From my retail experience I suspect the opposite is true for some cashiers - as their own line grows longer they actually slow down (or remain at the same rate) in order to encourage people in the line to move to a different cashier.
I used to work as a cashier, and I once got written up because I was $20 short when I counted down my drawer at the end of a busy 8 hour shift. They told me I'd be fired if I was more than $10 off a second time.
If you're lucky you just get chewed out. My wife used to work retail and in one store, you had to push credit cards, often to people who really should not have another one. If you failed to meet your quota you get a warning the first time and then fired the second time.
> Rationally, you'd think that a cashier that works 3x faster than other cashiers can make 3x the income. Or even 2x.
I don't think so, because a cashier's main job is just to wait for customers to show up. They are faster at clearing bottlenecks when a lot of customers show up at once, but they don't handle anywhere close to 3x as many customers over the course of their entire shift.
From what I've heard, being a cashier is only a part of the job, and usually the less pleasant one. People are still needed to unload groceries, monitor the self-checkouts, etc.
Well if the other employees screw up they get a warning and maybe some direction. If you screw up at your job you'll get accused of shoplifting and maybe get the cops called.
Cashier jobs are entry level positions. As such they are also a means of advancement to other roles in retail. Countless people started as cashier and worked their way up to roles like customer services, buyer, store manager etc.
These jobs are also an opportunity for students to earn money and get work experience. But yes, "Let's destroy this job" simply because you don't like it?
Since your profile states you are a staff developer at Shopify, here's a Shopify link that outlines the value that the role of cashier brings to a retail environment:
I've worked as a store clerk. You don't get positive reinforcement for doing a good job. You just get yelled at if you screw up. Or somebody else screws up. Or nobody screwed up but the manager expects you to be superhuman.
True, but on average each cashier gets the same number of slow customers. The cashier can control how fast he bags, whether he can identify produce items, whether he dawdles and chats, etc.
> And the cashiers had to stock shelves when there are no customers at the cash register so of course they were sweating.
> The idea is to have no stock room so they don’t have to hire stocking staff, and make the cashiers do it when they aren’t actively checking people out.
What's wrong with cashiers stocking shelves? Seems perfectly reasonable to simply keep working while you are on the clock.
For the person who is now able to be a cashier and previously unable to be a cashier, the cash register likely put upward pressure on that individual's wage earning ability.
If the cashier pushes back, they may be punished (up to and including getting fired — there's more competition for cashier-level jobs than you think).
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