Toward the end of a New York Times news article about rising online sales at Walmart comes this passage:
It has also cut back on labor costs, relying more on automation. Customers at many stores can now make purchases through self-checkouts.
The company has begun testing drones to handle inventory at its labyrinthine warehouses. In March, the company received a patent for a process in which drones would transport products between departments in stores.
The Times doesn't say so, but it's almost as if increasing state and local minimum wage laws, combined with the federal mandate to provide health insurance to employees, have helped make Walmart decide that it's more cost-effective to do some jobs with machines instead of with humans.