>Many (30+) years ago, there was a rule of thumb that if a machine could create an extra $20 per hour of revenue, or reduce existing costs by $20 per hour, it was worth building, operating and maintaining it.
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>The cost of automation keeps dropping, with machinery getting less expensive, and keeps getting more capable (with a big boost from computerization) so it's less expensive for them to add real value. Hard-nosed business operators (is there really any other kind?) look at the curves of declining automation costs, and increasing labour costs. When and if they cross, then hmm...

I fully expected that the big chains will have some kind of orchestrated response to the minimal wage. That they'll do this by using it as an excuse to do what they would to anyway is a nice twist.

That being said, I confess that, while I was there, I preferred the automated checkout in the grocery. One reason was the professional curiosity, to see how they work out the quirks (as I used those from the first day they appeared), develop the interface, observe me reacting to the bugs and fix them later. The other reason is that with the wages in retail being what they are, most of the operators of the cash registers were often borderline literate for the job. I knew their machines better than they did, and I was never on their side of the bench. So for me the self checkout was much much faster. And I don't consider the wait at the cash register as fun or as productively spent time, so... I rather did it myself, just to get out of there asap.