Convince me otherwise....
On edit, Kroger will have to hire someone to walk the aisles picking the damn thing up every time a kid runs into it or someone bashes it with a shopping cart.
The base doesn't look hefty enough to keep it upright in a 1mph collision with a playskool pushcart driven by a 2 year old.

a whole lot of difference..

aforementioned flashing lights. They will be such a help with my migraines.

Sorry….my local kroger is THE WORST

They must have stopped restocking at night because the aisles are always blocked with ladders and carts with inventory. Throw in some people conversing and it is a real obstacle course. Still not bad enough to send me to WalMart though.

which, of course, is making things endlessly entertaining.

The standard issue is yokels standing slack-jawed in the aisle, acting like it's the first time they've seen a frozen food section. The pinnacle though, and worth double points, is the husband/wife team aisle block. Hubby on the left, wifey on the right and the cart set diagonally between them. God damn, it's a thing of beauty and as impenetrable as a beaver damn when executed properly.

Then for some reason they created a hopscotch near the check out! (They used painters tape) But what were they thinking? Right away, I almost ran over some kids.

For identifying empty shelves. I don't like the ones used for surveillance.

And while I am sympathetic to the phone operators, milkmen, milliners, and millers of years past, I also know that they eventually had to move to other things. That's the way progress has worked in all of history and now is no different.

They are not handed on down from gods. They are not writ in stone. They are what we decide they are. Not individually, but as a group.

I don’t think shelf stockers mind giving up the job, but what do we have as a community to offer in its place? Customer service jobs? No, wait. STEM careers? Those jobs are also in jeopardy. A really adequate social safety net? Not here, not in our raw capitalist Mecca.

We better figure it out soon as more and more jobs are replaced by automation, AI, robots. The default “decision” appears to be sorry, fella, no one is entitled to a job. Or a safety net that serves your interests. Instead, top capitalists decide for us, to their near term profit. They better duck when the abandoned and displaced come after them with pitchforks and hammers.

No, wait, the very top know this. That’s why they are building bunkers for themselves. They know what’s coming. And they always have money for the modern versions of praetorian guards. $1.5 trillion you say? Gawd knows the full cost when factoring in their non-military guards.

I don’t mean to totally put down what you say, but it’s often forgotten that we make the rules for ourselves or allow others to do so to their private benefit. (…perhaps not the hill to die on as there are mind numbing and body destroying jobs almost all would give up if there were clear and accessible alternatives out there.)

I think management types can't wait to eliminate the human "overhead." This is likely to result in fewer well-paying jobs over the next 30 years as the AI companies are eager to suck up as much profit as possible.

While no one is entitled to a job, everyone is entitled to health care. That's not really controversial. What will be controversial is if society has to move to UBI because so few have to "work." Even the billionaire types like Musk have stated the need.

Kinda fun watching them roam around.

with its flashing lights and the sound of its operating system to someone prone to headaches from certain frequencies of noise and light probably is not one of them.

Tally can have it!

It's really surprising how something supposedly meant to be unobtrusive is so constantly in the way. You stop to get something from the shelf and it diverts around. You have your item in the cart and now that little bastard is right in your way again because it has cut back in front of you to continue up the same side of the aisle.

I've noticed that there's a sign on it announcing penalties if you knock it over. I can understand the need for that, LOL. It IS a tempting thought (that I honestly hadn't had until seeing the notice).

I haven't noticed fewer employees and my store employs a lot of disabled folks, giving them a chance to contribute to society and make a living for themselves. I do stay away from self-checkout unless I'm really in a hurry but I think this store is still better for the community than the other major competitor, freaky robot thingy or not.

do their own checking and bagging (and then hiring private rent-a-cops. .oopps, security, to prevent theft), I do not see them keeping even current, minimum staffing levels. I know the bs they are already pulling, and it does not amuse me.

Sunset Blvd. in years, went straight down Vermont turned left onto Sunset and several blocks down is where Kaiser is. On the way home I approach Vermont Ave to turn right for home. At the intersection of Sunset and Vermont where I stopped for red light.

Coming across the street in the walking lane on green light was a square box ice-cream robot with flashing lights, it was amazing and weird and the pedestrians walking up and the sidewalk apparently were not fazed.