How Do You Rate Your Self-Checkout Skills at Parsippany's Stores?

Today, I was buying some household items at Walmart in Boonton with my daughters and later treated them to the McDonald's on Myrtle Avenue. We'd never seen fast food automated this way. As we walked in huge banks of kiosks greeted us to the left - nearly floor to ceiling. My daughters, who are of the touchscreen generation, were thrilled to scroll through as they made their selections.

According to Forbes, by 2020 all U.S. McDonald's will convert to kiosks. It's not long off. And, clearly there will be less workers needed.

Target in Parsippany simultaneously frustrates and tempts both me and my husband. It's quicker than ShopRite to grab milk or even dinner ingredients. But, the checkout can be incredibly frustrating - the machine regularly gets stuck, for instance not seeing the correct price on a clearance item, and the lack of human support once the machine is insistent on intervention can be frustrating - at times no one is around, at other times they are hopping between stations, so everything grinds to a halt. As my husband and I have joked to one another, we feel like we are slowly being trained to perform our new jobs in checkout.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' April report shows that the positive employment news continues. Unemployment declined to 3.6%, the lowest since December of 1969. Nearly all sectors of the economy are positive for employment, except retail. Merchandise stores lost 9,000 jobs in April.

I was at IHOP in Parsippany today and, as we were waiting for my husband, the girls and I looked over at the empty KMart and the huge "Going out of Business" signs on the Bed, Bath and Beyond store. I told them that this is something unique to their generation - that they will see the automation of retail. Amazon boxes are common in our house, and checkout lanes with cashiers are something that they won't have much exposure to.

It's incredible how quickly this transition is taking place even within our town. What will fill the spaces left by failing retail as Amazon and automation both press onward? It will be interesting to see.