the second.

Screaming "you f***ing tory scum" is not an explanation.

I'd love to live in a world where everyone earnt £500 an hour, but no bugger will pay me £50 an hour, never mind £500, I certainly cant afford to pay someone £500 abn hour to clean my windows or deliver my milk.

Unfortuantly, I live in the real world.

JSD

Unfettered capitalism ends with all the capital having flowed to the top.

No it doesnt.
Thats Statism. Capitalism "ends" no where, the worlds two richest men came from relativly normal back grounds. "The Rich" rarely stay that way EXCEPT when they have government support to beat down competitors.
Year after year after year, the "Top" is smashed to pieces by better companies, who in turn are toppled.

Town centre electonics stores fell to out of town "big boxes", but the Big Boxes are all falling apart now, to online stores, supermarkets, and a selection of town centre micro stores that offer better service.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

I disagree.

What you describe is just commerce. Buying and selling stuff and making a cut on every deal. The money flows in and out as bills and paid and invoices processed. A little is siphoned off every transaction and salted away as profit. Eventually that little impacts the amount of money available to transfer wealth around so we have a restricted money supply strangling commerce. Some money is produced to off set that and we have mild inflation slowly reducing the value of the accumulated money.

money!=wealth.