Protest at Giant Food in Waldorf on 4/10/2011

[Giantone]

...you might want to shop somewhere else.

Giant is outsourcing good maryland jobs to a company called C&C wholsalers and they are shuting down Giants warehouses and moving the work to PA to be done by robots,same as they did in NJ....the impact will be the same .

C&S Wholesale Grocers Report

 

[Baja28]

With the way MD taxes companies, who can blame them? :shrug:

 

[aps45819]

.......the impact will be the same .

Lower food prices?

 

[CrashTest]

What types of "good jobs" are going to be done by robots now?

Lots of grocery stores have already outsourced "good" cashier jobs to customers who ring up their own stuff now.

 

[Giantone]

Lower food prices?

....nope,the prices will go up,more profit for the company over seas, Ahold is sitting on 3.5 billion , and your taxes will go up to cover all the new unemployed.

 

[Giantone]

What types of "good jobs" are going to be done by robots now?

Lots of grocery stores have already outsourced "good" cashier jobs to customers who ring up their own stuff now.

All of them , first the warehouse distrubution jobs ,then the drivers and after that all the cashers in the store will be made selfserve,you will have one employee for every 4 or 5 registers to cover problems and customers will have to use a price gun,except for a few high school kids bagging (maybe) thats it, stockers are all part time now.

 

[Giantone]

With the way MD taxes companies, who can blame them? :shrug:

Giant is already getting tax breaks from the state and Howard county.

 

[edinsomd]

....nope,the prices will go up,more profit for the company over seas, Ahold is sitting on 3.5 billion , and your taxes will go up to cover all the new unemployed.

Pennsylvanian robots are overseas?

 

[aps45819]

Pennsylvanian robots are overseas?

The Mason-Dixon Ocean

 

[ImnoMensa]

All of them , first the warehouse distrubution jobs ,then the drivers and after that all the cashers in the store will be made selfserve,you will have one employee for every 4 or 5 registers to cover problems and customers will have to use a price gun,except for a few high school kids bagging (maybe) thats it, stockers are all part time now.

When the stores do away with the Cashier, I will go to one that has a Cashier. Free Enterprise works.

 

[Hoover]

Its just not That giant its all the giant food stores dumb!

 

[huntr1]

...you might want to shop somewhere else.

Giant is outsourcing good maryland jobs to a company called C&C wholsalers and they are shuting down Giants warehouses and moving the work to PA to be done by robots,same as they did in NJ....the impact will be the same .

C&S Wholesale Grocers Report

Damn those non-union robots! How dare they allow Royal Ahold to do more with less and use technological advancements to increase their bottom line. How totally unAmerican of them. They should do EVERY step of their commercial enterprise by hand, just like the auto manufacturers, oh, right...UAW let robots in to do the heavy lifting and safety critical parts of the auto construction process to leave the mindnumbing "insert bolt A in hole 2" process to their $75.00 per hour assembly line comrades.

 

[BushwoodGirl]

All of them , first the warehouse distrubution jobs ,then the drivers and after that all the cashers in the store will be made selfserve,you will have one employee for every 4 or 5 registers to cover problems and customers will have to use a price gun,except for a few high school kids bagging (maybe) thats it, stockers are all part time now.

Is th article below the type of "price gun" you are referring to? I think I would like that idea... (though I would imagine the potential for shop lifting could significantly increase..) Tracking the cost and bagging as I am shopping... no more long lines waiting to checkout...

This article is from a few years ago, so has anyone heard anything lately about how this concept is working??


Wait in self-check line? That’s so last month - Business - U.S. business - msnbc.com

"...She uses a personal scanner offered by the Bloom grocery store near her home, scanning each item as she takes it off the shelf and bagging as she shops. When she’s done, she pays at a terminal at the front of the store.

“When I come up to the checkout, everything’s already bagged, I go to my car, I’m done. No waiting in line,” she said at the suburban store between Washington and Baltimore..."

 

[cdsulhoff]

Is th article below the type of "price gun" you are referring to? I think I would like that idea... (though I would imagine the potential for shop lifting could significantly increase..) Tracking the cost and bagging as I am shopping... no more long lines waiting to checkout...

This article is from a few years ago, so has anyone heard anything lately about how this concept is working??


Wait in self-check line? That’s so last month - Business - U.S. business - msnbc.com

"...She uses a personal scanner offered by the Bloom grocery store near her home, scanning each item as she takes it off the shelf and bagging as she shops. When she’s done, she pays at a terminal at the front of the store.

“When I come up to the checkout, everything’s already bagged, I go to my car, I’m done. No waiting in line,” she said at the suburban store between Washington and Baltimore..."

The Giant here is Lusby has the price guns. I don't use them. I personally hate shopping at Giant. Much rather shop at Safeway. Maybe it's me, but Safeway seems to have a better produce and meat department and their prices seems lower, well sales seems better. I like the Dunkirk and Prince Frederick Safeway's.

 

[thurley42]

Microchip every thing...

Jug of honey gets sent to store, robot places on shelf, you put item in your cart, leave store and auto charged to your account, store orders another jug of honey, robot places jug of honey on shelf, you put....

Instead of complaining one can't make $50/hour stocking shelves, become the one that works on the robot...

Old article but explains what it is:

Wal-Mart, Gillette and Procter & Gamble are joining forces to give momentum to the technology of "talking tags". These tags will contain a computer chip, a small amount of data and a very small antenna that will connect it to the network. Anything with a tag will be able to communicate with networks or the Internet, sending information to electronic devices, appliances, or computers.

Your groceries will automatically check themselves out as you push your cart past a scanner. Your prescription bottle will tell you when it needs to be refilled. This technology is called "Auto-ID" and is located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The tags are known as Radio Frequency Identification tags, or RFID.

In the past, the tags have been too expensive to maintain, but a small, private company in California, called Alien Technology, is working on a large-scale method of production that will greatly reduce the cost. Each tag will sell for just under 7 cents.


More info: Radio-frequency identification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This would be great.....but I'm sure it would take forever to work the bugs out..trying to leave...please back up.....try again....item not recognized...please back up....repeat ten times.

 

[jsouthan]

The Giant here is Lusby has the price guns. I don't use them. I personally hate shopping at Giant. Much rather shop at Safeway. Maybe it's me, but Safeway seems to have a better produce and meat department and their prices seems lower, well sales seems better. I like the Dunkirk and Prince Frederick Safeway's.

The Giant in Dunkirk also has them. I personally like them, but I am very particular about how my items are bagged. Usually the cashiers just throw it in there any old way. When I do it myself, I can put items that go in the same place in the same bag. Makes putting it all away much easier.

 

[FromTexas]

All of them , first the warehouse distrubution jobs ,then the drivers and after that all the cashers in the store will be made selfserve,you will have one employee for every 4 or 5 registers to cover problems and customers will have to use a price gun,except for a few high school kids bagging (maybe) thats it, stockers are all part time now.

ROBOT DRIVERS FROM OVERSEAS!!!

 

[hvp05]

This is similar to the evolution of book and music stores. The industry is becoming more technologically advanced; the company can either accept that and evolve or it can fade into non-existance. If the latter happens, how many people would be unemployed then?

 

[BushwoodGirl]

The Giant in Dunkirk also has them. I personally like them, but I am very particular about how my items are bagged. Usually the cashiers just throw it in there any old way. When I do it myself, I can put items that go in the same place in the same bag. Makes putting it all away much easier.

Dang, where have I been?? I didn't realize this technology was so far along.. It doesn't appear as if the Giant in California, MD has it yet.... I like to bag mine also...

 

[BushwoodGirl]

This is similar to the evolution of book and music stores. The industry is becoming more technologically advanced; the company can either accept that and evolve or it can fade into non-existance. If the latter happens, how many people would be unemployed then?

Yep, just like gas stations... Showing my age now... but I remember when gas stations first starting going self service... I didn't like the idea... but now I love just being able to swipe my card and go.. (My kids probably don't even know what a full service gas station is...)

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic to those that will lose their jobs, but instead of protesting outside the store, maybe they could be getting with the company to see what other types of jobs will become available within the company with the new technology...