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In the U.S., a lot of places I go seem to be run by skeleton crews with workers that are deeply dissatisfied. Something is fundamentally going awry.

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As I was waiting in a long checkout line at the grocery store (one checkout line was open of the 8 available) I looked up the owners. Turns out it is a subsidiary of a regional grocery owned by private equity. No doubt there is some calculation of cost benefit.

I took the survey on the receipt I got and told them it was clear how their private equity ownership degraded my experience, and that they need to hire more cashiers.

I have been in Tokyo for the last 2 weeks and every place I go would be considered over-employed in the US. The only time I have seen less than 2 people staffing a convenience store was at 4am. It seems like every place I go there is at least 1 or 2 people cleaning, and still several people to handle customers. I went to this tiny ramen shop, with a ticket machine for ordering food and about 15 seats and there were 4 people working. There were more staff than people at that time, but the place does get busy at other times. Makes me wonder if eliminating all jobs in favor of automation isn't a great idea after all.

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