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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

justwalkout.com

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#451

Post by manquer »

filoleg wrote: post #436
thu2111 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst Amazon Go is cool, that's not an argument in its favour. That's purely a US specific screwup. In the rest of the world you can clear contactless transactions in a few hundred milliseconds with competent retailers; that's why it's possible to tap your way through the gates at busy London Underground stations. And retailers love contactless exactly because it's so fast and it lets them reduce staffing/handle mor…

That still doesn't solve the problem of waiting while people get all their items scanned, and I doubt that countries outside of the US have managed to solve that one. Imo there is nothing in terms of convenience and speed that can beat "just walking out".

you don't need to wait.. You get a portable scanner, you scan them as you pick them or whatever, no need to scan in a queue.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#452

Post by arcadeparade »

inkaudio wrote: post #425
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…

There are number of tech companies directly competing in this space: https://standard.ai/ https://grabango.com/ https://www.getzippin.com/ https://www.v7labs.com/retail https://www.getzippin.com/ There are competitive options, if you’re in retail you do not have to give Amazon all your “retail data” or use their tech.

Reminds me of this old IBM ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzFhBGKU6HA

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#453

Post by pkaye »

randomsearch wrote: post #441
filoleg wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still doesn't solve the problem of waiting while people get all their items scanned, and I doubt that countries outside of the US have managed to solve that one. Imo there is nothing in terms of convenience and speed that can beat "just walking out".

Serious question - how widespread is self checkout in the US? I rarely queue at local supermarkets in the UK, I can checkout in <30s with a few items.

Most of the major supermarket or big box stores has self checkout. They will always have a few lines with staff but the majority is self checkout these days. A good portion of the people buy a huge amount of stuff at a time and the lines can get long. Typically the people with a few items tend to go to the self checkout line.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#454

Post by elcritch »

WalterBright wrote: post #369
turc1656 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're only good because they were repeatedly given an infinite amount of money for 2 decades by investors while their retail operations lost money so that they could nail the implementation and the promise that they would figure out how to make it profitable.

I.e. Amazon has long term thinking.

Surprise, when executed well it leads to long term value.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#456

Post by TheGoddessInari »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #399
larzang wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you just bought a toilet seat, surely you want five more toilet seats, you toilet seat enthusiast you.

I've always assumed that was an artifact of free returns; if you bought one thing, maybe you're actually still shopping and want to know other options. I've noticed when I get these they're frequently more expensive than the one I already bought.

They stopped free returns on Prime a long time ago. Now only a few select items offer it.

This was about the same time they stopped shipping things in cardboard boxes and went with bubble packs, and most recently, paper wrap with no padding whatsoever.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#457

Post by freepor »

inkaudio wrote: post #425
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…

There are number of tech companies directly competing in this space: https://standard.ai/ https://grabango.com/ https://www.getzippin.com/ https://www.v7labs.com/retail https://www.getzippin.com/ There are competitive options, if you’re in retail you do not have to give Amazon all your “retail data” or use their tech.

But Amazon is going to be the easiest to integrate, which is where Amazon will start, then use the data advantage to improve their product further.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#458

Post by filoleg »

Dumblydorr wrote: post #446
filoleg wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Famous last words, as I predict this going just as well as people in 2020 who use cash-only everywhere or, more extreme example, people not using any kind of cell phone just to avoid tracking by carriers. When you decide to make it really difficult for the world to engage with you, the world will make sure to make it just as difficult for you to engage with the world as well.

How's he making it difficult? This is how the world has operated for millennia, pick item and pay money to cashier. Its amazon that's going to make it harder for others.

>How's he making it difficult?

This was mostly referring to the "no cellphone in 2020" scenario, and I hope it is pretty obvious how much more difficult it is to engage with someone who doesn't have a cellphone.

As for how that would apply to the grocery store scenario. When 99% of the stores are automated using similar tech, he would be making it difficult for retailers by (indirectly) demanding them to use cashiers and such, thus making it more expensive and inefficient for the stores. And the stores will strike back by simply not making such stores, thus making it extremely difficult for the parent poster to shop without having to drive far out in hopes of finding one of the few remaining non-automated stores.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#459

Post by roel_v »

filoleg wrote: post #436
thu2111 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst Amazon Go is cool, that's not an argument in its favour. That's purely a US specific screwup. In the rest of the world you can clear contactless transactions in a few hundred milliseconds with competent retailers; that's why it's possible to tap your way through the gates at busy London Underground stations. And retailers love contactless exactly because it's so fast and it lets them reduce staffing/handle mor…

That still doesn't solve the problem of waiting while people get all their items scanned, and I doubt that countries outside of the US have managed to solve that one. Imo there is nothing in terms of convenience and speed that can beat "just walking out".

What waiting to get items scanned? I can't remember the last time I had to wait for that. (you're talking about people waiting in line for other people to scan their items, right?)

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#460

Post by roel_v »

monkpit wrote: post #428
sequoia wrote: post #388

I won't do it. Because 1. I value what's left of my privacy more than saving a minute of human interaction here and there (are you really that busy? I'm not and I have 4 kids) 2. I won't contribute to twisting the arms of my local retailers and forcing them into amazon's yoke. In short: to hell with this. Edit: yoke

> yolk Yoke

For some reason I now like to think about what it would be like to be in Amazon's yolk...
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