The reason people work minimum wage jobs is because they require that minimum wage to live.
No but it could speed it up. I'm certain plenty of big enough retail operation has a spreadsheet somewhere tracking the ROI on potential automation endeavors.
> Fortunately, I have other grocery stores in the area and can spend my money at the one with the best quality AND service.
Agreed, but are you in the majority with that? There's people who don't care about the long term impacts of, say, buying from an online retailer versus a local bike shop, but there's also a decent portion who's incomes mean it's either take the choice that's a little destructive to society, or not have any even-close-to-nice things for yourself.
[0]https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-did-tesco-fail-in-the-us/
Robots & specialized technology solutions are year-over-year going down in cost. If labor continues the upwards cost trajectory we'd simply be accelerating the replacement of unskilled labor with robots.
Great example is Knightscope. It's able to meet security guard compliance & insurance needs at an hourly rate cheaper than humans. And given enough time, I'm sure it'll end up more reliable. https://www.knightscope.com/