The Creeping Automatization of Shopping

Across the world over the last couple of years a silent revolution in shopping has been rolled out. While scanners, universal bar-codes, scales, and electronic tills are all part of the everyday landscape of the store, the completely automated store checkout - a service entirely devoid of human intervention - has so far only been a science fiction concept.

Self-service machines are now prolific in our everyday lives in ticketing, libraries, vending, banking; even toilets now offer automated services. But the supermarket checkout has had an almost symbolic sanctity.

Many of the issues in the auto-checkout stem not from the technology, but rather the social aspects of interaction, practices, and everyday life. Auto-checkouts require patience, precision, and tolerance - traits that only some shoppers appear to nurture. Guardian 23 August 2010 They also remove the conveniences of bulk buying. Negative perceptions of auto-checkouts are vague and nondescript - often just a general sense of 'frustration'. Telegraph 22 August 2010 Some users even feel 'bullied' by the machines! Telegraph 24 August 2010

What has been termed a 'revolution' at the tills Independent 23 August 2010 is hardly new technology. Entirely automated factories have been possible for decades. In 1932 a Harvard business student, Wallace Flint, submitted his masters thesis proposing an automated grocery store using punch cards. The idea of 'robot retailing' was discussed throughout the 1950s. The Billboard 18 October 1952 In 1950 Edward Benjamin Weiss claimed that "The day of robot retailing is here"! Business and Economics 1950: 146 Similarly, Jeremy Rifkin in The End of Work (1995) highlighted the threat of automation to jobs in the service sector.

But the current determination of supermarket chains to adopt the technology could precipitate a less obvious revolution in how stores operate. By removing the human interactions that users value, stores might force users into online e-shopping alternatives, thereby reducing shopping-related traffic. Like banks with ATMs, automation might be a precursor to reducing the number of available human tellers, thereby giving clients no choice but to self-checkout. Facing the burden of large amounts of self-service, the convenience of the supermarket is reduced and thus the attraction of weekly shopping trips.