25 Jul 2006
Law of Unintended Consequences Strikes Grocers

Gotta love it: increased efficiency results in decreased sales! Talk about not thinking things through!

But the thing I hate the most about those self-service checkouts is that I never have enough time to giggle at the latest tabloid headlines. I miss reading about the adventures of Bat-Boy, Osama and Saddam's gay wedding and vampire cats drinking bowls of blood mixed with milk. Not that I'd ever really buy one of those rags ....

The law of unintended consequences is taking a chomp out of grocery chain profits as more stores transition from human clerks to self-service checkout technology, thus reducing the time shoppers spend in line and under the temptation of impulse items. That's the upshot of research being released tomorrow by IHL Consulting Group in Franklin, Tenn., which provides market analysis to the retail industry and its IT vendors.

(link) [Slashdot]

20:20 /Humor | 2 comments | permanent link