I’ve always been extremely frustrated by the argument that workers shouldn’t demand a decent wage, because they’ll just be replaced by machines.

This may come as a shock to some, but machines don’t have to pay rent or eat food or go to the doctor. Trying to underbid them is an unwinnable race to the bottom.

Besides which, profit-obsessed corporations will replace you with a machine the second that becomes viable regardless. In addition to being cheaper, machines can’t sue you or whistle-blow or otherwise hold you accountable for anything, so they’re kind of perfect.

And in the case of Walmart, one of the most profitable companies in the history of business, they’re not gonna stop there.

Check out this video from TikTok user @themadivlog:

“Walmart, what are you on? You’re never gonna guess what just happened. Let me get out of the store because I have questions.”

“Walmart, I have been an employee for five years. I’ve been bagging my own stuff. I was not invited to the holiday parties. But you’re telling me now, after five years of bagging my own things, that I have to pay to use self checkout? What are you on? What do you want? You don’t even take Apple Pay. You’re not even qualified to do that. If I can’t go to the store and use Apple Pay, then you should not be making me pay a membership to self checkout when you have trained all of us as seasoned employees for five years.”

“So I walk up, and I’m like, oh. And he’s like, ‘hey, you can’t be here unless you are a member.’ And I said, ‘a member?’ Well, my [dumb self] has, like, I pay for delivery. I didn’t know there was a membership. And he’s like, ‘yeah, you have to have the membership to use these lanes.’ You’re gonna have to wait in line. I had to wait in line. Let me just reiterate; I have not been invited to a corporate party, a local party. But I have been bagging my own groceries now for years, and now you’re gonna make me pay? No, ma’am[…]I don’t know what Walmart thinks they’re doing. And this is why we end up all going somewhere else. Except I had to get something from there tonight. I’m not paying to bag my own groceries.”

@themadivlog

EXCUSE ME

♬ original sound – Madilynn Cameron🩵

The cost/benefit calculation seems way off here.

This isn’t everywhere, apparently. At least not yet.

And the way it’s implemented may vary.

What is going on here?

These lines are getting out of line.

If you liked that story, check out this one about a delivery driver who gave two weeks notice… so his employer disabled his truck when he was 300 miles from home!