Serve yourself?

I went to do some shopping this morning, a couple of Christmas presents for the grand-children and a few odds and bits for the freezer. My first stop was the main post office as I wanted to post Emma's cards and as there were three items all in one envolope, I wanted to make sure that no extra postage was needed at the other end. I did make the mistake once of not putting enough postage on only to be reprimanded because Ade had to go all the way into town and cough up another £1. This has also happened to me when I had to go to the post office and pay an extra pound for my Mother's Day card from No. 2 daughter. Anyway, when I got in the door the place was heaving and I was greeted by a very pleasant gentleman who was in charge of the ticket machine which had been moved to the door. He asked how he could help so I explained why I had come in, fully expecting him to issue me with a ticket and telling me that there were only thirty people in front of me. However, he pointed me in the direction of another man stood by the posting boxes which also had a screen by the side. The second man showed me how to use the scales and serve myself by using this equipment. I did remark to him that if everyone used this method he would soon be out of a job.
The 'serve yourself' culture is beginning to spread very quickly, first it appeared in Tesco, then M & S and now the post office. I have been told by a friend that in our 24 hour Tesco there are no checkout operators before 8am, you have to use the self-service tills instead. Even M & S are using them. I do object to this because if the stores add enough on their prices to pay staff to serve their customers, then they should jolly well make sure that their customers get the service they deserve and that this money doesn't go to the shareholders in the form of increased profits.
This culture has already been in existence in another form in places like some of the restaurant chains where all the waiter/waitress does is explain the 'help yourself' menu, then brings your drinks and the bill. For the rest of your visit you get your own food and still pay for the pleasure. Do we really want to go down the road of complete automation. If we do, the unemployment figures will rocket. I know we very often get rubbish customer service from a lot of shop assistants and waiters, but there are some good ones too, so replacing them with machines is not the answer. I was fortunate enough to have a short holiday in San Francisco some time ago and there you really got excellent customer service from everyone and when they said 'have a good day' and 'your welcome' you got the feeling that they really meant it. Nothing was too much trouble for them. Shame we can't learn a thing or two from them.