When I say that I have an obsessive fascination with cashiers, Jason Buechel, CEO of Whole Foods Market, laughs. He understands my niche (and admittedly nerdy preoccupation).
Cashiers have been the target of automation for decades, long before the mass application of generative AI. The role was first disrupted by James Ritty, a saloonkeeper from Dayton, Ohio, who invented the mechanical cash register in 1879. In 1949, inventor Joe Woodland was inspired by Morse Code to create the modern barcode, which was finally widely adopted throughout the 1980s and ’90s—disrupting the cashier profession once more. Around this time, self-checkout machines were introduced into grocery stores, leading many to wonder whether cashiers would soon become irrelevant.
Of course, as anyone who has tried scanning produce or alcohol at a self-checkout machine can tell you, cashiers are in fact not irrelevant—at least not yet.
Now Just Walk Out technology and smart shopping carts threaten to reduce the need for cashiers once more. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of cashiers is projected to decline 10% from 2022 to 2032. But still, this will leave nearly 3 million Americans working as cashiers. The question that remains is what technology these workers will be using, and how it will impact their lives.
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