Day After Employees Vote to Unionize, Target Announces Fleet of Robot Workers

[Cheese Sandwich]

Just a day after pharmacy workers from a Brooklyn Target store formed a union, the company announced plans to replace employees with robot workers in the near future.

Last week it was reported that the pharmacists had submitted their initial “microunion” filing with the National Labor Relations Board after an initial ballot vote was passed 7 -2. The filing was noteworthy as the workers become the first union at any Target store since the retailer opened in 1902.

Yet, less than a week later, in a seemingly unrelated press release, Casey Carl, the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at Target announced the company’s plan to develop automation systems and replace workers with robots in their retail locations as part of a new program with Techstars, an industry leader with a reputation for accelerating startups.

“We know that technology will continue to revolutionize retail, and that Target’s future will be built on innovation. That’s why we’re so excited to partner with Techstars and invite the world’s most promising startups to work with Target right in our backyard.”

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http://usuncut.com/class-war/target-union-robot-workers/


Target is planning to test robot workers

The retailer has teamed up with startup Techstars to improve the shopper experience, according to Fortune

Most notably, Target is working on a "concept store" that will open within in one to two years. This store might include robots.

Hardware store chain Lowe's has already been testing robots that can find and retrieve items.

“We know that technology will continue to revolutionize retail, and that Target’s future will be built on innovation,” Casey Carl, Target’s chief strategy and innovation officer, said in a press release.
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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/target-planning-test-robot-workers-153859756.html

[Starry Messenger]

1. Anyone who has worked retail knows that finding and retrieving items is the least of our duties.

Robots, lol. The thing about hiring a human is that you don't have the $$$ in upfront costs. If you hired a human the way you bought a robot, workers would get what they are worth before they start working. Some stores with large profit margins could go this way I guess, but you still don't get the intangibles that a human brings to a job.

[yeoman6987]

2. Robots will replace some jobs for sure,

but certainly not all of them. I think a good career for someone going into college would be fixing robots.

[Sherman A1]

3. It will be interesting to see

how this shakes out. There are a few things that robots or automated systems can do, but Retail is very hard work. Good Retail employees combine both intelligence and horse sense to not only complete the myriad of daily tasks necessary to run a store, but to find and implement "work arounds" for the often inane policies and procedures that are handed down from the folks sitting comfortably in air conditioned offices.