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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

justwalkout.com

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#401

Post by ckcheng »

WalterBright wrote: post #367
hammock wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 not just about "AWS"-ing the thing. It's about gaining access to all of the transaction data and marrying that to what Amazon already knows about you. A retailer like Walmart would NEVER use this tech, they know their data is one of the most valuabl…

> and marrying that to what Amazon already knows about you. Amazon is always putting up ads for me based on my purchase history, but they're never what I wind up buying. I have no explanation for what is wrong with their algorithm.

Yeah, it's like their algorithm misses that once you've got X, you probably don't want X (at least not for a while).

But I wonder why they don't just flip the prediction? If you bought X, then advertise anything but X.

Like if you bought a toilet seat, they might advertise toilet paper instead (which would be good, because all the stores around here just ran out...)

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#402

Post by bonoboTP »

njarboe wrote: post #222
egdod wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They will have data on how people walk around the stores, in what order, what shelves they look at, what items they take off and put back. What they put back and rather take as an alternative instead. How long they ponder before picking an item. Etc. etc. so much data to mine for advertisers and marketers to manipulate people into spending more.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#403

Post by prgmatic »

gajus wrote: post #395
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.

Part of Whole Foods experience is the customer experience. The cashiers pack your bags and overall try to engage you in a conversation. The "just walk out" thing would make it less personable.

Are you sure about this? They almost always seem slightly annoyed when I haven't started bagging my own goods in the middle of them scanning items.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#405

Post by balls187 »

bonoboTP wrote: post #389
mithr wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> quickly flagging anything that seems off Do you memorize all the time whether you grabbed two or three bags of chips or exactly how many cans of beer etc? How do you prove you didn't buy something? Or will they just accept your word? If anyone can just say whatever, then people will just ask for refunds of stuff. Will they check the footage in each case? But maybe it can work in the US. It sure as hell won't work i…

> How do you prove you didn't buy something? Or will they just accept your word? I

I'd imagine it's similar to the heuristic Amazon uses today with their A-Z Customer Guarantee.

If you request a lot of refunds for a single trip, or have a history of requesting refunds, your individual risk score goes up, and the hoops you jump through to get a refund increase.

Also for retail grocery stores now, loss prevention is already an issue.

Right now, a person can take an item off the shelve and hide it, leaving only security cameras and human personnel to watch for theft.

Adding in amazon's technology would be additional layers of defense.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#406

Post by mayank »

elil17 wrote: post #400

Genuine question, how will this work for people who cover their faces (eg religious or medical reason)? Will those people just not be able to shop?

Face recognition is not really used here. It's more object detection and tracking, along with a bunch of other tricks (based on visiting the Go store in SF).

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#407

Post by danShumway »

lstamour wrote: post #190
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…

Having used Amazon Go once as a tourist, it was frictionless only because of the Amazon app. You can scan the app instead of a credit card (your card is already linked to Amazon for payment), and when you leave the app tells you what you bought. In my case it thought I bought a drink when all I did was browse the options, so when I saw this in the app, I deleted the drink from the receipt by saying I didn’t get one,…

But, and I know I'm apparently in a minority here...

I don't want an app for my grocery store.

I do my shopping spread between 4 different grocery stores depending where in the area I'm closest to, what specifically I need, etc.. and I don't want an app for any of them. I already get pestered about loyalty cards, now I'm going to get pestered about installing my local Rite-Aid's mobile app?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#408

Post by bonoboTP »

askafriend wrote: post #144
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…

> 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. Ha! They already have a decade of my purchase history from being a Prime customer and I shop using an Amazon Credit Card. They've got everything they need and I don't mind. Few people would be bothered by someth…

> we'd see bigger noise about grocery store loyalty programs which are basically to track purchases

You'd be surprised how few people actually ever think about the motivations behind such loyalty programs. If you asked, they'd probably say it's good for the shop as it keeps us going to the place where we get discounts though these cards instead of the competitors (hence, "loyalty"). Most of them most definitely don't know how valuable that data is and how it can be used and for what purposes.

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