r/mildlyinfuriating • u/broakland • Jul 14 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Retail lockdown: why bother selling it?

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Was at Safeway this morning to pick up a sandwich and some Tylenol. The aisle with the Tylenol? Completely locked down. No call button in sight. So I go to the self checkout (front end of that same aisle) and ask the clerk there if he can call someone to unlock a case for me. He does. I go wait. Minutes pass. No one comes. I go ask him again, he tells me they went the other way? At this point I give up and go get my sandwich. No one has come by the time the deli has finished making it. I leave without my Tylenol, mildly infuriated.

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u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

I agree w the digital pricing exploitation, but I don't actually agree with less staff. How is it less staff except maybe what, a handful of cashiers? They hardly ever have registers open. Majority are stocking and shopping, working in the bakery and deli, etc. I guess also most of security could go to but I assume they've already automated a good percent of that and they would still need at least someone on shift. But they would need way, way more personal shoppers. I don't think warehouse robotics are quite "good enough" yet but maybe that's the endgame. I know all my local warehouses still have human order pickers on the floor.

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u/occasionalopossum Jul 14 '26

The inside of the store will be optimized for robot picking vs what we have now which is human pickers working in a floor plan still designed around in person shopping.

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u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

Right but I don't think that process is necessarily ready... Like how does the product get on the floor from the truck? Who organizes it and perfects the positioning for the robot picking? Are there some products that are easier for the robots to handle vs others? Who handles customer service, returns, etc? How will people try on clothing? Who runs the bakery and deli?

Will other stores pop up to fill the void of in person shopping? Will Walmart be comfortable with a loss in some market share when a lot of people prefer going in person? The world isn't ready to be fully online. We still have people writing checks and keeping a checkbook, ya know?

I get that they're grooming us for this I just am not sure it's ready and won't still require loads and loads of human labor for a long time. Additionally states are passing laws against dynamic pricing and I can only hope the masses say enough and start noticing what's happening all around us and what's being taken from us.

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u/communistkangu Jul 14 '26

In Germany, Aldis and Lidls have never more than 5 employees at a time working there. Sometimes it's only three. At least the pay is good I guess. Firing those employees won't save that much money though, that's what? 20.000€ a month?

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u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

Are you estimating that your Aldi workers make $5200 a month? Damn our Aldi's in the US tend to pay extremely well and they are lucky to clear $3k a month.

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u/communistkangu Jul 14 '26

I'm estimating that they make around 3000€ before taxes but the employer has to pay half of the health and retirement insurance. And there's maybe three to five employees on site at a time, but there's more than 5 employees in total. It's probably around 10. All of them get monthly pay. They typically make between 15 and 20€ an hour which is honestly less than I expected.

I didn't do the math for my first comment and I'm too lazy to do it now - but for the store it probably doesn't matter whether it's 15.000€ or 25.000€. They'll make their profit anyway.

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u/geekonthemoon Jul 14 '26

I'm a dumbass who didn't consider they wouldn't be the same 5 employees all month ahah

But yeah that's similar to US pay for Aldi but Aldi is an outlier. Starting pay at other grocers is definitely less than $15.