Amazon’s embrace of brick-and-mortar stores with its purchase of Whole Foods Markets US:WFM could increase automation in the retail sector — and workers should take note.

As of now, Amazon’s AMZN, +2.49% intentions when it comes to Whole Foods remain to be seen. But recently the e-commerce giant has been toying with different brick-and-mortar concepts. Just last month, Amazon opened its first store in New York City, called Amazon Books. And near its Seattle headquarters, Amazon has introduced a number of different takes on traditional retail stores, including drive-up grocery stores.

The idea that Amazon could use Whole Foods as a platform to fuel automation in retail should be a scary one to retail workers. The most common job in the workforce today is a retail salesperson — there are nearly 5 million of them employed currently. Being a cashier is another popular job, accounting for more than 3 million workers. Currently, retail sales jobs are expected to increase 7% between 2014 and 2024, while the number of cashiers is only predicted to go up 2%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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But a recent study from the University of Oxford found that these jobs have over a 90% chance of becoming automated.

More than half (53%) of tasks in retail were automatable, a report released in July 2016 from managing consulting firm McKinsey & Company calculated. “There was a great fear among retailers, particularly grocery retailers, that someone like an Amazon will come in, automate and reduce the number of employees needed to work in stores,” said Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of consumer research firm America’s Research Group. “Now look who we’ve got as a competitor.”

“Much like Amazon Books, Whole Foods will be become a laboratory for new and unexpected interactions with mobile obsessed consumers,” said Stephan Schambach, founder and CEO of mobile retail platform NewStore, noting that Whole Foods already accepts Apple Pay and has many customers who use smartphones. “The ability to produce a frictionless shopping experience will set the bar not only for ecommerce, but also physical retailers,” Schambach added.

Among the concepts Amazon has rolled out is Amazon Go. Currently, there is one Amazon Go store in Seattle open to the company’s employees in a Beta program. At this store, shoppers must have the Amazon Go app, and the store’s “Just Walk Out” technology detects what products they have taken from shelves. When they’re doing getting what they need, customers just leave the store, and then Amazon charges their Amazon account for whatever items they leave with. These stores could operate with as few as three employees at a time, according to the New York Post.

(“Amazon has no plans to use the technology it developed for Amazon Go to automate the jobs of cashiers at Whole Foods,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email, adding that the company is not planning any job reductions because of the deal.)

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Other experts contend, however, that automation isn’t the retail-job killer that researchers have made it out to be. “Going back to the earliest days of e-commerce, the grocery experience was one that was thought to be ripe for disruption — and that hasn’t happened really,” said Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst for personal-finance site Bankrate.com.

Attempts to replace the people in front-of-store jobs at retailers have failed, said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner and co-founder of market intelligence company RSR Research, because consumers often like to see and feel what they are buying in person and interact with employees. “If you want to work with a robot, you might as well stay at home,” she said.

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Automation is more likely to displace people who work in warehouses and distribution centers than the actual sales people, Rosenblum said. Others have suggested that Amazon’s investment in Whole Foods could actually increase employment — or keep it at similar levels — because it could create opportunities for new types of consumer experiences.

Hamrick pointed to movie theaters as an example of what could happen in retail. As more customers have begun to purchase their tickets online before heading to the cinema, movie theaters have begun to staff fewer people to sell tickets. At the same time, movie theaters have invested in upgraded experiences, such as reserved seats and fancier food options. These changes have meant hiring ushers, waiters, chefs and bartenders.

With Amazon and Whole Foods, this could play out through an expansion of the AmazonFresh grocery delivery service. Workers would be needed to assemble and then deliver orders — so long as Amazon doesn’t begin implementing actual robots or drones.

Within supermarkets, employees also could be deployed to provide nutritional advice or recipe tips to consumers while they shop. “While there’s been a transformation of the experience and some added efficiencies, it hasn’t necessarily reduced the number of net job in movie theaters,” Hamrick said.