What does the word supermarket bring to mind? Countless racks, packaged food, rows of cashiers, right? Not anymore. The supermarket I shopped at the other day in London had self-checkout machines instead of checkout staff. Customers scanned the barcodes of items by the checkout machine themselves and paid the sum via credit card. No cash, no attendants except two people in charge of about 15 checkout machines. One of them was responsible only for detecting the problem and consulting about it with the second attendant when he or she could not solve it alone. It was quite easy to help out first-timers like myself. Harder tasks required the second attendant to step up. Later I found out that the self-checkout system has recently started in some markets in Turkey as well. We are marching towards a brand new world. We had better think twice before each step we take.

When I was born, Turkey had no supermarkets. We had local convenience stores instead. Today, even before the shift from convenience stores to supermarkets has finished, the meaning of the latter has started changing. In fact, you no longer need to go to a store physically for shopping. Research suggests that in 2011, nine percent of supermarket shopping in England was done online. You shop online and pay with your credit card, the store delivers the goods to your house. Just that simple. The rate is expected to reach 14 percent by 2016. Estimates on Turkey say online supermarket shopping will increase from three percent today to ten percent in 2016. Just check the Ad Hoc Commission Report on Enhancing Commercial Services prepared for the 10^th Development Plan. The Internet and credit cards have changed the meaning of shopping. Online shopping reduces the number of people who go to stores. This is the first point. Second, again thanks to technological change and widespread computer usage, customers are now able to use self-checkout machines and pay easily for their purchases with credit cards.

It is a brand new era in which not only customers but also retailers have to be more skillful. Customers have to advance in computer literacy and use credit cards. Today, life is hard for people who do not have a credit card history. Making life harder is not good for anyone. But the change is more drastic for retailers, if you ask me. Low-key tasks are done directly by machines. Last year in India’s highways there were three attendants in each toll booth. The first one deals with you; the second supervises him/her, and the third hits at the window of cars with a stick when they try to pass without paying. Dulles Airport, Washington, no longer has attendants at the parking lot. Last year it did.

Figures also validate the increasing need for skills. It is now impossible to have an above-average life with an average set of skills. Where you stand and with whom you engage used to be important. What matters today is who you are. Today, when you try to pull some strings, say, for a job for someone you know, you get an answer like this: “Of course, I would be glad to take care of it. Does he or she have documentation for this or that level of proficiency in a foreign language? Unfortunately, we cannot hire otherwise.” Get prepared to hear such responses more frequently. Just mark my words. According to a study on manufacturing industries in European Union countries, between 1995 and 2008 the number of low-skill jobs decreased by six million and that of high-skill jobs increased by four million. The average lost their jobs to better-educated, younger professionals. Europe’s “creative class” is taking shape. Perhaps the rising male unemployment in America and Turkey should be read from this perspective. Yesterday’s employees are not as handy today as they were then.

The creative class has to expand as Turkey is switching from medium- to high-technology. Your stance used to be enough for an above-average life. Today, who you are determines your life standards. No skills, no life.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 19.07.2013