From the desk of ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI

ARE we so busy — so self-obsessed, we have not the time to queue? The self-checkout facilities available in supermarkets have more to do with cutting annual running-costs and increasing revenue than with genuine customer-service. It is a hoodwink.

The checking-out and paying for items at a supermarket cash register, operated by a member-of-staff, is a paid employment — the means by which someone earns a living. That shoppers willing do it for nothing is a conundrum. Australia’s food costs are amongst the highest in the world. Why would customers paying cunningly inflated prices offer their services for gratis? When you do something for nothing, that is your value — nothing!

Everyone bleats about queuing; however, do not be naïve. It could posited, with a degree of conviction, the supermarket self-checkouts are a cleverly formulated ruse designed and implemented not to reduce instances of queuing, but specifically to reduce staff numbers and, most crucially, increase revenues. It is time for the shopping pubic to stop being manipulated. Often times, there is a queue waiting at the self-checkout machines. One, even two, staff members are able to supervise ten outlets. For the most part, check-out staff are categorised as unskilled labour. Axiomatically, the day will dawn when staffed registers will no longer exist. Such a demise will see excess employees thrown onto the scrap-heap of long-term unemployment.

It is fanciful to imagine supermarkets care about customers. They care, only, for your loyalty, the in-store experience, and primarily their indecent profits. Supermarkets will say, and do, whatever it takes to engage you with, and attract you into, their stores; to convince you to buy. In simplest terms, their responsibility is managing a chain of shops — no more, no less. While, patently, it is a professional discipline requiring varying levels of experience and credentials, it is not splitting the atom! Seemingly, salaries of the senior executive management are linked, directly, to productivity — your spending. The annual profit determines their reward. Set against the meagre wages of those at the supermarkets’ coalface, the remuneration aggregate is grotesquely imbalanced ­ — even obscene. We know of supermarket staff being underpaid, but never overpaid!

In 2022-23, the former Coles’ CEO was paid $10.2-million. The new CEO earned $3.3-million; a former Woolworths’ CEO was paid $8.6-million.

Concerningly, of the two major supermarkets, the shelves are stacked with their own brand of products, displayed prominently. Such is their domination they are able to dictate our shopping choices. The preponderance of their own products has the potential to affect the viability of competitive manufacturers. While management will argue stridently to the contrary, ultimately, left to continue their outrageous practices, we will be saddled with shopping we deserve — predicated by the supermarkets’ profits. It is a profoundly disquieting, even perilous, dilemma.

Pause and consider: are you so busy you would choose to use the self-checkout and jeopardise someone else’s livelihood?

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