Self-serving.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: RUNDLES wrap up - Column

THE OTHER NIGHT I WENT TO THE SUPERMARKET for a few things, and Tor the umpteenth time I used the self-checkout for its speed and convenience, and for the umpteenth time there was some snag and the surly checker/attendant had to overcome it to complete my transaction.

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I don't really blame the checker. After all, the object of the self-service scanner is to eliminate checker positions. Maybe that's why in Britain they have a chancellor of the exchequer.

On this side of the pond, of course, we could have that same chancellor, and perhaps one for ex-gas station attendants, ex-travel agents, ex-ticket sellers, ex-video clerks, ex-secretaries, ex-stock brokers, ex-receptionists, ex-auto workers, ex-food servers, ex-bank tellers ... well, there's a lot of exes.

I'm not necessarily knocking automation; what 1 object to is the elimination of service. A lot of these exes were not just replaced with robots and other high-tech machines, but in some cases by real people, fewer in number and paid far less, who have no discernible skills other than to say something like "I don't know; that's just how it works." Or doesn't work. It's not their fault, of course and that may be the point. What they really represent; is a new layer of intentional obfuseation.

We've all talked about this for years, the obvious disappearing "service" in direct proportion to the growing ubiquity of the "'service economy," but perhaps there is some push-back. A study released earlier this fall pointed out that the self-checkout stalls at the supermarket are beginning to go away Albertson's has already eliminated the stations as consumers lose their enthusiasm for them.

The self-checkout trend peaked at 22 percent of supermarket transactions in stores with the option in 2007, and then dropped off to 16 percent in 2010, the study noted. The reasons cited were that shoppers preferred to interact with a real person, one who says "hello" and can take care of a problem like a mismarked item. What a concept.

Funny, but as I was researching the self-service movement I came across the information that the modern grocery store itself was part of a self-service trend nearly a century ago. It seems that before 1917 shoppers would go into a store and tell the clerk what they wanted - coffee, bacon. Hour, - etc. the clerk would retrieve it, bag...