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What I'm hearing is NY Democrats are working to pass a bill that will increase prices at businesses using self-checkout by 10 percent. They aren't going to cut into their own profits.
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
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Politics is never about helping people, it's about creating the IMPRESSION that you're helping people.
The fun part that I have heard from a few retail managers is that the software that the self checkout uses costs as much or more per month than the employee would have.
Right, because if I self checkout my $200 grocery bill, that worker definitely would have made $20 in that few minute interaction.
I like the idea, but that's a terrible implementation. The cost of the bill has no relation to the money saved by using the machine and firing a worker. A flat amount no more than a % of the bill is tiny would be better. Like $1-3 but no more than 5% of bill.
200 grocery bill, that worker definitely would have made $20 in that few minute interaction.
So the fact that the store would lose more money to the 10% discount is what incentivizes them to use cashiers.
All y'all tripping over making these 2 numbers equivalent are missing the point entirely.
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It’s ultimately just a bill that would kill the self checkout which maybe that is their intention.
Self checkout isnt a bad thing in and of itself.
If you only get one or two items, or something that you find personally embarassing, self checkout is fine.
Thet problem is there are no more cashiers, and I'm expected to take my monthly groceries through self checkout, which is a fucking chore. and I totally deserve at least 10% for the chore of dealing with it, as well with the added stress that a harmless fuckup might result in me being fucking tackled to the asphalt in the parking lot by some overzealous loss prevention/cop, and see me arrested for theft.
so I dont want to see it go away, but there definitely needs to be regulation, like..1 self checkout for every 3 staffed cashier registers or something.
If it's written as that image describes, I don't even think they intend to pass it, they just wanted the headlines, but that would be the ultimate goal as written if so and it passed.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why big business gets away with everything.
Cause theres juuust enough idiots out there to cry and scream about how its big mean and supes unfair to hold them accountable for anything, and that any punishments should totally be insigifnicant that doesnt impact them at all.
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They should have to pay a tax equal to that of employing someone. They will get efficiency and more days activity without leave and overtime costs.
Something like this is more along the right way to address something like this, and it fits the more broader issue with automation across multiple areas.
I didn't have to do a whole research paper on this to know that if I'm doing somebody else's job as a customer, the company is saving money.
Agreed, some things are logical enough to see that; however, a study does help out in a way - reinforcing the common knowledge.
And quantifying it.
That "$300 billion" number is just completely made up. The math doesn't even remotely work.
The entire US grocery industry does somewhere around $1 trillion in revenue per year. For self-checkout to save $300 billion, that would mean roughly a third of every dollar spent on groceries was going directly to cashier wages. That is obviously not how grocery stores operate. Total labor costs for a store are only a fraction of their expenses.
And the idea that self-checkout was some massive money-saving miracle ignores the other side of the equation. Those systems cost a lot upfront, require maintenance, and they increase losses from theft, missed scans, and mistakes. A machine replacing a cashier doesn't magically eliminate costs; it just moves them somewhere else.
There is a reason companies like Walmart, Target, and Dollar General have started putting limits on self-checkout or bringing back more staffed lanes. If self-checkout was saving them hundreds of billions, they wouldn't be walking it back. They would be installing them everywhere they could.
This is the kind of post that hurts any community built around open discussion and critical thinking. A sensational claim gets repeated because it supports a certain viewpoint, while nobody stops to ask if it is actually true. The truth should matter regardless of whether it supports corporations, consumers, or anyone else. Being intellectually honest means checking the facts first, not just accepting information because it confirms what we already believe.
On a side note, totally support the bill in every way.
I frequent a DG Market in a rural area. They shut the self checkouts down pretty quick due to theft.
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