Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

wsj.com

1–10 of 107 posts

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#6
post #5
post #4

In a nutshell: Their tech can't track items if there's a lot of people or fast movement.

And once they hear Amazon can't track a lot of people moving quickly... A lot of people will decide to start moving quickly.

I can already foresee a dozen people showing up in zebra-striped hoodies to see what happens when they shop together.

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#7
I wonder if these stores will suffer any more from shoplifting than regular stores. I assume they will function roughly the same, i.e. an alarm goes off as an unpaid high ticket item leaves the store, but what's the psychological impact of having a human near the front door? will people feel they are stealing from a robot rather than a person (in fact they are stealing from neither), and will that lower the cognitive barrier to theft?

it comes with built-in plausible deniability for the guilty, too -- "sorry, I guess your robo-store is broken, let me try signing in and out of my amazon app"

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#9
post #7

I wonder if these stores will suffer any more from shoplifting than regular stores. I assume they will function roughly the same, i.e. an alarm goes off as an unpaid high ticket item leaves the store, but what's the psychological impact of having a human near the front door? will people feel they are stealing from a robot rather than a person (in fact they are stealing from neither), and will that lower the cognitive…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#10
post #7

I wonder if these stores will suffer any more from shoplifting than regular stores. I assume they will function roughly the same, i.e. an alarm goes off as an unpaid high ticket item leaves the store, but what's the psychological impact of having a human near the front door? will people feel they are stealing from a robot rather than a person (in fact they are stealing from neither), and will that lower the cognitive…

It doesn't seem to function the same at all. If an item is detected leaving the store, then the person who took the item (or the person the store thinks took the item) is charged. And if they aren't detected, there's no way to have an alarm.
Post reply on HN