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user-inactivated  ·  2416 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Trump rips Amazon, says it causes 'great damage to tax paying retailers'

I didn't want to post this in global, since I'm kind of internet binging today and posting a ton of stuff already. But, since you brought up a retail thread, I'll toss this in too.

End of the checkout line: the looming crisis for American cashiers

    A recent analysis by Cornerstone Capital Group suggests that 7.5m retail jobs – the most common type of job in the country – are at “high risk of computerization”, with the 3.5m cashiers likely to be particularly hard hit.

    . . .

    The suburban shopping malls that hollowed out main streets in the 1970s and 80s have increasingly become hollow shells themselves, and more closures are expected. Headlines about America’s most recognized brands – Sears, Macy’s, RadioShack, Payless Shoes – have been dominated by store closings and bankruptcies. Credit Suisse has projected that 8,640 stores will close in 2017, easily surpassing the rate of closures during the great recession.

    The fallout from the impending crisis will likely be felt most by a different population from Trump’s fetishized ideal of the white, male worker. According to the Cornerstone report, 73% of cashiers are women. And an analysis of retail workers by Demos found that black people and Latinos are overrepresented in the cashier positions, which are the lowest paid.

I'm really starting to not like The Guardian, because they're becoming very hyperbolic, have had a few shoddy reviews for movies and art that would never find their way in a high school newspaper, and Trump can't seem to sneeze without them criticizing him for it. That said, the numbers for retail are depressing as fuck and this is a nice, gloomy article.