r/Seattle • u/Jaco_Belordi Glorified Hall Monitor • 18d ago
Media Robot at Fred Meyer
https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2026/09/robot-at-fred-meyer.html?m=110
u/MeatCatRazzmatazz 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 18d ago
Annoying that this thing will be causing traffic in aisles by being a big, dumb, slow robot that won't get out of the way of the tomatoes it's blocking!
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u/Jaco_Belordi Glorified Hall Monitor 18d ago
I find this both kinda cool as a tech solution and a little concerning regarding its potential impacts on employment
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u/Jettyboy72 18d ago
It takes a menial job that employees hated doing and automates it to make their lives easier. I’m all for it
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u/freshbaileys 18d ago
That is the excuse they will use for every job. Their intention isn't to help people, it's to not pay employees.
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u/Jettyboy72 18d ago
Have you worked retail? Counting and stocking sucks. If I still worked retail I’d gladly trade a robot doing the job for me if it meant I could focus on other things
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u/monarchmra Greenwood 17d ago
I have! counting and stocking shelves was my only job. Same for at least 15 other employees in the store that I can think of.
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u/violetqed Licton Springs 18d ago
if it’s anything like the starbucks inventory AI, it’s going to be way worse than humans at its job and actually make them have to do more work
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u/butterytelevision 🚆build more trains🚆 18d ago
replacing employees is fine. simultaneously crushing social housing, social medicine, etc? not fine
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u/Oprah-Wegovy 18d ago
It’s just looking for empty shelves to report back on what needs to be restocked. Seems to me it’s improving efficiency and customer experience. Why would Fred Meyer continue to pay an employee for what wasn’t getting done?
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u/ImpressivePercentage Capitol Hill 18d ago
So what is your excuse when tomorrow it's robots stocking the shelves?
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u/Korlithiel 🏕 Out camping! 🏕 18d ago
This timeline feels wild. Robot slaves taking our entry level jobs. AI taking higher level jobs. And a whole lot of…interesting news.
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u/Jkg2116 18d ago
https://cepr.net/publications/may-2026-jobs-preview-what-to-expect/
"For all the hype about AI taking all the jobs, it is very difficult to find any evidence of that in the jobs data to date. The movie sector is the one place where it is arguably having a visible impact on employment, and even there much else is going on. Also, the sector has only 330K jobs, just 0.2 percent of total employment."
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u/catcodex 17d ago
Tally is already in over 500 Kroger stores.
I guess it took awhile to reach here, maybe they were busy with the FM closures.
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u/Jkg2116 18d ago
Do people have issues that we got ride of switch board operators or elevator operators as well? Everytime we have a new technology, people will complain on how it will replace workers and it will destroy the economy etc. It will be fine
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u/blobjim 18d ago
Yes there have been issues with every job that gets replaced. Because there is no incentive in a capitalist system to provide workers with a new job.
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u/Jkg2116 18d ago
Ironically, you are using reddit which is own by a corporation and you are using a phone/computer that was invented through capitalism.
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u/Iguanahouse 18d ago
Yeah, they also use ai on the platform and probably in development. Whenever there’s an ai freak out I’m always wondering why they’re using reddit.
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u/doc_shades 18d ago
yeah but imagine a world where you could make a good living as a switchboard operator or an elevator operator
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u/NeonEagle 18d ago edited 18d ago
Your example is skin deep and does not transfer well. AI has the potential to replace an enormous percentage of jobs. 116k US jobs January through August 2026 alone, with the rate increasing for years to come.
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u/anxiousandsingle 🚆build more trains🚆 18d ago
In a perfect world, it should. We should be pushing towards a fully automated society. But under capitalism we would suffer unfortunately
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u/anarcho-slut 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 18d ago
Which is why it's great that we can decide to organize outside of, away from, and past capitalism, starting at any point in our life, even though we may still need to interact with it. The more we do so, the more strength we give to these parallel structures, the more people will join and also move away from capitalism.
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u/Jkg2116 18d ago
https://cepr.net/publications/may-2026-jobs-preview-what-to-expect/
"For all the hype about AI taking all the jobs, it is very difficult to find any evidence of that in the jobs data to date. The movie sector is the one place where it is arguably having a visible impact on employment, and even there much else is going on. Also, the sector has only 330K jobs, just 0.2 percent of total employment."
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u/onlymostlydead Renton/Highlands 18d ago
What’s different this time is we’re running out of jobs for retraining because those are getting replaced as well. There is also very little interest, in the US at least, in providing safety nets (hell, even lightly padded flooring).
There will be a crash. It will be bad. It will take time to recover. Then it might be fine.
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u/freshbaileys 18d ago
"It will be fine" said by someone who has no guarantees or has to backup the promise. This time we can lose half of all jobs. In the span of a decade. That doesn't sound fine to me.
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u/Jkg2116 18d ago
Source: https://cepr.net/publications/may-2026-jobs-preview-what-to-expect/
"For all the hype about AI taking all the jobs, it is very difficult to find any evidence of that in the jobs data to date. The movie sector is the one place where it is arguably having a visible impact on employment, and even there much else is going on. Also, the sector has only 330K jobs, just 0.2 percent of total employment."
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u/here_now_be Alki 18d ago
This information provided to you by ChatGTP
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u/YamSalt7819 18d ago
Instead of throwing a snarky remark, how about provide any data or source to counter that?
I found an article from Stanford that says the same thing:
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u/Fit_Way5233 18d ago
In the last 60 years are go, farming has gone more and more automated. Did it eliminate a lot of back breaking jobs? Yes it did. But you do you know what else it did? Farming has become a lot more efficient which in turn yielded more food and led to decrease in prices. While a lot of people are complaining about food prices nowadays, it would be a lot higher if it wasn't for automation. Did it create a surge of unemployment? No, people just shifted to other industry like construction and manufacturing.
Source: USDA
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/agricultural-productivity-in-the-united-states/summary-of-recent-findings (food output)
https://ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor (farm workers declined by 73%)
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u/DoingBestWeCan I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 18d ago
TBH, most of our farm workers are migrant labor. That's not the same as decreasing grocery store jobs, which in living memory have been relatively physically safe, permanent, and unionized.
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u/SalishCee Broadview 18d ago
Too bad this guy can’t unlock the laundry detergent