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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

justwalkout.com

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#161

Post by mithr »

nck4222 wrote: post #63

My biggest problem with this is that from what I can tell, the only way to know how much you're going to be automatically charged (as well as what items the tech thinks you're purchasing), is to go to a kiosk in the store and get a receipt. Which seems to completely defeat the convenience of just walking out in the first place. I wouldn't feel comfortable just walking out without knowing how much I'm going to be char…

As long as the process for getting refunds is frictionless and well-implemented (perhaps similar to Prime Now), then if you can afford holding the charge on your credit card for a few days, this doesn't really seem like a problem. The process becomes: go to the store, pick up what you want, and then at some later point take a quick look at the "receipt" for verification, quickly flagging anything that seems off.

With Prime Now, you get your groceries delivered and pay for them in advance. Once in a while, you don't get an item, get the wrong item, a rotten piece of fruit, or an expired bottle of milk. When this happens, you simply go to the app where every item is listed, and follow the quick prompts to get a refund. You can optionally give a reason for asking, but in my experience they don't actually seem to care; in fact, whenever I've left a comment that, for example, one of the ten oranges I ordered was bad, they've always refunded me for _all_ the oranges on my order. I assume this is because the number of refunds is low enough relative to the number of purchases that they can afford to just always refund, keeping the customer happy enough.

If this is how it ends up working, then I'd gladly trade standing in long lines at the store for just walking out and reviewing my purchases later. The tracking part is still a bit creepy, though.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#162

Post by Ghjklov »

Frost1x wrote: post #64
femiagbabiaka wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if only most of the US labor force didn't rely on jobs in that sector...

A lot of business strategy these days tend to forget that their labor are often their customers in a somewhat symbiotic relationship. This was part of the realization Henry Ford had when developing Ford motors and during the heydays of labor rights. Cut your labor and you strangle your customer base. Now we're seeing a tendency of businesses focusing on more wealthy clients, luxury goods, etc. Some modern mall strate…

>Now we're seeing a tendency of businesses focusing on more wealthy clients, luxury goods, etc.

I saw this at the bakery I worked at before. The manager I worked under talked about how he wanted to target wealthier clients or at least people willing to pay a lot more for their products, which means eventually pricing out the current customer base that makes up the low income community that this business serves that were a lot more tight with their money. It's so sad and shortsighted. They are more than happy to sell out the customers they currently have in pursuit of the customers who don't/won't come in the first place. I think businesses like that deserve to die. It's a tragedy when good food becomes gated and the poor are left with options like McDonalds or other fast food chains.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#163

Post by mataug »

vessenes wrote: post #13

Seeing a few negative comments here; I think these are short-sighted in the extreme. Labor is a major cost for retail; anything that massively reduces labor costs is going to be hugely game changing. Combined with amazon promises that it takes only a few weeks to integrate (seriously??) if this works at all, this is going to be a super fast growth group at Amazon. For reference think back to how many stories you’ve r…

Having visited the Amazon Go stores in Seattle at-least 30 times over the last couple of years, including the newly opened Amazon Go Grocery store, I can confidently say that the technology works quite well for the typical shopper.

I agree, the question of, can this technology be integrated into existing retail spaces and still work well enough to be economically viable is important. But considering that there hasn't been any other retailer who's come up with a competing product over the last two years, tells me that Amazon could be way ahead of the competition on "Just Walk Out", and possibly dominate this space of retail automation for a while.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#164

Post by bluGill »

tialaramex wrote: post #155
donarb wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In certain places, tax is not added for certain goods. For example, in Seattle food is not taxed, unless it is prepared, like fast food or deli counters.

This is also routine in Europe where tax is included in the advertised price. Here for example the price shown for your hilarious Xmas sweater is inclusive of tax, the price shown for your toddler's equally hilarious sweater is not, because it's tax exempt (clothing for kids isn't taxed) and so in both cases the displayed price is the price you'll pay. We added a sugar tax, so the sticker price for beverages like ori…

$2.99 at 6.5% tax is $3.18 (after rounding). Buy two and your total cost is $3.37. The government don't not want to be cheated out of that penny. (it adds up over all the people buying stuff)

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#165

Post by nmeofthestate »

JohnFen wrote: post #3

> In Just Walk Out-enabled stores, shoppers enter the store using a credit card. They don't need to download an app or create an Amazon account. But you may as well. By giving them a CC# you're allowing Amazon to spy on you anyway -- and that's not even mentioning the copious surveillance in such stores in the form of cameras and behavior detection. > If shoppers need a receipt, they can visit a kiosk in the store an…

Do you seriously never buy things from shops using a credit (or debit) card? That's dedication. Not sure what it gets you, but well done!

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#166

Post by bluGill »

nullorundefined wrote: post #134
baryphonic wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to what? Sure, it was awful compared to working at Google with unlimited snacks and all of that. Compared to being a peasant subsistence farmer, it wasn't so bad.

it was literally misery on scales that hadn't been seen before. children were expected to work in horrible and abusive conditions. everyone was working very long and gruelling days for next to nothing and had no way to protect themselves from exploitation.

How is that different from subsistence farming?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#167

Post by grandmczeb »

withinboredom wrote: post #159
grandmczeb wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the current system doesn’t exactly work in real time (sometimes it can take a while for a receipt to appear in the app) but I don’t think that’s a fundamental limitation. I also don’t think this is a major concern though; so long as there’s still price tags (which there are) and it’s easy to dispute mistakes in the app I don’t think most people will really have a problem with it.

I think the price tag only makes sense when tax is included on them. Things are taxed differently in different places, and sometimes people are tax exempt (in the US). But without the tax on the price tag, it’s literally impossible to know how much you’re going to pay (this is why I love living in the EU).

1) “literally impossible” is obviously untrue. 2) Sales tax is <10% basically everywhere. Unless you’re paying in cash, this isn’t a real problem.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#168

Post by nmeofthestate »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #110

I hate the no people future, therefore, I hate this service. Unfortunately for me, that means nothing. I see this service taking over, at the very least, a large percentage of the 7/11 bodega type of stores. I see a future where the corner store will return. Over the last few years, companies have gone large so they can take advantage of the economy of scale. This service will reduce labor costs and have costs fall r…

Do you hate filling your car with fuel? Do you hate buying ham in a packet instead of a person slicing bits off for you as you wait?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#169

Post by jawns »

ckocagil wrote: post #12
vikramkr wrote: post #2

Is any retailer going to actually be willing to trust amazon though? And what if it doesn't work and the customer ends up not paying - is amazon also taking on the liability for that?

What's even worse is that once Amazon collects enough data they'll be able to compete more effectively with these retailers and eventually kill them.

Yeah, this is essentially outsourcing the part that's hard for Amazon to do -- operating a retail store -- but allows Amazon to benefit from all that sweet, sweet data.

And as you point out, any time Amazon strikes up a "partnership" with outside parties, its ultimate goal is to conquer or cannibalize them.

Businesses should approach partnerships with Amazon with the same level of skepticism/trepidation as Native Americans signing a treaty with the U.S. government 150-200 years ago.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#170

Post by OrangeMango »

fallat wrote: post #23

This is going to be insanely successful.

Perhaps. You could also interpret this in non-positive ways:

* The technology investment isn't going to pay off unless they scale up to thousands of stores very quickly.

* Running a small convenience store is boring and not very profitable. The technology is cool though, so lets see if someone else is will to do all the boring stuff while we focus on the interesting things.

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