4 Ways the Worker Shortage is Noticeable in Boise

The "now hiring" signs are out at several Boise businesses that are still in a bind over finding workers, and in some cases, you've probably noticed there are no people where there used to be people.  There are at least four big ways the worker shortage will impact your grocery store run today.

It sort of feels like you've been hired when you find yourself scanning your own almond butter, Greek yogurt, and spring mix at the self-checkout line, but sometimes it's either that or spend twenty minutes in line behind several one-hundred-item people waiting in line for the lone live checker.

Many businesses are having to make do with a smaller staff right now while they wait to fill open positions, and they're finding interesting ways to bridge gaps and fill holes without too much impact on customers.  But we're noticing anyway.  It seems like there are more electronics and fewer humans in stores, and we wonder if that strategy is here to stay.

4 Ways the Worker Shortage is Noticeable in East Texas

1.  More self-checkouts.  Walmart is the most obvious place that I've noticed a lack of live bodies, and this might be due to a shift in company strategy, or the worker shortage, or a bit of both.  Most of the time I've found that there are 8 to 10 self-checkout lanes open, and one live cashier checking out customers in the lane next to the cigarettes.  The wait times are long in both places.

2.  More grocery carts piled up in the parking lot.  Oh, the grocery cart drama!  The situation with stray carts was bad before, and it seems worse now.  The workers who used to gather up carts must be needed in other areas because carts are piling up and sticking out into traffic lanes.  I can't drive by a stray one without stopping to return it, and I'll keep doing that to chip in and help out. It's a reflex.

3.  Longer wait times.  Lines are long at the regular checkout line because there are fewer cashiers, and lines are long at the self-checkout line because we aren't very swift with the scanner and the machine is constantly telling us to put the item in the bag even though we did it already and that bogs down the whole process.  I'm not good at it and I really don't want to check myself out.

4.  Limited hours.  I noticed on my vacation to Jackson, Wyoming over the summer that some stores and restaurants were closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because they were short-staffed, and others opened an hour or two later than usual.

My best friend sent me this video last night and it's so true!  It makes us wonder what in the world 2031 will be like.

If you have a customer-facing job, thank you for doing it.  And if you're looking for a job right now your odds of finding one are good.