A cashier is needed every day, at every store, everywhere.
A few techs can install all these stores, once.
The same goes for repair techs.

In your scenario, the math doesn't work out.

Suppose 5 cashiers are eliminated at 1000 stores.
Maybe 10 install techs and 20 repair persons can manage all 1000 of these
stores*

Now let's do the math.

For the cashiers, let's take the middle between 24 hour stores like
Walmart, and other stores and say 06:00 to 0:00 daily.
That's 18 man hours per day, and 126 man hours per week. Times 5 cashiers
per store is 630 hours per store per week.
Times 1000 stores totals 630,000 man hours. Given wages between $5.50 and
$10.00 that's between $3,465,000 and $6,300,000 per week in wages
and $173,250,000 - $315,000,000 per year ( given 50 weeks per year)

Now if you figure on tech salaries between $24,000 and $72,000 per year
for 30 techs, that's $720,000 - $2,160,000 total per year.
I'd say this hardly even takes the edge off the salaries lost to the
cashier jobs, however, it's millions in the pockets of the retailer. And
you can bet it won't be given back to the consumer in savings. Retailers
like Walmart do NOT pass savings on to consumers. They only lower prices
to the point required to best compete with the competition and maximize
profits.
If Walmart can save 40 cents on something, but they only have to lower it
say 5 cents to beat Target's price, you can bet it will only be 5 cents
lower.
And those huge profits don't go back into the local communities much
either. Mostly into cheaper and cheaper foreign suppliers.

 *(in my experience in POS, the numbers are much lower. During the brief
time I worked in the Point Of Sale division at IBM, I was responsible for
every store of a certain chain in 2 states! I had 3 other people on those
stores, but doing different jobs. We only covered the same duties during
emergencies.)

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Herbert Graf"
  To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public."
  Subject: Re: [OT] I wonder what company would let such a product
  outthedoor. Naw, it couldn't be ...
  Date: Sat, 09 Dec 2006 19:14:42 -0500


  On Sat, 2006-12-09 at 22:51 +0000, Peter P. wrote:
  > Herbert Graf farcite.net> writes:
  >
  > > Eliminating shoplifting completely is a pointless exercise,
  putting
  > > guards in to minimize it is the best we can do. There will always
  be
  > > people who can get around WHATEVER guards are in place. To
  completely
  > > dismiss something new because it appears slightly easier to take
  > > advantage of is IMHO not a good way to approach things.
  >
  > The whole point about the system is to eliminate costly jobs and to
  increase
  > user satisfaction (convenience) ? There is only one employee
  instead of six.
  > Maybe there is a little more potential for shoplifting. If the
  > savings from the
  > eliminated jobs cover it then there is a net gain even with the
  increased
  > shopliftings (if any).

  This "loosing jobs" argument is very common, and IMHO very flawed.

  Yes, cashier jobs would disappear. But has anyone considered that
  OTHER
  jobs will appear? Off hand it's obvious that the technical jobs will
  increase, since someone has to design, manufacture, test and deliver
  these systems. There there are the field techs, the sales force, the
  distributers, the repair companies, the replacement parts companies,
  the
  competition delivering the same functionality for a better price,
  etc.

  EVERY TIME technology comes and takes the "job" of a person, people
  start crying, yet has the unemployment rate skyrocketed in the past
  century?

  Sure, numbers wise there ARE probably statistically less people who
  work
  on say, a single car then there were before Henry Ford came along,
  but
  there sure are ALOT more cars being built, and I'm willing to bet
  MANY
  MAGNITUDES more people working on building cars today.

  TTYL

  --
  http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
  View/change your membership options at
  http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist

-- 

Search for products and services at: 
http://search.mail.com

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist