(via https://hachyderm.io/@jbcrawford/112202942593125987, archive: https://archive.is/VnqRZ)
surprise, Amazon’s godawful surveillance grocery stores were just exploiting hidden labor and calling it innovation, and even that was too expensive
even worse, the few times I’ve seen one of these fucking things in the wild, it still had 1-2 employees hovering near the entrance to make sure nobody did the utterly obvious (fuck with the payment system and get free shit), a job that’s also known as a fucking cashier, but with much worse pay, much harder labor (physically stopping shoplifters), and no counter to lean on or opportunity to even sit down
I weirdly liked the times I’ve visited in Seattle.
It didn’t seem more expensive to me. It costs as much as a Bartell Drugs or Walgreens. My main issue was the limited product. It was only a handful of things I liked, and I didn’t ever find a reason to go beyond the novelty.
Honestly, beyond the awful labour practices, I just can’t imagine skipping checkout without feeling I’m being scammed.