Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

Post by dx034 » Tue, Mar 28, 2017, 1:47 PM UTC

zitterbewegung wrote: post #48

beambot wrote: post #26

All it takes is a loss factor of a few percent, and the entire model breaks down. This is the same reason that long-range RFID (UHF RFID) never worked for cashierless checkout too. You couldn't ensure 100% coverage. Some tags just couldn't be read -- either due to adversarial tactics (eg. shielding with your body) or material properties (eg. metal) -- and the engineering countermeasures to overcome these challenges m…

I have seen supermarket chains do away with automated checkout (Jewel which parent company is Albertsons) systems because they increased loss factors.

Post by sp332 » Tue, Mar 28, 2017, 1:59 PM UTC

djhworld wrote: post #63

rileymat2 wrote: post #27

It is not the same, but our local Sam's Club has an app that you can scan all items as you go, and pay inside the app. Then as you leave an employee checks the receipt like they do for everyone else anyway. It works great.

How is that any better though? The receipt checking probably takes just as long as scanning the items through the till. Unless they just take a cursory glance and just say "well whatever you're probably trustworthy"

Post by VLM » Tue, Mar 28, 2017, 2:24 PM UTC

cobookman wrote: post #56

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RFID is expensive. Even buying the cheapest transponders in bulk, you're still looking at $0.01-$0.05 per label - that's enough to kill the concept entirely for high-volume, low-value goods such as supermarket/grocery store goods where the profit-margins are thin enough as it is, if not loss-making.

How much per item do you pay for cashier staff though. Might be the same as the tag cost. Also in regards to RAIN RFID tags vs dumb print tags yep you are talking about a 5 cent increase. But you also lift inventory accuracy from ~70% to 99.9%.

Post by JoeAltmaier » Tue, Mar 28, 2017, 2:32 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #85

cobookman wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much per item do you pay for cashier staff though. Might be the same as the tag cost. Also in regards to RAIN RFID tags vs dumb print tags yep you are talking about a 5 cent increase. But you also lift inventory accuracy from ~70% to 99.9%.

This seems easy to estimate. At my local large suburban supermarket doing weekly shopping for a hungry family I have a receipt with the last line listing "53 items". So at 5 cents per tag, that's $2.65 of tags ending up in the landfill per week. The cashier takes less than 5 minutes for the entire transaction including scanning and payment and small talk, so (5/60)*7.25 = about 60 cents. Now cashiers are not 100% bus…

Post by compuguy » Tue, Mar 28, 2017, 3:38 PM UTC

zwily wrote: post #76

dangrossman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen that at Sam's Club, and at a couple grocery store chains, but nobody seems to use them at the grocery store. I did once. I wish Costco would do this too. The lines at my Costco are huge no matter what day or time I visit. Sometimes I'd like to go in just for one or two things, but I decide to get it somewhere else at a higher price just to avoid standing in line behind a dozen full carts. Self-scan would fi…

I'm guessing since they just got rid of self checkout they're not gonna be doing that. (I heard they got rid of it because of too many people sharing cards, and no cashier to check the picture. Seems like an easy thing to fix, but oh well.)