The Problem with Self-Checkout Tills. It's Britain, so Not Us. We want to cling to the belief that the market will work this out eventually. But tell me where he's wrong.
Please.
When a right-wing capitalist like me, working in marketing, is calling for greater consumer protection, things have probably reached a crisis point. But why? Until this century, most transactions were conducted face-to-face. Such transactions are lubricated by a high degree of tacit trust and shame avoidance. By contrast, any online exchange must be designed to be proof against the world’s most dishonest people. This imposes a huge burden on the majority of honest customers.
I liked the proverb "Trust arrives on foot, but leaves on horseback."
I'm not sure it undermines his basic argument, but one of his premises is flawed: "Until this century, most transactions were conducted face-to-face." I remember thumbing through the Sears Catalog as a child. The roots of Sears was selling to rural customers by mail order. These were hardly face-to-face transactions and made Sears one of the largest companies in the US in the first half of the 20th century. Amazon actually reinvented the Sears model in the internet age when Sears had pivoted away from mail order. Personally, I'm fine with self-checkout!
ReplyDeleteTrue. Out on the prairie during settlement there were mail order brides, and there still are, in a modern variation.
ReplyDeleteIt does remind me of the joke about old Ebenezer bein' pow'ful disappointed when he ordered a fuh coat from Sears and learned that the young lady didn't come with it.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't make the link work, but a lot of these self-checkout systems are just plain badly designed. The ones at Safeway and Giant are like a science fair project done by a kid who didn't have time to finish it properly. The ones at WalMart and Whole Foods are better.
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