Wages for Facebook may seem outlandish, but companies increasingly reduce labor costs by transferring the labor costs to consumers in self-checkout grocery lines, as well as in the building of IKEA furniture, whereas the consumer does the work for free.
Nicole Shippen, Decolonizing Time
I would push back by saying that consumers want to do it themselves sometimes. The process of building your own furniture can be part of the thrill, like playing with Lego. Even for people who do not enjoy building furniture, they do so willingly – knowing that it is part of a trade-off for convenience or price.
As for self-checkout counters, we don’t really want to buy the service of a cashier anyway. We just want to buy the goods from the grocery store. It’s irrelevant to consumers whether they checked it out themselves or someone checked it out for them. The faster and more convenient one is preferred. And for those who prefer cashiers, there’s always the option of going to the cashier.
The strange thing is in Singapore where the “self-checkout” cashiers are accompanied by a store attendant to make sure you know how to use it and maybe not steal stuff. Perhaps its part of a teething process.
Meritocratically Speaking 