New supermarket openings - a revolution in quality

[MonksTown 104]

Those pics look AWFUL! It's a SUPERMARKET, not a gallery where they can make a pile of fruit into a sculpture. Give me PennerMarkt anyday! :D

[Iceberg Slim 14]

It may very well be the case that the end result is fewer employees. I am also certain that the manufacturers advertise this as a benefit of their systems. It is an easy way to sell the ROI of the system, even if that is not the true benefit of automation.

 

However, this has nothing to do with outsourcing. Outsourcing is shifting the process group to an external service provider. Outsourcing would be, for example, hiring an external company to provide the staff for your store. Some stores do not do carry out exercises like this while holding the best customer experience in mind as the ultimate goal. But those stores will suffer as a result.

 

The lean philosophy also has nothing to do with capitalism itself per se. It is directed at reduction of waste. That would equally work under another economic system. In fact, it is somewhat more compatible with marxist (and other classical) economic theory than modern economic theory because it assumes labour is what adds value to product (and product has intrinsic value), whereas modern economics theory assumes a subjective theory of value (where desire determines value and things have no intrinsic value).

 

In any case, am not sure any really well-run business has turnover as an ultimate goal. The point is not volume, but profit. By reducing waste, you can increase profit while maintaining the same turnover. You don't want to save costs, you want to avoid spending unnecessarily. There's a difference. Outsourcing, laying off your workforce and moving production to low-cost countries will save costs, but could cripple your business by increasing hidden costs (like storing and transportation of goods). Avoiding obsolete stock, extra packaging, unneeded space and other waste can increase profit (by saving cost) without having any net impact on workforce. Reducing a non-value add activity like scanning barcodes and making change reduces unnecessary cost that adds nothing of value to the product. Why should you, as a customer, pay extra for something that you could do yourself? Just to hear a heartfelt "thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart" when you get your change?

 

At any rate, I won't hijack the thread anymore with blah blah. I like self-scanning checkouts and the new designs in the stores.

[abog 1]

Due to the bad quality of Globus Hypermarket pictures I'll add some of Reichelt in Berlin and some of extra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DDBug 1,665]

Right Iceberg, you got me on the terminology (my bad). Still, I hate self check outs, unless I am getting something in return for doing the work. For the same price I'd rather shop where someone else does that work (and, if possible, the bagging).

[MonksTown 104]

Oh no DDBug! NO WAY do I want to have my shopping bagged, I prefer to do it myself, PROPERLY.

Supermarket staff are so shocked in UK/USA/Australia that I get my bags and start to fill it. Squaring and heaviest things at the corners / bottom, eggs on top etc etc rather than their way of doing it.

[OhFFS 2]

 

The Tengelmann stores are also completely refurbished.

What are they doing, executing the staff?

[abog 1]

They are waiting for you to tell them how to make it right :D

[abog 1]

EDEKA HIEBER

 

 

[abog 1]

Forgot to say that REWE has also franchise stores called "Rewe-der supermarkt" www.rewe-dersupermarkt.de

 

Famous minimal with W.Brandenburg meat/cheese/deli counter...

 

[abog 1]

REWE also started to run a Bio-supermarket chain called VIERLINDEN- www.vierlinden-biosupermärkte.de.

There are stores in Düsseldorf, Cologne and other major cities to follow.

 

They also run Italians supermarket chain "Standa" and opened a first "Standa" store in Cologne with loads of italian food and delicatessen.

 

www.rewe-standa.de

 

see picture below

 

[bluedave 2,499]

Who exactly do you work for abog ?

[space 235]

I agree with DK, EDEKA in Unterhaching is total shite. There is absolutely no order in where or why they placed their goods. People were walking around with a bewildered look trying to figure out where it was, that, which they wanted to buy. I was looking for salt, had to ask 2 employees who didn´t quite know where it was either, It turned out to be beside one of the shelves with cooking oil which was one of about 3 cooking oil shelves spread over the store. 20 freakin minutes for one box of salt. No fun. I shan´t go there again.

take care,

space

[Darkknight 2,306]

DK???

[abog 1]

Well I just tried to show some alternatives (as I stated before). There have been so many here complaining about substandard supermarkets. I thought people might join a discussion- but all I can see is complainig again. Very useful. Keep on moaning strange people.

 

By the way : I am a teacher- just do this as a "hobby"

[almostgerman 2]

 

Ah - but the end result is less employees...

but isn't it a shift from low wage staff for the supermarket against high level staff from the company which develops and produces the high-tech equipment involved? How many cash regester jockeys do you trade in for an electrical engineer with CAD experience? Is the trade worth it on a local scale? on a global scale?

 

you can export a nifty gadget, but it's hard to export (or outsource, or has been mentioned even find, for that matter) a good bagger.

 

How about an automatic bagging machine?

 

RFID is the system the münchner Stadtbibliothek is using for its automatic booking / night deposit box (box because there's only one at the moment).

 

The RFID is still too expensive for use in retail food, the margins (1-3% usually).

Companies who are in the barcode industry are working on it, though.

[OhFFS 2]

 

Companies who are in the barcode industry are working on it, though.

Grandmother. Eggs. Teaching the sucking thereof.

 

Not that I think DDBug is old enough to be your grandmother :ph34r:

[OhFFS 2]

 

Ah - but the end result is less employees.

Noooo. The end result is fewer employees :P

[topcat 1 373]

@abog

 

An excellent point which everyone ignored.

 

@almostgerman

 

You sound like Arnold the angst ridden android. What a crock of shit! Most of the "low wage" staff in supermarkets are just ordinary people and the so called "high" wage staff are not electrical engineers with CAD experience. All the technology facilitating self checkouts has been around for years and the companies producing them do not require additional resource for this. It is programmers that make this possible.

 

When scanning was introduced in the eighties the unions were up in arms since companies selling these systems took the lazy approach that the total cost of ownership(tco) of these systems would show a return of investment(roi), that is fewer employees, What actually happened was that existing employees were redeployed and extra people had to be employed to manage these systems. Self scanning and RFID will have the same impact, it will end up requiring more resource. And to be honest I would rather interact with a real person than a machine when I go to the supermarket. Good checkout staff add value and my experience in Germany has been that they are for the most part as friendly and efficient as staff in the UK.

[Wheel 404]

 

The Germans divide their food stores...

There's a lot of useful information there. Thanks for posting.

[OhFFS 2]

"Wheel" was talking to abog. Or are you all the same person?