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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

justwalkout.com

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#221

Post by spunker540 »

nck4222 wrote: post #148
stronglikedan wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure the items have posted prices, so it would really be simple math that could be done in one's head.

I don't think it's a lot to ask that I'm informed how much I'm going to be charged before I pay for something, which is the process for every sale I make currently works. What if the item is marked as on sale but the database hasn't been updated so I don't get the sale price? What if the price on the item is correct but someone fat fingered the price in the database? What if a different customer moved an item from on…

I bet people said the same thing about credit cards — “how do I know there won’t be an error that causes my credit card bill to be wrong at the end of the month? I’ll stick with cash thank you very much”

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#222

Post by njarboe »

egdod wrote: post #93
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…

Grabbing a receipt at a kiosk is a lot quicker than manually scanning your items. My main problem with this is how invasively creepy it all is.

Yes. Amazon will know every item you buy, how much, and when. But not much different than grocery store discount cards already used by most everyone for decades. I'm sure that info is sold, traded around, and aggregated.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#223

Post by bradlys »

deanCommie wrote: post #186
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…

This is the "lame - no wireless, less space than a nomad" take. Are the prices not listed on the individual items? Purchasers make decisions on a product by product basis, not based on the total. How often are you at the checkout and say "Wait, HOW MUCH is my bill? never mind then, going to go put some things back." Sure, it happens, but it's a 0.0001% use case. edit: OK, fair play to everyone who responded and said…

Yeah - actually, it does happen often enough... I'd say it's much higher.

I know a lot of HN is full of people who don't pay attention to prices (for whatever reason - probably the inordinate amount of obscenely high incomes) - but it's really common outside of this crowd.

When I was poor - I thoroughly examined prices and only bought things that were on sale. If it rang up and wasn't the price that it said it was - I put it back. An example in my mind would be something like a block of cheese being $12 instead of $10. It's only $2 but it's also $2 that I was not willing to pay. Sometimes the staff at the store were not removing the old sale tags - thus it looked like it was on sale but it wasn't.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#224

Post by totalZero »

deanCommie wrote: post #186
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…

This is the "lame - no wireless, less space than a nomad" take. Are the prices not listed on the individual items? Purchasers make decisions on a product by product basis, not based on the total. How often are you at the checkout and say "Wait, HOW MUCH is my bill? never mind then, going to go put some things back." Sure, it happens, but it's a 0.0001% use case. edit: OK, fair play to everyone who responded and said…

You've gotta be kidding me. The vast majority of Americans are constantly managing a battle between their means and their desires. The total bill matters immensely.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#225

Post by chrisseaton »

sykick wrote: post #198
deanCommie wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the "lame - no wireless, less space than a nomad" take. Are the prices not listed on the individual items? Purchasers make decisions on a product by product basis, not based on the total. How often are you at the checkout and say "Wait, HOW MUCH is my bill? never mind then, going to go put some things back." Sure, it happens, but it's a 0.0001% use case. edit: OK, fair play to everyone who responded and said…

I was a cashier in college for several years. Your scenario happens far more than 0.0001% of the case. It's fairly common amongst poor people. Then there are items that aren't acceptable for use by food stamps and must be paid for separately. Then there is WIK and trying return WIK items for cash refunds. You also have people who misread the labels. Then there are items that aren't in the right place and the label sa…

> It's fairly common amongst poor people.

Are these people shopping at Amazon boutiques?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#226

Post by JohnFen »

vsskanth wrote: post #84
reggieband wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is literally a supply and demand thing. You happen to have experienced high-supply/low-demand. Why are you surprised people mention low-supply/high-demand scenarios? In fact, just follow the logic down that road. Consider highly-volatile demand purchase scenarios. A company might over-spend on self-checkout stations to cover high-demand scenarios that go unused on more typical days. A more efficient approach is to…

I guess I'm just wondering if there's data on how often you these self-checkout bottlenecks. The way other commenters describe it makes it seem like it's fairly often. Hence the surprise. Although I agree just-walk-out scales well with demand.

> The way other commenters describe it makes it seem like it's fairly often.

There's almost always a line at them when I walk by in the stores in my area. Usually, the line there is about as long as the lines at the manned checkouts.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#227

Post by [deleted] »

sykick wrote: post #198
deanCommie wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the "lame - no wireless, less space than a nomad" take. Are the prices not listed on the individual items? Purchasers make decisions on a product by product basis, not based on the total. How often are you at the checkout and say "Wait, HOW MUCH is my bill? never mind then, going to go put some things back." Sure, it happens, but it's a 0.0001% use case. edit: OK, fair play to everyone who responded and said…

I was a cashier in college for several years. Your scenario happens far more than 0.0001% of the case. It's fairly common amongst poor people. Then there are items that aren't acceptable for use by food stamps and must be paid for separately. Then there is WIK and trying return WIK items for cash refunds. You also have people who misread the labels. Then there are items that aren't in the right place and the label sa…

[deleted]

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#228

Post by TeMPOraL »

ben174 wrote: post #206
noja wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How often are you at the checkout and say "Wait, HOW MUCH is my bill? never mind then, going to go put some things back." Not often, because I can look at the prices of things as I buy them. Unlike here.

And how often do you stop your checkout clerk and tell them to stop scanning because you've exceeded N number of dollars? Once you've pulled your cart up to the checkout line, I'm betting you've most likely settled on what you want to buy.

I've seen people do just that often enough. They'll sometimes sort their items in order of descending importance, and ask to stop when the total exceeds some amount.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#229

Post by sixothree »

pjmorris wrote: post #191
deanCommie wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the "lame - no wireless, less space than a nomad" take. Are the prices not listed on the individual items? Purchasers make decisions on a product by product basis, not based on the total. How often are you at the checkout and say "Wait, HOW MUCH is my bill? never mind then, going to go put some things back." Sure, it happens, but it's a 0.0001% use case. edit: OK, fair play to everyone who responded and said…

I'm more concerned about whether the store system gets my order right than whether I do. What if it, e.g., mistakes a can of soda for a 12-pack? Three hundred times on the order?

Agreed. I feel like the point of this is to separate the buyer from the notion of total price. They may as well change the unit from dollars to "credits".

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#230

Post by mc32 »

sykick wrote: post #198
deanCommie wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the "lame - no wireless, less space than a nomad" take. Are the prices not listed on the individual items? Purchasers make decisions on a product by product basis, not based on the total. How often are you at the checkout and say "Wait, HOW MUCH is my bill? never mind then, going to go put some things back." Sure, it happens, but it's a 0.0001% use case. edit: OK, fair play to everyone who responded and said…

I was a cashier in college for several years. Your scenario happens far more than 0.0001% of the case. It's fairly common amongst poor people. Then there are items that aren't acceptable for use by food stamps and must be paid for separately. Then there is WIK and trying return WIK items for cash refunds. You also have people who misread the labels. Then there are items that aren't in the right place and the label sa…

To add. When I was poor and in college I definitely had a few instances where I had to put something back because the total was more than I could afford.
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