I went into a McDonalds this weekend for the first time in forever (I’m a drive through kind of guy). It had recently been remodeled. It looked very nice actually. Inside there were these new fast order kiosks where you could order instead of going to the counter. I saw these a few months ago at Panera.
Wal-Mart started this trend of replacing cashiers with the self-check out lane several years ago, then other retailers and grocery stores hopped on board. More and more retailers are pushing customers to purchase online since it’s so quick and easy.
I’ve heard people talk about how we are losing retail jobs left and right due to automation, online shopping, and self-service. And I completely agree. We are losing these jobs. But how did the kiosk get built? How did the online ordering system get setup? Someone had to program those things.
While we are losing retail jobs, the demand for programmers, developers, and coders is growing at a more rapid rate than the rate at which retail jobs are shrinking. What this tells me is we need more education and training around how to program. Not just for people to transition from the lower paying retail jobs into higher paying software jobs, but also to train the future tech employees at a younger age.
Think about this, what if your child never had to have a fast food job in high school? What if instead, they were working during their summer break writing code for a local company, or setting up some website and digital marketing campaign?
If we were to bring these types of education programs into our schools, we could be accelerating technology developments exponentially. Couple this with courses on entrepreneurship…forget about it!
The question isn’t if retail and restaurant jobs are going away, it’s how do we adapt and learn how to come out more successful on the other side.
The Tech Exec 
Quite intriguing and perplexing. Raises a very valid point into the future of not just the employer but more importantly the employee.
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