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San Francisco Gets Its First Cashierless Store (cnbc.com)
Last Week, San Francisco got its first completely automated cashierless store, called Standard Market. The store requires users to download their app before they can enter the 1,900-square-foot building. Once they do that, they can enter the store, grab the items they need, and walk out -- all without ever interacting with a cashier. The 27 cameras positioned on the ceiling are supposedly able to identify which items shoppers walk out with. CNBC reports: The start-up behind this operation is Standard Cognition, which has raised $11.2 million in venture capital and formed partnerships with four retail chains around the world. This first market is a prototype to showcase the technology and work on the bugs. The ambitious goal is to add the tech in 100 stores a day (each day!) by 2020. Five of the seven founders came from the Securities and Exchange Commission, where they built artificial intelligence software to detect fraud and trade violations, before starting Standard Cognition in 2017. Now these fraud experts are working to discern something equally complicated: whether I am stealing a snack. The store is very similar to Amazon's cashierless Go market, but differs in that it relies exclusively on the ceiling cameras and AI software to figure out what you're buying. "The goal is to predict, and prevent, shoplifting, because unlike Amazon's Go stores, which have a subway turnstile-like gate for entry and exit, Standard Market has an open door, and the path is clear," reports CNBC. "Once the system decides it has detected potential theft behavior, a store attendant will get a text and walk over for 'a polite conversation,' Standard Cognition's co-founder and chief operating officer, Michael Suswal, said."
Because people tend to get very mad when someone accuses them of stealing.
The problem isn't one shoplifter. It's a mob of 20 or 25 walking in behind a shopper, cleaning the place out, and running out.
Not that I consider this a problem -- anything that destroys the profit margins of cashless/anti-privacy businesses is a good thing in my book. Bring on the flashmobs!
Will this stop exiting shoppers who have "sampled" fresh produce? Will the attendant make the grazing shopper pay for that grape? Now that they've told us the cameras monitor changes in gaze and gait for could not someone practice theft techniques - to perfect a theft without altering known behaviors? Do people from different cultures exhibit different bodily movements when preparing to commit a theft? But, no cash in the store no cash robberies.
âSan Francisco Gets Its First Cashierless Store"
First, eh. Texas has had cashierless stores for a hundred years. We call them "vending machines".
Since you apparently need an app to get it, I'm guessing that they already have your credit card on file and just bill you for it. The cameras are going to have a record of it as well.
Of course that doesn't stop someone from stealing a phone and using it to gain entry. I'd like to think that someone thought of that possibility and there's already a system in place to handle this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't either.
This is San Francisco, where what counts is that you had good intentions. Actual consequences of your actions? Consequences smaushcequences.
Free the minks!
Your impotent rage never fails to amuse me.
Given that they're apparently training their AI on the fly, even the most clumsy, nervous, blatant shoplifters that any $8/hr mall cop would see coming from a mile away should have a pretty decent success rate, let alone experienced thieves.
Does it have a robot to clean up after the vagrants shit on the floor?
The cashier is too busy texting to respond to customers anyway.
I came up with a system 10 years ago that does this and guarantee there is no theft without the cameras. Test it several times and it worked perfectly. Unfortunately it was a head of its time and was a hard sell.
So.. you didn't read the part about the 27 cameras? Good luck with your plan buddy.... Hope none of your friends need that reward money...
Of course that doesn't stop someone from stealing a phone and using it to gain entry.
If you steal a phone, why would you go to where the phone is identified while your face is recorded by 27 cameras?
Even thieves aren't that stupid.
a store attendant will get a text and walk over for 'a polite conversation
That's great, but how fast can they RUN?
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
:LOL: Wanna bet?
Raise the minimum wage higher than the cost to roll out tech, this is what you get, fewer jobs
No, not fewer jobs. Just different jobs. SF has an unemployment rate of 2.4%, which is far below the national average. Companies are struggling to find workers. Any displaced cashiers will have no problem finding alternative jobs where they are doing something that is actually productive.
Cashierless stores are being introduced first in high wage locations like SF and Seattle, but once they are debugged and working, they will be deployed everywhere.
I just can't wait for the day when I can no longer buy food without a working, charged smartphone with a corporate grocery app installed. [/sarcasm]
I think they charge you for the apple once you pick it up. If you want to eat it in the store, no problem.
J
It's not the talking to the cashier that I don't like. It's the waiting in line to get to the cashier in the first place... especially since so many stores cheap out and staff an inadequate number of cashiers these days... that I hate with a burning passion. Frankly, I'd take any of the solutions: enough cashiers to handle the customers in a timely manner, self-checkouts that aren't flakey as hell with scales that are out-of-calibration and always need an override, or totally cashier-less stores.
Imagine all the people...
Market between 6th and 7th? Yeah. Good luck with that, guys.
Imagine all the people...
That presumes the cops can be bothered to get off their backsides and go do anything about it... which they don't... and the thieves know it.
Otherwise, who in their right mind would steal a radio transmitter equipped with GPS that can be activated remotely with "Find my iPhone", or the android equivalent, in the first place?
Imagine all the people...
The proverb about the pavement on the road to hell notwithstanding, I'll take good intentions that go awry over active malice any day.
Imagine all the people...
who in their right mind would steal a radio transmitter equipped with GPS that can be activated remotely with "Find my iPhone", or the android equivalent, in the first place?
Someone who knows how to operate an "off" switch.
Seriously. Everyone here who can rub two brain cells together and sit through some codeacademy courses is calling themselves a NodeJS developer and making six figures these days. Hiring is a beast, signing and referral bonuses are in the five figures now, and it's still damn hard to fill the seats, much less find actual talent. There's barely anyone *left* to be register jockeys; because god forbid those jobs go back to the part-time teenagers who manned registers when I was... well... a teenager.
Imagine all the people...
No, it's just you...
I live in San Francisco, I make a decent salary. $15/hr isn't enough to survive in the Bay Area. Every time you walk into a store you're reminded that the people making your coffee, serving your food, stocking the shelves, running the cash register, etc. are paid a pittance. They can probably barely afford wherever they live, and they have a very long commute. There's no social mobility, they'll likely have that kind of job for the rest of their lives. If they don't feel like going in to work one day, they'll probably be fired. If BART goes on strike and they can't get to work, they won't be paid for that day.
It feels like having slaves, and it feels wrong. Are the people who would have been otherwise employed as cashiers better off unemployed? Probably not, but I'll be going to that store tomorrow. If a high minimum wage will cause more automation, then I say we double it.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
Nazi punk-asses like yourself apparently have never seen an actual gang. They would fuck your shit right up lol, faggot nazi bitches.
I heartily agree.
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It's not the talking to the cashier that I don't like. It's the waiting in line to get to the cashier in the first place... especially since so many stores cheap out and staff an inadequate number of cashiers these days... that I hate with a burning passion. Frankly, I'd take any of the solutions: enough cashiers to handle the customers in a timely manner, self-checkouts that aren't flakey as hell with scales that are out-of-calibration and always need an override, or totally cashier-less stores.
Wal-marts self checks have gotten worse with time. It used to work fairly well never had any problems. But then they updated to what looks like a shitty electron app and it has been buggy as hell since. I swear user interfaces peaked 8 to 10 years ago and have gotten worse ever since.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
My iPhone has excellent camaras thank you!
I still use my iPhone 6s and reduce my monthly bill from $80 to $50. As a phone and a video camera, the iPhone 6s isn't obsolete and I use it to make my videos on youtube. As a Sprint very special customer for 20+ years, Sprint will always give me a new iPhone for free if I decide to stop using the 6s as a phone in the next several years.
For a final project in Small Group Communications, my four Vietnamese classmates appointed me to do all the work and be the speaker because I was white. So I did all the work and spoke in front of the class. Our instructor, a black woman, gave me all their credit for the assignment and forced them to retake the class. They screamed "white privilige" all the way to administration and their complaint landed on deaf ears. They couldn't prove that they did anything to merit a grade and cheerleading from the back of the room doesn't count.
The background file for my national security clearance got stolen by the Chinese a few years ago That contained a lot more information than the credit reports that Uncle Sam requested from all three bureaus.
Bonus: get some silver coins, view recommendations on my special Youtube channel dedicated to the topic! They constitute a fail-safe insurance strategy for your retirement!
--
The Singing Lizard Children Band @ Mt. View Art & Wine Festival 2018
The turnstile was technically unnecessary since thieves would just hop it anyway. Presumably a stolen phone wouldn't help much since it'd be locked and you'd need to unlock it and go into the app, and the phone you're about to steal might not have the app installed.
I'm skeptical the attendant will be of any use, since there's already a standard technique for dealing with that: have an accomplice tie them up with customer service questions.
I'm really wondering what happens if you pick something up and hand it to another person. Who gets charged for the item? If it's the person who picks it up, then that opens up "can you lift/reach this thing for me? I'm short/have a bad back/etc." problems/scams.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
Or better yet, it detects you trying to boost something and alerts a friendly customer service rep to go have a chat with you.
And while those two are arguing (the thief being a decoy to just waste time by trying to pocket a candy bar, which he will ultimately pay for after causing a big ruckus), the other 8 guys he came in with go for the high price merch and haul ass out the door. Multiply the number of decoys by the number of loss prevention personnel employed to watch the alerts.
If you think thieves don't sometimes work in groups, then you haven't been around retail very long.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Or I shall be forced to take your picture again.
(again)
It's not the talking to the cashier that I don't like. It's the waiting in line to get to the cashier in the first place... especially since so many stores cheap out and staff an inadequate number of cashiers these days...
They also just hire inadequate cashiers. Most cashiers are terrible at their jobs, because they don't want to pay anyone what they're worth so people with a clue and a job go find a better job. That's why I use self checkout at e.g. Slaveway — I can check out faster than the cashier, even if I have a few produce items. Of course, I try not to shop at places like that, but the truth is that I rarely see a competent cashier in any grocery store any more, and in precious few other places as well.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I swear user interfaces peaked 8 to 10 years ago and have gotten worse ever since.
That sort of coincides with the rise in use of fingers on a 4 inch screen at the expense of a mouse and a 19+ inch screen.
So.. you didn't read the part about the 27 cameras? Good luck with your plan buddy.... Hope none of your friends need that reward money...
Erm... 27 cameras... for a 1,900 sq ft store... There will be blind spots everywhere.
Also what do they expect the cameras to do... have the speakers shout "stop or I'll have to say stop again". The number 1 deterrent in shop theft is the human you'll have to look at before leaving. Just recently UK supermarkets found out they'd sold more carrots than they ordered because people were putting through more expensive items like avocado's through as cheap carrots.... because no one watches the self service tills.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Clearly you didn't read the article at all... The whole system is based upon cameras watching you pick up items. You don't have to scan them... You just pick the fuckers up.. That means, by design, the cameras can see every single item in the store.. So... I'm gonna guess that there aren't too many blind spots and if there are any it's in areas that don't have any items..
So, once again, good luck with your plan.. Doesn't matter if you are deterred or not, you'll be on a crap load of cameras and when Amazon offers the reward for information, I hope none of your neighbors, friends, or family are hard up for cash.
I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of assholes sitting in prison thought, at one point, "Hey, I bet I'll get away with this".. (not implying you'll end up in prison for shoplifting, just that criminals are, generally, idiots and nobody ever thinks that they'll get caught)
So, by all means.....Show us how you are the arch criminal who won't be caught.... asshole.
Your sample is flawed. Yes, most criminals IN PRISON are idiots. But the fact they're in prison pretty much indicates that. it's like saying all race car drivers are bad drivers, but only sampling those involved in crashes and ignoring those who finish normally.
It's the ones that never got caught you need to worry about.
the extreme right and the extreme left both rotate around the end to the same, sad, pathetic place.
Cool. So then you won't have to uncomfortably look at those people who make you feel sad. Got it.
That is exactly what I'm saying. That, and avoiding long checkout lines is exactly why this business model will be successful in San Francisco.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
I disagree. It's more like sampling the FBI's top 10 wanted list.. and seeing how many don't get caught.. (most do, eventually). Your own argument is flawed.. You don't know how many do a crime and get away with it.. I don't know.. Nobody can know.. Committing crimes is, in and of itself, an idiotic act. If you commit crimes, you may be caught and may have to go to prison... Why would anyone want that? Well... smart people wouldn't.. Only idiots place themselves in that kind of jeopardy.
I like that show "Bait Car". Always have to chuckle when the crook is stealing the car and you hear him asking himself "I wonder if this is a bait car"...... Well, if you weren't stealing fucking cars you wouldn't have to worry about it...