By: Stephen Ferber

Yesterday, I walked into a Home Depot store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to make a quick and simple purchase. I needed hanging wire for 2 pictures I just picked up from the framer and was excited to put up in my house. After walking into the approximately 125,000 square foot store, I spent my first 5 minutes trying to find the tiny product all by myself, as many would say a typical man would try to do.

Next, I came to the realization I needed some personal help to find my little needle in this huge stack of needles “category killer” store, or I could run the risk of walking around for a couple hours. I spent the next 5 minutes going from aisle to aisle looking for someone wearing an orange Home Depot apron for help.

After 7 aisles of walking, I saw what looked like an orange dressed person, or was it a mirage? I quickly walked down the aisle and, indeed, by the time I made it about half way down aisle 9, I stumbled upon my savior… an actual Home Depot associate in his orange apron.

Quickly walking up to the nice young man I asked, “Do you know where I can find that type of wire used to hang pictures on walls?” Without hesitation, he said, “Sure, just go to aisle 9…wait… we are in aisle 9, it is right over here.” Yes! It only took 30 seconds to find what I was looking for once I found my angel in an orange apron. All of my built up tension, in the form of impatience, immediately left my body, I grabbed a few hanging wire packages and proceeded to the check out area. Phew!

Uh oh! I get to the front of the store and, from left to right, it looks like 15-20 check out lanes. I look left, right and then left again, as my mom taught me, and survey only 2 lanes with lights on and actual “live” cashiers working them, however each of those lanes were about 4 people deep. I also noticed another person watching over about 6-10 self-service checkout lanes to answer questions. Stress again!

For me, I enjoy having someone check me out so I can just put my items up on the counter, have the cashier add them up, take my payment and give me my bag with my stuff and the receipt. I work so much already this whole self-service checkout thing requires me to work more! And think more! I do an unusual play call and go to the self-service check out kiosk route thinking the pain of more work and thinking will be less than the stress of waiting longer.

You know, it was not that bad! The kiosk was the equivalent of a robot except it had no hands, so I had to scan my items, put $20 of cash into a small slot, grab my change, my receipt and then bag my items, all by myself. Don’t get me wrong, if I went back to the same store tomorrow (if I didn’t order my items from www.homedepot.com to really save some time, at the expense of hand holding and immediate gratification), I would go to the live cashier line 10 times out of 10, provided it wasn’t too crowded or understaffed, like it was the day I went.

After I was done with my transaction, I couldn’t help but pause for a moment, take a picture of the “cashier robot” I completed my purchase with and think about my experience.

I wonder how many more people would be employed at the Fort Lauderdale store had their been no self-service kiosks? The store was not very busy and it took awhile to find someone to help me, so they must have cut back on associates to save money, keep the prices low, or hit their numbers expected on Wall Street?

What is the difference between someone losing their job in the US to someone in another country versus someone losing their job in the US to technology? I wonder where the self-service checkout kiosks at Home Depot were made – in the US, Asia or Latin America? Why do we both embrace globalization and condemn it at the same time?

Why does it seem, to me, we embrace technology advancements that have the same impact on US jobs without the same condemnation of globalization as it relates to labor?

One of my mentors in the business services and customer service industry back in 1998 was the first to introduce me to the concept, “you can have 2 of the 3…Fast, Cheap and/or Quality.” I believe that used to be the case in 1998, but I think in 2014 consumers and business alike expect and demand all three.