So you have filled your basket at the grocery store [or the discount-store or wherever] and you are ready to check out. In front of you are several self-checkout sites and checkout sites manned by a real person. In most cases the number of cashiers available to you will be minimal. There is probably a line that you must stand in to have a real person [other than yourself] check you out. There is probably an open self-checkout lane. So what do you do?

Before making that decision, consider the following: Does the store offer you a discount for doing the work yourself? By using the self-checkout are you helping to eliminate someone's job?

As far as I have been able to determine, there are no stores offering a discount at the self-help lane. I contacted in person or by telephone several establishments to ask that question and all replied in the negative. When I asked them why, the answer was either "I don't know" or "It is company policy."

There can be no question that jobs have been eliminated by the use of the self-help lanes. And there can be no doubt that companies have eliminated jobs due to the fact that they need less employees the more that these lanes are used.

When basic economics is studied in school, [and in many high schools throughout the land it is not, except possibly as an elective], the idea of each paycheck compounding through the community is learned. Of course, if there are less paychecks, there is less spread of the dollars spent. The people who used to check you out at the grocery store spent their paychecks at the hardware store, the clothing store, the restaurant, the auto dealer, etc. As some (many?) of those jobs have been eliminated, there are less people spending less money at the hardware store, the clothing store, the restaurant, the auto dealer, etc. This is basic simple economics. [Oh, yea, are we teaching that these days?]

As less people spend less money at the hardware store, the clothing store, the restaurant, the auto dealer, etc, the next thing that happens is the reduction of employees at these locations. Just as people spending their paycheck spirals outward into the community, so does people NOT spending paychecks spiral out into the community.

You may have a good reason for using the self-service checkout lane instead of the regular checkout lane with a real live person there. (One person I discussed this with stated that he always use the self-service because he did not like to support union employees if he had an option.) But, shouldn't you get some kind of a discount for doing so? If you are doing the work of one or more employees [the store need less sackers as well as less cashiers], shouldn't you pay less?

Consider these thoughts when you next approach the front of the store to check out.