Automated

Automated. 

I did something the other day that I really don't care to do. However, at the moment I really had little choice. 

I had run into Walmart to pick up a couple of things for the house, and was looking for a checkout aisle. As you probably know Walmart always builds a plethora of checkouts, I suppose anticipating Black Friday sales, but generally only opens two or three aisles at a time any other day of the year. 

Now you know how I feel about the self-checkout kiosks. Besides requiring more work on my part, I see them as the eventual demise of jobs for real people as cashiers. That particular day all two of the lanes that were open had a long line of customers with overflowing baskets. 

Common sense dictated that the self checkout made more sense. Except, I really wasn't too happy about it, and made a comment to the person behind me about my concerns. I checked out, remarkably, without any trouble or assistance, and made my way back to the car. 

The next day I needed to take Coooer to be groomed. Rather than returning home, which is a little further away now, I ran to McDonalds for some breakfast and a large iced tea. Upon leaving I noticed that McDonalds had also installed automatic order stations. I had heard they were coming, but don't frequent McDonalds as often as I used to, so I had not run across any on my own. 

I had walked up to the counter to order out of habit, and didn't know I had a choice between the two ordering options. I suppose it is just a matter of time before there will be no need for cashiers. That push for fifteen dollars an hour has really turned out to be "counter" productive for the employees. 

On a happier note I was at my bank branch in Las Colinas the other day, and ran into one of the tellers from my old Frisco branch. We took a few minutes to catch up, and lament the change to automation at the Frisco branches. I suppose this is considered progress, but I'm not sure that always is a good thing.