The UFCW honestly has just harmed an entire class of employee by banning ESLs.
E-commerce and fulfillment employees working in retail stores will be limited by this decision because it means we have removed a lot of capabilities the ESLs both created and demanded. ESLs require precise location information to be up to date at all times. Sure, a sticky label on a paper mod will point you to the same place, but the database made it quicker to check from your smart device. And when you've got a dense cluster of tags and items together, being able to have that little blinky light means you're more accurate and faster.
We've taken away all of that by banning the tags, and now we can't fulfil as many in-store orders to deliver out to the community. Guess we don't need the 3-4 (or more) "digital shoppers" we could have hired at every store (and all the delivery drivers downstream), because we can't process as many orders as we'd need to daily. Guess all the pickers get sent back to the hot, stuffy warehouses instead of out on the sales floors with the community. Amazon Wins, Again!
Whoops! Guess we've accidentally also harmed the most vulnerable shoppers as well, because the cost of grocery delivery will be higher for them because we can't save costs and time with this technology.
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Not-quite-edit continued human rant:
The UFCW honestly has just harmed an entire class of employee by banning ESLs.
E-commerce and fulfillment employees working in retail stores will be limited by this decision because it means we have removed a lot of capabilities the ESLs both created and demanded. ESLs require precise location information to be up to date at all times. Sure, a sticky label on a paper mod will point you to the same place, but the database made it quicker to check from your smart device. And when you've got a dense cluster of tags and items together, being able to have that little blinky light means you're more accurate and faster.
We've taken away all of that by banning the tags, and now we can't fulfil as many in-store orders to deliver out to the community. Guess we don't need the 3-4 (or more) "digital shoppers" we could have hired at every store (and all the delivery drivers downstream), because we can't process as many orders as we'd need to daily. Guess all the pickers get sent back to the hot, stuffy warehouses instead of out on the sales floors with the community. Amazon Wins, Again!
Whoops! Guess we've accidentally also harmed the most vulnerable shoppers as well, because the cost of grocery delivery will be higher for them because we can't save costs and time with this technology.