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Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

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Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#31

Post by [deleted] »

tarboreus wrote: post #29
chrisseaton wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash is somewhat ok until you buy something. It's fine to carry around say £100 in a few notes, but then you buy something and you get back £5 and £10 notes and a handful of change and now it's a big jingly mess of shrapnel. I think contactless credit cards are the best right now. You don't need to hand anything over, get anything back, or enter anything, just wave the card.

I personally love $5 and $10 bills. I frequently do exact change when I have a bunch of those. Buying a BLT at the bodega? That's $5.75 with a coke. Here's $6. At the end of the day, I fire my change in a bucket and bring it to a machine once a year to get exchanged. Also, taking out $100 in 2017 is silly, at least if you spend more than $200 a week, which is most non-students here. I just get out the max that the AT…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#32

Post by tarboreus »

jldugger wrote: post #22
tarboreus wrote: post #12

You know what I find convenient? Cash. You just take it out of your wallet and hand it over in exchange for goods. No tracking, no receipt emails, no machine learning of my behavior to figure out when my partner is pregnant or whatever, no extra apps, no facial recognition, no 2-4% charge for businesses that only doesn't apply if you're an international monopoly. Oh, my phone is out of batteries. Guess I'll just give…

> No tracking, no receipt emails, no machine learning of my behavior to figure out when my partner is pregnant or whatever, no extra apps, no facial recognition, no 2-4% charge for businesses that only doesn't apply if you're an international monopoly. Sounds awfully inconvenient. I'm constantly having to travel to the bank to get more cash, it's easy to lose, steal and destroy, the money I get in change might be cou…

How often do you lose cash? I never do. Not sure what your workflow for losing cash would be. If I lose my wallet, the cash in it is the last thing I'm worried about. It's the plastic.

Also, you go to the bank to get cash? This may vary by geographic region, but where I live (NYC) there's I'm rarely near a place that doesn't have an ATM within a hundred feet or so.

Guess money could be counterfeit. But I've never encountered counterfeit bills, at least that I know of or that has inconvenienced me, and I haven't heard of it as a problem among the people I know who run cash-heavy businesses (mostly restaurants). Identity theft, however, is an epidemic, and has happened to literally everyone I know, except for (some) of the kids below the age of 14. Some of these cases can take years to clean up, and they often start with using plastic at a big chain, like Target or Home Depot.

Cards are nice for big purchases, like appliances or a large dinner out, or when shopping online . But cash is the thing.

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#33

Post by _m8fo »

justonepost wrote: post #21
_m8fo wrote: post #3

No mention of people wearing masks or putting them on after the fact or better yet, completely changing clothing? That's the easiest, simplest and cheapest way to beat this.

Likely there is human surveillance happening as well. It's probably not all entirely automated.

I dunno. If the store has bathrooms will those be watched too? What's stopping someone from entering the bathroom and changing?

It's true that human surveillance can help a lot, but if that's the case you might as well just get cashiers , who double as stockers who are necessary anyways.

I'm less concerned about stealing and more interested whether this would be cheaper or a better experience than just having cashiers. Is EBT accepted for example? Can a grocery store not accept EBT? Can EBT even be accepted online? Etc.

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#34

Post by whatyoucantsay »

Navarr wrote: post #25
justonepost wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure you get notifications each time the app charges you, like to your smart watch if you have one. This is hugely beneficial to individual shoppers. Lining up is such a PITA. Walk in / walk out would be awesome. They should just have a rule that kids aren't allowed to come along. I can tell you that rule alone will have a zillion mothers crying out in gratitude.

So if you're a single mom you now need to get a babysitter to go grocery shopping?

You use Amazon Fresh, Instacart or any other service you choose. However you decide, Amazon will take their cut.

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#35

Post by rainbowmverse »

pishpash wrote: post #15
mnr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume you can check your cart via the app before checking out... in terms of overcharging, how do you know when you’re overcharged at the store when the cashier checks you out if you have more than 10 or so items? Do you remember all the prices of each item?

Yes. People who care remember the prices.

People with a good enough memory. Unfortunately, those most in need of watching prices are under a tremendous amount of memory-obliterating stress.

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#36

Post by justinjlynn »

sschueller wrote: post #7

What if I don't have an Amazon account? Can I even enter the store?

There's probably a nice little waiting area where you can eat cucumber sandwiches while your DNA sample is processed for entry. You probably still have to install the app though.

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#37

Post by mstolpm »

pishpash wrote: post #15
mnr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume you can check your cart via the app before checking out... in terms of overcharging, how do you know when you’re overcharged at the store when the cashier checks you out if you have more than 10 or so items? Do you remember all the prices of each item?

Yes. People who care remember the prices.

Congrats if you are able to do so.

I often try to predict the value of the items in the shopping cart when waiting in the cashier queue. Most of the time shopping in a supermarket, I can predict the total sum in a range of +/- 2 Euros. My girlfriend? Perhaps in a range of +/- 5 Euros. My mother? She would only be irritated if the sum is at least 10 Euros above what she expected. And that is for 15-25 items and a total sum in the range of 40-60 Euros. But there is no way my mother, my girlfriend or even I would detect small over- or undercharging most of the time.

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#38

Post by taeric »

mnr wrote: post #11
pwinnski wrote: post #8

So they've spent an extra year with people who fit the demographics of an Amazon employee trying to trick their systems. That should protect them from people who fit the demographics of an Amazon employee. There still seem to be many of the issues people brought up a year ago, such as how this depends on the presence of a phone with the appropriate app installed, or what happens with groups of people in which only on…

I presume you can check your cart via the app before checking out... in terms of overcharging, how do you know when you’re overcharged at the store when the cashier checks you out if you have more than 10 or so items? Do you remember all the prices of each item?

To be fair... you don't have to remember it as some tough game of memory at the end. Just keep a running sum as you go. Rounding items as you add them to your cart can get you pretty close to expected costs and isn't tough to do. At most any time, you are only dealing with two numbers, and only one that you have to "remember."

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#39

Post by mstolpm »

_m8fo wrote: post #33
justonepost wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely there is human surveillance happening as well. It's probably not all entirely automated.

I dunno. If the store has bathrooms will those be watched too? What's stopping someone from entering the bathroom and changing? It's true that human surveillance can help a lot, but if that's the case you might as well just get cashiers , who double as stockers who are necessary anyways. I'm less concerned about stealing and more interested whether this would be cheaper or a better experience than just having cashier…

What should happen if you change clothes in the bathroom? You would not allowed to enter with any goods not already purchased. So, you have to pick up your items after leaving the bathroom in your "new" clothes in a designated storage area (think: Ikea, Frys or Borders restrooms). Either, your smartphone would identify you against the system afterwards and the picked up items are attached to your account or the system would itendify a stranger without smartphone/check-in picking up items from the storage area. In both situations, I don't see how you could game the system.

Re: Amazon’s Cashierless Store Is Almost Ready for Prime Time

#40

Post by mkl »

mstolpm wrote: post #37
pishpash wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. People who care remember the prices.

Congrats if you are able to do so. I often try to predict the value of the items in the shopping cart when waiting in the cashier queue. Most of the time shopping in a supermarket, I can predict the total sum in a range of +/- 2 Euros. My girlfriend? Perhaps in a range of +/- 5 Euros. My mother? She would only be irritated if the sum is at least 10 Euros above what she expected. And that is for 15-25 items and a tota…

It's not about the total, but the prices of individual items as they show up on the checkout screen, which are pretty easy to remember (they're mostly the same week to week).

My local supermarket has some specials which are loyalty card only, so when the item is scanned the full price shows up. I use this to determine when to use the loyalty card for minimum tracking, minimum time, and minimum price (it doesn't have my personal info associated with it, but still connects purchases and it's faster to skip).

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