Being Checked At The Door As If I Was A Thief

[Jim Norman]

blkbrd, i am director of operations for a retail chain with over 100 locations. i can tell you no one fails to get a job due to self-checkout. we can't find enough applicants to fill the positions we have and have resorted to self-checkout to better serve customers. we once had very high standards when filling positions that delt with 99.9% of all our customers and as positions began to be harder and harder to fill lowered those standards. studies have shown that shrink at self checkouts is less that at clerk manned registers. mostly due to underringing sales for sweethearts and family/friends or outright theft of money where the clerk cancels or voids the sale and pockets the money. a huge number of applicants that we have to consider are functionally illiterate. they can't even fill out an application. we have actually attended meetings at our local HRS offices and offered to extend employment to anyone who would show up to work and had no takers. but we do have these folks come by frequently asking for us to fill out a slip of paper for them so that they can turn it in to show their search for work. they are mostly surprised and leave the store post haste when we refuse and instead give them a time to report for work.

I chanced by this thread and I couldn't help but have a feeling of kinship form J.L.

We have a small business with about 35 employees. In the last three weeks we hired 5 new people, so far to date one has passed the fianl part of the employment test, he showed up at the appointed time!

It amazes me to hear about how bad things are when We go through this time after time. Occasionally they will call and say they got a better offer, but generally they simply fail to show up. We have even had people show up, work a couple days and never come back. Their paychecks returned to sender when we attempted to mail them.

Literacy and the ability to add and subtract numbers not associated with sports team standings are sadly lacking today.

I personally refuse to use self-checkout, but I can see where it may be a stores last recourse. The days when you could hire a couple college kids or high schoolers part time seem to be gone in a large part of the country, either they can do better or Mom and Dad are paying the way, so why work.

I wonder if the problem is better or worse in affluent areas?

Jim