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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

justwalkout.com

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#471

Post by [deleted] »

notatoad wrote: post #466
awb wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why is this a standalone site and not inside the Amazon.com portfolio? EDIT: JustWalkout.com was registered anonymously at GoDaddy 7 years ago: https://www.whois.com/whois/justwalkout.com Amazon.com has public DNS contact info: https://www.whois.com/whois/amazon.com There's no TM or R marks around the term "Just Walk Out" on the page and no Favicon. Are we sure this is real?

Huh, that actually looks kinda suspicious. Reuters has an article up [1] quoting an amazon VP about the launch, so it seems like the info is legit. But i don't see any link to this justwalkout.com from anywhere on amazon.com, justwalkout doesn't pull in any content hosted on amazon.com, the reuters article doesn't reference it, and all the other tech blogs talking about this seem to just be referencing the reuters ar…

[deleted]

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#473

Post by brownbat »

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.

Self checkout is nearly ubiquitous in US grocery stores, where I barely ever wait at all for checkout. It's rare in places like convenience stores or the large pharmacies (would you call it a chemist if it sells overpriced groceries too?)

Judging from visits to London, our grocery culture is different mainly in that we usually buy weeks of food at once. Some people still use checkers to help them efficiently get through a giant cart of food. And our grocery stores are often gigantic, maybe dozens of lanes of checkout side by side, where in Europe I often see maybe... two?

I've waited in lines in UK and European stores, (Fortnam during the holidays?), but rarely waited in grocery stores over there, even in places without self check. There's just much less foot traffic in any individual grocery because they're so much smaller.

But maybe I'm just comparing US suburbs with UK cities, not sure.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#474

Post by UweSchmidt »

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.

Maybe their real algorithm is so scary good that they can only use it for internal use. Didn't they also show pregnancy-related items to women who didn't even know they were pregnant yet?

Or maybe showing a wild selection of weird products results in people "brainstorm" other shopping needs, as a kind of anchoring.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring#Anchoring_in_negotia...

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#476

Post by arthurfm »

milofeynman wrote: post #287
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…

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.

> Does it have problems with grocery stores?

Based on the video below, it would seem there are a few bugs to work out. For example, never pick up a whisk at an an Amazon Go Grocery store unless you intend to buy it. You will always be charged. [1]

> How does it handle fruits by weight

Fruit aren't priced by weight. This is also covered in the same video.

[1] https://youtu.be/Uutal2M4VXQ

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#477

Post by arh68 »

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.

It seemed rare 3-4 years ago, but now Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Target, they all have ~6-12 s/c registers, sometimes at each end of the store (often so far apart a line forms at one, while the other remains empty).

There seem to be a lot of cashiers on weekends, but fewer overall. So many unused lanes, most of the year.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#478

Post by tmilard »

arcadeparade wrote: post #452
inkaudio wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, IBM "thinks" the future. Other companies build them.

Conclusion : ideas are worthless, Execution is key

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#479

Post by x0 »

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 don't want to say the "p" word and spark a huge social justice flame war, but a lot of comments in this thread are so obviously speaking from a place of financial advantage.

In response to your comment in particular, yes, I have done that. Not often, but it has happened often enough, and only a few dollars each time. Do you think people whip out Excel and keep a running tally of every item in their carts?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#480

Post by dcolkitt »

soheil wrote: post #465
dcolkitt wrote: post #430

Here's an off the wall idea. This technology could be used in airport bathrooms to enforce hand washing during a pandemic. It's well established that hand washing, or lack thereof, in an airport setting can supercharge the global spread of disease. The spread of coronavirus could be reduced by up to 60% by consistent handwashing[1] by air travelers. This tech could flag people who walk out of the bathroom without sto…

It is terrifying that people actually advocate for such authoritarian measures outside of mainland China. Every tyrant ever existed probably had at least one valid reason to justify their particular flavor of tyrannical rule. Coincidentally often it's not very difficult to find numbers that back up stripping people of their freedom, just find the right statistics.

Air travelers already submit too much more invasive measures. It's not like the airport is a bastion of civil liberties or privacy. I can guarantee you that the entrances and public parts of the bathroom (including the sinks) are already monitored by cameras.

Also, I don't understand how this proposal is authoritarian in the slightest. As written it involves zero coercion. The only enforcement mechanism is social pressure, a force that already molds everybody's behavior umpteen times a day to begin with.

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