Pocaloca

How silly!

Every time I go back to UK I am appalled by the number of shops that have changed to self-service checkouts. I refuse to use them!

Bring back bus conductors, manned box-offices, road sweepers with brooms, receptionists, carpark attendants, porters, cobblers, people who repair things ...

jackytoo

Wherever I go they are all around, lots of road sweepers in London too Not sure about bus conductors, haven't been on a bus in decades.

agoreira

I'm not much of a shopper, avoid it like the plague, however I've not seen just self service checkouts, there's always a choice. Lots of people swear by them, find them much quicker, and there always seems to be a girl hovering there to help out the less savvy shoppers like me. On the rare occasions when we do end up in M&S I find the store staff brilliant, they went to a different charm school and did a different customer care course than those Spanish girls.

Fredbargate

Then the work that is available is shipped out to countries with cheaper labour i.e. China

Whatever happened to BUY BRITISH oh I forgot it's too expensive.
Cheaper to pay a Chinaman to do the work and pay Brits to sit on their backsides

steviedeluxe

Sadly I fear you've summarised the situation totally.

me me

I dont suppose the expats in Spain are helping the British economy or jobs either by drawing a UK pension (a lot of expats anyway) and spending it in Spanish hairdressers, petrol stations, transport, supermarkets, bars etc.

Really no different to not buying British in my view.

megmet

Absolutely agree!

Domino

ISTR the day a brand new mainframe computer was installed, much heralded with a number of staff being laid off.. But the new computer team saw a 50% increase in staff in that area and a 20% increase in inputting jobs to keep the thing operating and providing management information.
New CNC machines were bought, but the operators were paid more than those who were replaced. The dies and tooling for the CNC's were more expensive than the old ones used manually.

Net gain - NIL. But a number of "unskilled manual" jobs were replaced by a similar number of "unskilled clerical" jobs.

tommy.irene

£53 a week? I can survive on ONE POUND A DAY says cash-strapped teacher
Kath Kelly ate at free buffets and picked fruit from bushes
Teacher started challenge as she bet her friends she could live on small sum
Iain Duncan Smith was challenged to live on £53-a-week on Radio 4


A teacher who survived for a year on just £1 a day has backed Iain Duncan Smith and said 'anybody' can live on a daily budget of £7.
Frugal Kath Kelly, 51, ate at free buffets, shopped at church jumble sales and scrounged leftovers from grocery stores and restaurants.
She picked fruit from bushes and trees and collected a staggering £117 in loose change dropped in the street - a third of her annual budget.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2PZdBDifE

Pocaloca

Well, there you go. Poor is the new Rich.

Fredbargate

Back in 1967 I and many colleagues were working away from our factory base.

In order that we could receive our money and post it home ( on a Thursday ) so the family would receive it on the Friday, timesheets had to be submitted to the factory on the preceding Thursday i.e. a week in advance.

The wages department became computerised and we had to send the timesheets in on the Wednesday i.e. a day earlier.