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Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

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Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#91

Post by AnthonyMouse »

luckylion wrote: post #67
crazygringo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In basically every retail store, and especially grocery/convenience stores, you are being observed by security cameras at literally every second. In every aisle. This has been the case for decades. It's how they catch shoplifters. I rather like the fact it can be used for customer convenience now, rather than just punitively.

The constant filming from every angle is what makes me even more confused when you need to personally tell employees that something is broken somewhere, or the queue for the cash register is miles long, or some sales point isn't staffed and has people waiting. Everything is being watched, why aren't they reacting proactively?

Large corporations assign people roles. The person watching the cameras is there to detect shoplifting. They have no stake in the success of the store.

If you want to see a shopkeeper care about that sort of thing, patronize an owner-operated small business.

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#92

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

I used to visit one of the NYC the Go stores daily until covid happened. It was cute and surgically clean, worked wonderfully, and their inventory management was much better then CVS and Duane Reade which often sell out of things and have empty shelves for days.

But nobody ever went there - no matter what time of the day I went, there would be one person doing inventory and stocking, two people standing by to help people install the Go app on their phones and explain the concept, and myself. Occasionally one other person being helped to install the app.

I think the issue was that everything there except Coca-Cola and Arizona tea cost significantly more then any of the surrounding stores, and if you hate quinoa you were SOL because it was in everything except drinks and sushi. If you are paying two thirds of your income or more on a Manhattan apartment you probably couldn’t afford to eat routinely from the Go store. Then Covid happened.

I really hate the guy who decided to put quinoa in everything. Because of that I only ever bought drinks there.

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#93

Post by htag »

nprateem wrote: post #34
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I wanted to be able to just go in a store and grab a juice or an apple and then leave the store. So, basically something a vending machine could provide? We've had those since like the '50s, except without computer vision, user tracking and machine learning. I don't know why Amazon was trying to reinvent the wheel here in the most expensive way possible.

To stock more than 20 products?

Vending machines offer some overhead of horizontal space for the payment system over store refrigerators, but if you want to stock many products you can just put several vending machines next to each other.

Maybe the largest extra expense of vending machines is that store refrigerators are _deeper_ which means they need to be restocked less, or that the most popular products can take up less 'slots' because the total number of drinks per slots is larger.

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#94

Post by flangola7 »

baumy wrote: post #80
throw10920 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seems like a very weird way of blaming a well defined system for your unwillingness to meet its prerequisites. > just apparently too lazy or unwilling for some unclear reason. > Just bizarre. This is a very emotionally manipulative and accusatory comment that certainly does not meet HN's guidelines, and doesn't actually address any of the problems that the GP stated.

No, I don't agree. I directly address the problems by arguing that they aren't actually problems. I feel I plainly stated the reality of the situation as it was described, and was not manipulative and accusatory in any way. I do not appreciate your characterization however. I will likely not respond further as this will quickly become non constructive.

> No, I don't agree. I directly address the problems by arguing that they aren't actually problems. I feel I plainly stated the reality of the situation as it was described, and was not manipulative and accusatory in any way. I do not appreciate your characterization however.

You can't argue that something isn't a problem when it is self-evident. Trying to do so is manipulative, regardless of whether or not you appreciate that fact.

This sounds like something I would expect to hear from an MBA, not an engineer.

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#95

Post by amelius »

nprateem wrote: post #30

I had to go to one to return a package. I couldn't get past the turnstiles because I don't use the app and don't know my password because I use a password manager. This meant I couldn't hand my parcel in at the counter. The woman on the turnstile wouldn't let me in even when I explained the situation. So she went off and got a scanner to take my package. She didn't offer a receipt, and when I asked for one said it wa…

The endgame in capitalism is something that is remarkably close to a bureaucratic all-controlling government.

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#96

Post by kube-system »

luckylion wrote: post #67
crazygringo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In basically every retail store, and especially grocery/convenience stores, you are being observed by security cameras at literally every second. In every aisle. This has been the case for decades. It's how they catch shoplifters. I rather like the fact it can be used for customer convenience now, rather than just punitively.

The constant filming from every angle is what makes me even more confused when you need to personally tell employees that something is broken somewhere, or the queue for the cash register is miles long, or some sales point isn't staffed and has people waiting. Everything is being watched, why aren't they reacting proactively?

Because the person watching is performing a specific task, not every task.

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#97

Post by jdlyga »

nprateem wrote: post #30

I had to go to one to return a package. I couldn't get past the turnstiles because I don't use the app and don't know my password because I use a password manager. This meant I couldn't hand my parcel in at the counter. The woman on the turnstile wouldn't let me in even when I explained the situation. So she went off and got a scanner to take my package. She didn't offer a receipt, and when I asked for one said it wa…

It's just the normal Amazon app, not anything special. And not to judge, but I think a password manager is really beneficial. You can even self-host it if you're concerned about security.

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#98

Post by everdrive »

Nanana909 wrote: post #43
nprateem wrote: post #30

I had to go to one to return a package. I couldn't get past the turnstiles because I don't use the app and don't know my password because I use a password manager. This meant I couldn't hand my parcel in at the counter. The woman on the turnstile wouldn't let me in even when I explained the situation. So she went off and got a scanner to take my package. She didn't offer a receipt, and when I asked for one said it wa…

> I don't use the app So then why attempt to go to a store that’s entirely based on using the app? The store concept is based around your account - and you didn’t know your account details. The app can help avoid this, but you also refused to use the app. How is this any different than someone who refuses to use their password to sign in to Amazon.com and complains about not being able to submit a return? Or going to…

It's different because there's a long-standing precedent that you don't need to install a smartphone app to use a store.

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#99

Post by jstummbillig »

I have actually had a very positive experience with cashier-less shopping – albeit not with Amazon Go and in the EU. As of now, it's been heavily benefited from never having to wait in a line (because the vast majority of people will still opt for the cashier lanes) but I actually found the UX (which in my case always included scanning of products like a cashier would) actually quite delightful and surprisingly never had any issues.

I can totally see this scaling quite nicely, considering stores will have to employ less personal, even if it it requires some additional store space, and I would be mildly surprised if cashiers were still a thing in 10 years. It increasingly seems like a job no one should be doing, in a combination of "bad for your health", "a waste of of human resources in a world where they are becoming rapidly scarce" and "boring" and I don't think they will, in the not so far future.

What are other experiences?

Re: Amazon is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

#100

Post by kube-system »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #13
endisneigh wrote: post #7

Amazon Go seems incredibly overengineered. Why is this superior than a portable scanning plus toggleable RFIDs that disable items on scan and alarm gates? Cameras everywhere and computer vision seems overkill.

>Cameras everywhere and computer vision seems overkill. If the goal is cashierless, why not just have a store full of vending machines? You pick what you want, tap your card or phone, then you get it, then walk out.

Vending machines have very strict packaging requirements. They simply can’t handle a wide variety of products.
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