Mulling over George Pope to Steve Asher 03 Jan 2003

Hi George!

 SA>  GP> And one little customer's wants mean nothing any more! :(
 SA>
 SA> Basically, all I want is a human who knows how to be polite,
 SA> put the stuff in the bags, & handle the cash-register stuff.

 GP> You've still got baggers, eh? :P
 GP> (some of the big grocery supermarkets here have gone to "bag your
 GP> own" now!) :P

Yep, as far as I know, there are no "bag your own" supermarkets here,
but they will come, & people will need to be "educated" in how to
use them, register to have their biometrics recorded to use in them,
etc etc.

 GP> (and the cash-register stuff?  ANY minimum wage flunky can scan
 GP> UPCs, but these gotta be UNION checkers, at about 2.5* the minimum
 GP> wage rate!) :P

I don't know that normal time pays all that well here, but they do get
"penalty rates" for nights, weekends, public holidays. Naturally, the
large chains are pressuring for unrestricted trading hours, along with
elimination of penalty rates. Currently, large stores are limited to
certain trading hours, with suburban shopping centres largely closed
on Sundays. In the central business district ("downtown") they can
trade on Sundays also. The Bi-Lo next to me is a smaller, unrestricted
store which was trading 24/7 until recently. It is now 6 am to midnight.

Cheers, Steve..

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