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Amazon Unveils 'Self-driving' Brick-and-Mortar Convenience Store (seattletimes.com)
Amazon announced Monday it has built a convenience store in downtown Seattle that deploys a gaggle of technologies similar to those used in self-driving cars to allow shoppers to come in, grab items and walk out without going through a register (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source). From a report on Seattle Times: The 1,800 square-foot store, officially dubbed "Amazon Go," is the latest beach in brick-and-mortar retail stormed by the e-commerce giant, which already has bookstores and is working on secretive drive-through grocery locations. It's clearly a sign that Amazon sees a big opportunity in revolutionizing the staid traditions of Main Street commerce. Located on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Blanchard Street, the store is open to Amazon employees participating in a testing program. It is expected to be open to the public in early 2017.
It is called "self checkout". You still need a person there to make sure people aren't stealing stuff. This is just a way to save on labor costs.
hotel mini bar like where if you bump something you are billed?
and one person at a time?
So I'm going to be a naysayer here (and yes I watched the video)
1. How do you control age restricted materials?
2. How do you control for multiple people co-ordinating to select a complete set of goods?
3. How are they going to use the huge amount of personal information they will collect on what you buy?
4. You can't pay with cash.
5. You have to have a smart phone plus the Amazon App. So it verges on "company store" mentality and all the negative connotations of "company towns"
6. You can't come in and browse to see if you want to shop at the location before committing.
7. How do they control for turning your phone off after entering the store (or the battery dies)?
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It's hard to say, sometimes having staff is good, sometimes not.
Web shopping used to be good because there were no sales staff pressuring or trying to mislead you. Then they figured out how to do that online too.
On the one hand I hate car dealers, but on the other hand I can always get a pretty hefty discount from them unlike Tesla who just have a single online price and you take it or leave it.
Japanese shops have lots of staff on the checkouts, sometimes two to a customer (one to pack, one to scan and handle payment). This applies even to low cost supermarkets and the like, because throughput is higher to offset the relatively small cost in wages. I like that. On the other hand, in the UK we have self-service checkouts to handle the same issue, but they suck and it's rare to get through one without staff assistance.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
also no 21 and up items can be sold with no one there and in some states you must use the full checkout lane.
The most common jobs for Females in the US is Retail Cashier. The most common jobs for Males in the US is driver. Amazon is coming out with a store which doesnt need cashiers and Google is coming out with a truck which doesnt need drivers.
Just what are people with only high school supposed to do? This is not Europe where govt pays for you to go to college. Many poor families cannot afford college and need jobs which can be done with a high school education.
If this goes on the govt. will have to fund college including a living stipend while people made redundant go back to college to learn skills for the new economy.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Even cashiers are being automated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
At one time Walmart pushed vendors to put RFID in all items. They hoped to remove checkout lines - fill your basket and walk out the door.
Maybe technology has moved that magic step forward. Plus the world is **ready** for this - we've all been using self-checkout stations for awhile now --- and many of us are still waiting in the Thanksgiving lines at Walmart.
Prime is working for our family. Beyond "Top Gear Two" (TGT :-) The Grand Tour being a favorite - we do buy more. Just click and it arrives - terrific for those things We Need but it isn't worth driving to the store to get them.
A local grocery store is putting in some kind of "drive in" --- details short at this time. Change is coming.
I was behind a YOUNG couple at a self checkout in a grocery store. She had TWO items. She scanned the item and it didn't work, then she scanned it 3 more times before it took. Then she LAYS IT BACK on the rubber mat. Scans the 2nd item and of course the machine started complaining about it not being correct. You have to place it IN the sack because that is how it knows. The WEIGHT determines it. When you scan an object, it knows the weight. After she scanned the 2nd item and then placed both in the sack, she sits her purse on the table too. It's starts complaining again. She picks it up, inserts her chipped card, and pulls it out and then inserts it again. I'm sitting there just shaking my head. She then plays with her phone, shows something to her boyfriend and by this time I'm thinking about saying something, but from their youth, and they were wearing college clothes I was thinking if I said something, they would have to run off to their safe space. It amazes me that kids that should be "connected" with all of this tech had that much trouble with a self check out. My mom is in her 80's and handles this stuff like no ones business.
an unlimited student loans get's you to college and it's very easy to get one.
We need more tech and trade schools like Germany! and they have good unions there as well.
Lol.. good luck with the loss prevention on that.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
How would this system resolve the annoyances of existing self-checkout? What happens if your cart includes a bottle of wine or a head of lettuce? Could it sanely handle very light items or large and heavy items?
yes but they need not be 2-4-6+ years long. also hands on is an much better fit then 4+ years of Prue class room for people who have a hard time in school / for jobs / rolls where you really don't learn that well by cramming for tests.
"Alexa, on what aisle can I find aluminum foil?"
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
How can they tell who picked up the item?
maybe some kind of badge systems to fill the gaps.
Right the boot camps and certs really don't add up to any thing.
The College accreditation system can use some change. The tech/trade schools have accreditation that is more open to faster changes but did not crack down as much as they should of.
The non tech/trade schools have accreditation that makes it hard to do fast updates to class content and does not crack down on the transfer mess and joke classes for student athletes. Minor leagues for football and basketball can go a long way in fixing that.
When student-athletes spend more than 40 hours a week on the team they don't have time for class and The team travel schedule makes them miss a lot of class as well.
What happens when the bill is higher then the posted price do you need go through a big refund paperwork chain? vs just telling the cashier that wrong price came up. Also in laws say they must give you the lower posted price and they can't say the price went up and we do not up date the posted price till end of the day but our on line rules say we can up the price at check out.
I don't think there's a checkout in this model. You just fill your bag and walk out.
The self-service pay stations are a temp solution until they can be removed. IBM ran an ad in the 1990's that predicted the future for RFID technology - just grab items and walk out. Walmart tried to do it - requiring vendors to place RFID in all items. I don't know why the Walmart initiative failed.
Maybe technology has made the important step forward.
But you're correct - this is a labor saving initiative. People will be replaced by machines. Those new jobs? Robots. Here they come.
The simple (TM) solution is to tag all products on display, then bill the customer for whatever he takes out of the store. The amount is deducted from a pre-registered credit or debit payment account. An alternative is to have a display terminal near the exit that will alert the customer on the items he is about to bring out, absent-mindedly or not. The customer then has the chance to return any items taken by mistake (he will still not be liable for shoplifting since he's still inside the store) or to call for the assistance of store staff if there's an error in the items scanned by the auto-checkout system
And some who die from it!
Shoplifter/thief in watch store in Africa switched watches from cheap to expensive and left store (paid for cheap one) assistent saw it , chased with a meat cleaver, cut of parts of thief. I watched. Took note, and always in the open market thereafter paid openly with no hidden discount.
Regards Eion MacDonald
Especially convenient for those jobless folks whose job was replaced by automation. Gives them more time to look for that job that will never come.
J