It definitely would have happened regardless, but this sure gave them a good reason to invest more. The straw that broke the camel's back, you could say.
One of the benefits of a high minimum wage. Why develop new technology when slaves are cheap?
Definitely. I don't know what the wage would have to be to make human cashiers cost effective vs. kiosks, but I'm guessing it's on the order of pennies per hour.
Yup. Time to drag out the old, "minimum wage increases is killing jobs. No increases in minimum wages ... No mandated minimum wage" rhetoric.