… what jobs would those be as more and more become redundant or obsolete? There is a social cost to displacing workers even when P/L all but demands it.
What happens to those who are without the rapidly evolving and changing skill sets and are not adept at navigating the gig economy - no security, no promise of anything tomorrow only for the moment, no super/retirement funds, … ?
I might get flamed but an economy and society, be it global or not, that only prizes maximising profits and every person for themselves is bound to self destruct given enough time. There is only so much ‘cake’ for them to eat and if the highly skilled and entrepreneurial types don’t understand there is a problem or refuse to accept there is a problem, a revolution or collapse will become inevitable as the ‘lower working classes’ become ever more dominant and the 10% and 1% and 1/2% become ever more wealthy.
I prefer using ‘manned’ checkouts to preserve those jobs, and they are faster than myself so save me time unless the lines are long, and then I am happy to wait.
Jobs have become obsolete in the past: lamp lighter, switchboard operators, VCR repair man, milk man,
Typesetter…
Other jobs open up.
In the age of online buying there must be jobs in taking orders and despatching, and much more.
Physical stores also need people to stock shelves, security personnel, self-service assistants…
When sales personnel treats you like a little old lady (as Mrs Zac mentions)
or doesn’t understand what you need to purchase for someone else (as Peter has experienced) it’s difficult to feel that there is a duty to subsidise their living.
I feel the same way about bad staff noting the recent comments in this topic. To my larger point though, a few decades ago a niece in the USA with a BA degree was competing with other degreed people for a job loading trucks. Yes, there was a job.
It is a Nett loss of jobs, as we have mechanised, computerised and robotosised we have lost more jobs than those created in the new areas. The Luddites were right.
As to Staff who are obnoxious or have difficulty in customer personal service, the answer is to make Management aware in a nice way that the Staff member needs some customer relations training. If the problem continues then if possible complain about the local management as they are not taking the needed steps.
If they are dismissed due to problems or that they no longer have a job opening you then have to subsidise them through taxes as they go on to claim Welfare, and in that case you really don’t have any hope of correcting their attitudes.
Just for the sake of argument (as it is off topic) throughout the ages there’s been dislike of new technologies causing job displacements, but it is the way it is and we can manage to slow down the process but not stop it.
Years ago there were sales assistants that were experts in what they were selling and passing on tips and know-how to shoppers.
They were taking merchandise off the shelf, measuring, or weighting it for you, and wrapping it up for you, and dealing with cash money and change.
Now it’s difficult to see their role: we take the items from the shelf ourself, pack it in our own shopping bag, cash is seldom used, any questions are answered by reading from the item’s box.
What are they really there for? To fix the self-service machine when it says: Unexpected item in the bagging area?
Personally I have no problems with the way I’m treated by sales assistants, I take no-nonsense from them and seldom have cause to make a complaint to Management.
It’s just the way I see things going, especially with online purchases, the future of the physical store itself is in doubt, as we have seen in the extended lockdown during Covid19 when whole shopping centres were off-limits, and yet customers were buying and having purchases delivered. Also, as we see the self-service way of making purchases get more and more widespread as time goes on. The way we are buying and selling is undergoing a change, slowly but surely.
A box gutter in the garage was overflowing into the ceiling… I started getting quotes from plumbers.
I remember one who came and after a quick look at the roof called his boss and then handed me the phone.
I was given a quote for the job, over the phone, and an offer of a discount, to be applied only if I agreed to the quote straightaway.
“Sorry” I replied, “but I don’t make decisions under pressure. I’ll have to let you go”, and handed the phone back to the tradesman who looked a bit embarrassed…
Women make up a good 50% of the Australian population, and they dominate consumer purchasing decisions. On Papers about consumer’s issues, women are presented as the world’s most powerful consumers, purchasing food, fitness, beauty, apparel… and it seems they are mostly dissatisfied with financial services and health care.
They shop around, do their research before-hand, value well presented clear information of products, and after-sales services.
And yet women are greatly undervalued by most Companies, some ignore them, some are ridiculously condescending: make it Pink to appeal to females!
I wonder what it would take to wake them up, maybe a reminder: Ignore them at your peril?
Definitely. I’ve welcomed online shopping with open arms… I couldnt wait to get groceries delivered so when covid happened along, I jumped. See, some of us are hermits. Due to covid I seem to have exposed a mild agoraphobia… its not enough to stop me going out if I have to, but given the choice, I’ll stay home. and I HATE supermarkets… they are too big and what you need is always somewhere else. I’ve always been a hermit, but of course one had to earn a crust in the past… I’ve had 10 years to enjoy my blessed isolation. I don’t think I’m alone in this, I’m sure many others no longer go supermarket shopping… the last time I did it only a couple of weeks ago, there was hardly anyone in the shop, where pre covid it would have been packed at before school time.
Better get back on topic… I must confess that I have not had huge issues with being treated poorly because I’m female… but then, I don’t tolerate any nonsense, so if I detect even a smidge of dismissiveness, I move on (but tell them they just lost a sale because of it)
Looking at websites on how to attract customers, I found the following interesting tips:
To attract female customers:
Emotional Sell (Get their trust and they will spread the word).
Use humour to get them to talk about a product or service.
Connect in person, women are very intuitive and respond to a personal communication.
To attract male customers:
Value for money, deals, rewards.
The male shopper is a value-loving, research-minded, price-conscious customer…
I wonder if any of you agree with the above statements.
When it comes to shopping are men really more value conscious and less open to trust and personal contact than women, and are women consumers so very open to the emotional sell…etc…?
Those who are Choice members or contribute to the community are likely not typical of the average consumer. If the average consumer was more like us Choice would have millions and millions of paid members. We are more likely to be premeditated in our purchasing decisions than respond to emotion or hedonism. More the practical minded types and mildly boring to some.
While there are differences between the genders, we have a trend recognising diversity and a wide spectrum of personalities.
Being cost conscious has been omitted from @Gaby sourced list of priorities for those more feminine inclined but espoused as the way to go with the blokes. With value, deals and rewards it sounds as if the idea is straight out of a ‘Donald Trump’ story book. I suspect like much of what Trump says dividing men and women into two distinct groups is all marketing hype. Mostly intended to play to the narrow minded accountants and head busting executives in control of the marketing cheque account.
I know many women who will hunt down a bargain and pursue the best deal on what they want. Certainly more likely than the stereotype frivolous shopper portrayed in too many movies and TV programs. How many households were built on the thrift and savings of the lady in the house, and fortunes blown by the men on over blown grandiose dreams, the horses or at the pub. Looking for who owns that big boat or fast car?
Regardless of gender isn’t the power in marketing convincing a would be buyer they have a problem or need they didn’t know they had, even if it’s not totally factually correct? There after you can sell anything to anyone! Choice members excepted.
Disagree with sweeping generalisations that men are logical and women are emotional when it comes to shopping. In many households it is very much the other way around.
In your previous post you said “do their research before-hand, value well presented clear information of products, and after-sales services.”
