Reply #1: No, I think this is how it works

[Squeech]

Harvest Co-op had a couple (institutionalized) mentally challenged workers bagging the bulk fruits and nuts. They'd sit in a cubicle in the back of the store, with a handler, put a fistful of produce in a plastic bag, close it with a twist tie, and weigh it on a scale that would generate a gummed label with a price on it. It was a pretty mechanical process that they could learn to do, and the handler would oversee them to make sure they didn't start eating the nuts, and when they started weighing different products they'd also change the information in the scale.

A state program paid the lion's share of this worker's salary, plus that of the handler. The co-op essentially got a robot for something like a dollar and a half per hour.

Then new management nuked the bulk department, so these guys are out of work. (Plus the bulk Turkish figs was my favorite snack food in the whole store. Assholes.)