Even if Whole Foods axes all of us cashiers, that’s a long way down the road. The logistics and expense around doing this is also a nightmare. The stores aren’t ready to be run by robots just yet. Amazon purchased a successful business so messing with that formula wouldn’t go well. I’m sure there’s a bigger game plan that we’ll never know about until the very last second but for now our jobs are mostly safe. I’m no cheerleader for Bezos (working for him is my worst nightmare come true) but for now it’s still a great paying job with plenty of opportunity for movement and stability in the company. Definitely unfortunate to witness so many changes at WF but overall I feel lucky to be able to have the benefits and make a pretty decent living wage.

People like the author are why the capitalists want to bypass humans and use machines to do the work. Youth is wasted on the young, the arrogant, thoughtless, over-"educated" and privileged jerks who patronize soul-sucking business models like this one.

I recognize that it's all part of a progression, but it seems like this 'grab-and-go' robot surveillance technology is closer to replacing self-checkout than cashiers.

This just confirms what elitist piece of shit assholes work for this magazine. Too good for a real job. Never done a hard days work but thinks hey are better because they write for a supposed alternative rag. Fuck every Stranger employee.

Yes, 6, maybe you could explain yourself. Nothing wrong with being a blue-collar worker, many of whom have very marketable skills (mechanics, welders, ship workers, the list goes on...). But if you're just here as a hateful right-wing Trumpanzee, why do you read the Stranger?

Grab And Go Grocery.

what squad of nitwits came up with that name?

could have least been a little more poetic. Grabbin' Grocery?

6 and 9 being a cashier is not a skill. And at a grocery store too cheap for automated checkout, where only the old people want to talk to you, you are a nuisance.

@8:

I think the prevailing mind-set goes something like this:

MY job is a REAL job
Any job similar to my job is a REAL job
Anyone who does anything slightly more physical/soul-crushing than me has a REAL job
Anyone who makes a LOT more money than I do, and gets to tell other people what to do, has a REAL job
Anyone who doesn't have to work as hard or as long as I do doesn't have a "real" job no matter how much money they make

As someone with extreme social anxiety, I'm thankful to have the option of avoiding a cashier. However, I do not think all cashiers should be axed.

As a member of the human race and in solidarity with it, I engage in my own little act of retail rebellion. I refuse to use self-serve checkout kiosks at supermarkets or anywhere else that has them. I always check out only where there's a real human at the station. I smile and greet my fellow human and sometimes we engage in a bit of sociable chatter.

I'm never in so much of a hurry to want to totally dispense with human contact. I'm bemused by the irony of how we just don't have the time or patience anymore to talk to other humans face-to-face, even while many of us now prattle constantly to inanimate devices with artificial human voices.

If we keep moving in this direction almost the entire next generation of humans will be living in tent cities under the disused I-5s of the world. I'm glad I'm old enough that I won't be around when even highly educated professionals will have been replaced by robots and algorithms.

So, I won't be seeing you at an Amazon Grab and Go nor at a fully automated Whole Foods (whenever they arrive) now or any time in the future. I intend to continue my quiet little token revolt on behalf of human beings.

14 grocery cashiers are not axed because of your societal dysfunction nor my annoyance with mindless chit chat. There is simply no reason to give cash to humans anymore and many reasons not to. It's not efficient, adds cost and time to the transaction etc. Some higher margin businesses may accrue tangible benefits from communication with their customers via the cashier , but even those businesses have customers who would rather avoid the enforced social interaction.

I cut meat for Safeway. My co workers, ( checkers) are not worried about the future of those positions as Safeway is still stuck in 1985.. Thank god..

@17 Why don't you just end your annoyance with other human beings and kill yourself? Then you won't have to share the planet with all those other pesky, irritating humans.

19 are you really telling me to commit suicide? What kind of sicko are you?