Self-checkout lanes mean fewer workers at grocery stores

Acme Markets has announced plans to lay off about 900 part-time employees in the Philadelphia region. Paul Pavlou, an associate professor at Temple's Fox School of Business, said there is no doubt that self-checkout machines mean fewer workers are needed. "As we progress, as technology tries to simplify our lives, obviously we try to automate some tasks, some processes that previously humans used to do. So it's a much bigger socioeconomic question," he said. "And I can think of many examples over the last five, 10, 20 years where similar things happened."
May 2, 2011 | WHYY-FM