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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

justwalkout.com

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#341

Post by sushikokk »

boublepop wrote: post #246

Aaaand there’s the play. Amazon wasn’t trying to compete with other retails stores by leveraging their tech edge, they were positioning themselves to becoming the single provider of retail checkout solutions for the future. You either opt-in to giving Amazon all your retail data, or you become the only old fashioned “wait in line to get served” store on the street. And where is the competition? Is there anyone at all…

Not only your data, but the stores also. Now Amazon will know every item that sells, and at what price. Wonder what comes next?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#342

Post by Wowfunhappy »

filoleg wrote: post #318
milofeynman wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting that they rolled this out as a thing, but didn't start retrofitting all of their Whole Foods with it. Does it have problems with grocery stores? How does it handle fruits by weight, etc.

Amazon probably doesn't want to radically rock the boat when it comes to Whole Foods at the moment. It is an established well-working business, and they don't want another wave of "WF went to shit after Amazon bought it out, just look at all those changes they've implemented!", given that Amazon's reputation has already been kinda questionable in the public eye recently.

Last Thanksgiving, I visited my parents in the town where I lived before college, and we went to the Whole Foods where we used to shop at all the time.

It looked basically the same, except that there were these huge, bright blue Amazon Prime ads everywhere. It felt vaguely dystopian—a store of my youth invaded by the giant tech monolith.

If Amazon is trying to not noticeably change Whole Foods, they're doing a pretty lousy job.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#343

Post by Dunedan »

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…

> 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.

You only need to use the kiosk once per credit card (to enter your e-mail address). From the page:

> If shoppers need a receipt, they can visit a kiosk in the store and enter their email address. A receipt will be emailed to them for this trip. If they use the same credit card to enter this or any other Just Walk Out-enabled store in the future, a receipt will be emailed to them automatically.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#344

Post by paulmd »

athenot wrote: post #301
heavenlyblue wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are only good because Ebay is pathetically bad.

That was true 5 years ago but with the quality issues on Amazon, I've found myself buying more on eBay.

Yeah, ebay has much better buyer protections unless the item is Fulfilled By Amazon (which carries a cost premium). eBay prices also tend to be better. If you're going to buy cheap chinese crap anyway, just cut out the middleman.

Finally, Amazon's marketplace is just not navigable. Their search is pathetically bad, and this is nothing new, it's been a common complaint for years. Some fairly massive amount of their traffic is inbound from Google searches like "some product amazon" just because of how pathetically bad it is. The only other reasonable way to navigate their site is if their similar product suggestions or "commonly bought together" happens to nail the item you were looking for.

I've had searches where adding an additional keyword that is in the product title will actually cause the product to disappear from the search. What in the actual fuck.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#345

Post by hamandcheese »

ajkjk wrote: post #264
takeda wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the point of this technology - to increase impulse buying. Credit cards purpose is that it hides from you how much money you have left. If you were paying in cash and see how much money you have left in your wallet, you're more likely end up not purchasing a given item. This is one step further, since you now don't know how much you're paying (unless you calculating the cost in your head, which most people don…

Well, that's one of the points. Another point is to not pay for cashiers or have checkout lines.

Not to mention all the data to be mined.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#346

Post by [deleted] »

sarah180 wrote: post #309
MattDamonSpace wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I've been sitting here thinking Amazon was going to spool up tons of retail locations that leveraged their tech to create a massive moat that other Brick & Mortars couldn't possibly compete with. In hindsight it seems obvious that the play was to "AWS" the whole thing: make yourself the first/best customer, nail the implementation, then sell it to the world.

It's hard to imagine Amazon actually starting a bunch of retail locations. They'd probably buy Whole Foods or something…

[deleted]

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#347

Post by hamandcheese »

grandmczeb wrote: post #130
throwaway3157 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I've used to Amazon Go store, My receipt was in the app shortly after (I walked about two blocks and checked). I think it took longer for an email to show up, but can't recall exactly

My experience had been that it can vary quite a bit. Most of the time it’s pretty quick, but occasionally it can be over an hour.

Maybe they use spot instances for all the compute.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#349

Post by choward »

> A receipt will be emailed to them for this trip.

Is there any other information on what format this receipt is? Is it just an image or something that's actually useful if I want to parse it and track my own purchases?

I want some sort of machine readable receipt format to exist so I can analyze my own spending. Unfortunately there is zero incentive to provide this. Instead the stores we visit get to know more about our spending habits than we do. And now you want to me to deliberately give all of this data not just to the individual stores but also to Amazon?

Yeah right. I'm not giving Amazon access to all of this data. Are you serious?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#350

Post by goatlover »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #342
filoleg wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon probably doesn't want to radically rock the boat when it comes to Whole Foods at the moment. It is an established well-working business, and they don't want another wave of "WF went to shit after Amazon bought it out, just look at all those changes they've implemented!", given that Amazon's reputation has already been kinda questionable in the public eye recently.

Last Thanksgiving, I visited my parents in the town where I lived before college, and we went to the Whole Foods where we used to shop at all the time. It looked basically the same, except that there were these huge, bright blue Amazon Prime ads everywhere . It felt vaguely dystopian—a store of my youth invaded by the giant tech monolith. If Amazon is trying to not noticeably change Whole Foods, they're doing a prett…

Just need giant holograms from Blade Runner to complete the look.
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