the.com/self service
the economy's way of saying your time is worth less than someone else's minimum wage.
means a system where the customer performs the labor a worker used to do, usually for the same price or more.
from coined in american grocery stores in the 1910s (piggly wiggly, 1916) when shoppers started fetching their own goods instead of handing a list to a clerk — sold as freedom, it quietly turned customers into unpaid staff.
piggly wigglyfirst fully self-service grocery store, 1916
checkout mathself-checkout often takes longer than cashiers
gas stationsnew jersey still bans self-service pumping
hidden costlabor shifted to you, savings kept by store