Free sample workers being replaced by automated dispensers

[madville]

Saw this at Sam's Club last week when I had to run in to grab something for my office. No sample person in sight, just this thing that you scan your membership card into and it dispenses a free sample. I mainly found it interesting because I had posted in a thread a few days before about unemployment climbing even higher in the future as the population rises and automation/technology/robotics replaces human workers.

Here's the "Freeosk", anything to get rid of a minimum wage worker I guess.


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[MADem]

1. You do know that "Sam's Club" or Costco or what have you do not pay those people?

They are contract workers, paid by the manufacturer of the product.

I can see what the manufacturer is doing, here--by a person scanning their card, they aren't pulling a Peter Griffin and eating all the samples, and they're getting the name of the person who tried the sample so they can keep hounding them with ads/marketing.

FG is very proprietary about their clips so this is how folks on YT get around that...

[madville]

5. Had never thought about who actually paid them

Doesn't really make a difference if it's the manufacturer or the retailer when we're talking about a human job getting replaced.

I do see your point about the data collection, they can mail coupons, email users, track demographics, etc. They'll definetly be collecting and utilizing that data.

[MADem]

10. Those people who hand out those samples get paid absolute minimum wage and have

no employee protections or benefits--no insurance, no vacation days, no nada. Some background here:

On two recent visits to a Costco in Dedham, Mass., I found the aisles full of employees wearing badges, offering samples of food, and answering questions about where to find merchandise. They don't work for Costco, but for a company called Club Demonstration Services. (A similar company called Warehouse Demonstration Services handles the Costco work in some other states.) Posts on employment law bulletin boards (here) say things like, "I work for Club Demo Services within Costco. We are titled Sales Advisors and do all the demos in Costco. We are all part time, no benefits, @$11.00 per hour. Our shift is 6 hours - a paid 15 minute break and an unpaid 30 min lunch." The Warehouse Demonstration Services site describes it as "a perfect part-time job."

This article from 2008 tells more about the way that Costco treats these demonstrators who work in its stores as second-class citizens, or at least, with lower compensation than its regular employees, and, in some cases, wages so low that the employees qualify for food stamps.

According to the linked article, these demonstrators make up about 10 percent of Costco’s in-store workforce. I had no idea that they didn’t work for Costco. It seems that the majority of people who I interact with on a Costco trip actually work for someone else -- captive contractors who exist to provide demonstration staff for Costco stores....

The above article goes on to slam COSTCO and raise up "Sam's Club" but a) It's Bloomberg and b) I'll bet Sam's Club uses product demonstrator contractors, too.

Here's a brief article that talks about how the game works--it's really a "bring all your own equipment" type gig and they pay you in the dark.
It's probably one of those lousy jobs that's just as well it's going away. They don't want to pay people anything for standing on their feet all day trying to hawk crap on a cracker....

[madville]

11. I was nailing shingles for $5.25 an hour 20 years ago

In the Florida sun. Standing in the air conditioning, spreading cream cheese on a cracker, making $11 an hour doesn't sound all that bad when I remember that

[MADem]

13. I waited table for pennies and tips, eons ago. LONG shifts in a place where the line went out

the door. No let up from noon to eleven at night. Exhausting.

It was a hard life but it paid for school.

People have higher expectations for working, these days. I'm in favor of pushing forward and providing workers with more protections and benefits, not fewer.


The "good old days" weren't necessarily all that great....

[jaysunb]

12. I'm glad they're gone....

there will be a little less discrimination. Many of them are instructed who NOT to offer a sample.

[CFLDem]

2. Pretty neat stuff right there.

Now samples will be available all the time. I hope they roll this out to all their stores.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Not only do they replae an employee, they collect data

on who takes advantage of the freebies. Another way to identify customer likes/dislikes, plus cross-reffing it with how long you're in there (card scanned on entry) and what you buy (card scanned at checkout).

[Vashta Nerada]

4. I'm sure potential job seekers will be crushed to know that the job isn't available to them.

[madville]

6. Some people are grateful for any job they can get

A $200 a week minimum wage job can make or break a bunch of people's finances.

[Vashta Nerada]

7. Yeah.

I worked at a Sam's Club a few years ago and many free food samplers were working five hours a week. Their starting pay? $7.75/hour.

I'm sure people will be crushed to know they won't be making a little over $35/week.

[madville]

8. $35 a week would cover several of my monthly bills.

My water bill is $21, my cell phone is $45, my power runs about $75. That $35 a week you are rolling your eyes at might mean someone doesn't have electricity, water and a phone.

[Vashta Nerada]

9. Uh huh.

Will it pay for your mortgage? Your car loan? Student loans?

I doubt people are clawing each other to get a job where they'd make $35/week.

BTW, most of the "free sample people" were vendors.