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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

#111

Post by mynameisvlad »

vlovich123 wrote: post #84
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.

And yet everything is now behind locked glass at the pharmacy. I doubt the cameras are that good at catching shoplifters.

The liability equation is massively different on the pharmacy side where there are strict penalties involved with distributing controlled OTC meds even, let alone prescriptions and controlled prescriptions.

Nobody is going to come down and slap a fine on you for having a dozen cameras stolen. They very certainly will if that cough syrup wasn’t distributed correctly.

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

#112

Post by pessimizer »

amelius wrote: post #95
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.

Incorporation is just governments franchising. Before you have a massive central administration, you use "tax farmers" to collect revenue. Before you have the technical ability for a total centralization of surveillance and control, you have corporations.

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

#113

Post by ElFitz »

jstummbillig wrote: post #99

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…

Amazon Go was even more incredible than that.

Walking out without even having to deal with those pesky self-service cash register, their sometimes finicky scales, and some supermarkets’ more than annoying rules, feels like a weird magic trick.

You would just walk in, pick stuff up, and walk out. That’s it.

Each time I couldn’t help but feel like I was shoplifting.

And then the invoice came in by email, always accurate.

Truly bewildering.

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

#114

Post by Nextgrid »

gorbypark wrote: post #63
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.

The Decathlon (sporting equipment stores like REI or MEC) stores in Spain (and other countries, I’m sure) have RFID self checkout and it works way better than the type where you scan everything yourself. There’s a big “basket”, you put in your items, and they’re just detected as they are put in. Then you just pay and go. They have the little barcode scanner guns for the bulky items that don’t fit in the “basket”.

Uniqlo does the same, at least in the UK.

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

#115

Post by mabbo »

I hope this doesn't signal the end of the entire business model.

I know there are still speed bumps and problems to address, but cashier in a convenience store is one of those awful jobs I don't think anyone should have to do if we can avoid it.

I've had plenty of friends and family work those jobs, and briefly did it myself (at a gas station). Often these friends worked overnight, with the risk of being held up at 3am when no one is around. Usually it's just standing around waiting for a customer, with occasional chores to be done.

And it always pays as little as legally possible.

Let's destroy this job.

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

#116

Post by jstummbillig »

rpadovani wrote: post #107
jstummbillig wrote: post #99

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…

In Italy, it has been years, if not decades, that in a chain of large supermarkets there is a system where, when you enter the supermarket, you can pick up a barcode reader. While you are doing your shopping, you scan your products. At the exit, you scan a QR code to end the shopping, you pay, and off you go. The huge advantage, apart from no queues, is that you don't have to remove stuff from your cart, making it wa…

> is that you don't have to remove stuff from your cart, making it way, way quicker.

I don't understand the mechanics. You need to put the physical item back and also remove it from the barcode reader, no?

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

#117

Post by buzzerbetrayed »

CydeWeys wrote: post #62
Nanana909 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that an issue with the store concept, or an issue with not making it clear to users that it’s a non standard drop off location? I don’t see the lack of a warning reflecting on the actual store itself very strongly. Also- why even bother with Amazon and trying to return packages etc if you have no easy way of getting your password? If this is too much of a hassle just use in person stores.. I’ve had drop off at mai…

It's definitely an Amazon failure, as Amazon controls all sides of this return.

It can be a failure on Amazons part without it being a failure of the cashierless store concept.

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

#118

Post by Nextgrid »

rpadovani wrote: post #107
jstummbillig wrote: post #99

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…

In Italy, it has been years, if not decades, that in a chain of large supermarkets there is a system where, when you enter the supermarket, you can pick up a barcode reader. While you are doing your shopping, you scan your products. At the exit, you scan a QR code to end the shopping, you pay, and off you go. The huge advantage, apart from no queues, is that you don't have to remove stuff from your cart, making it wa…

Only problem is that this relies on a loyalty card, at least for the ones I've seen, which makes it a non-starter for many people.

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

#119

Post by rpadovani »

jstummbillig wrote: post #116
rpadovani wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Italy, it has been years, if not decades, that in a chain of large supermarkets there is a system where, when you enter the supermarket, you can pick up a barcode reader. While you are doing your shopping, you scan your products. At the exit, you scan a QR code to end the shopping, you pay, and off you go. The huge advantage, apart from no queues, is that you don't have to remove stuff from your cart, making it wa…

> is that you don't have to remove stuff from your cart, making it way, way quicker. I don't understand the mechanics. You need to put the physical item back and also remove it from the barcode reader, no?

No, that's the fancy part. You pick up a barcode reader at the entrance, something like [0]. When you pick something from the shelf, you scan it, and put in the cart. You don't remove the stuff from the cart until your car, so you can already fill up your bags in the cart!

[0]: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Barcode-...

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

#120

Post by flangola7 »

devmor wrote: post #32
thakoppno wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $10,000 per day at her store. That seems intolerably high but I’ve never worked a day in a grocery store. Do grocery stores generate enough revenue to sustain? Fifty two-hundred dollar carts of cash is a lot to let go.

The anecdote is almost certainly made up nonsense. Grocery stores are incredibly low-margin businesses.

A lot of people seem to have been raised with this attitude that pretty theft from a ruthless retail corporation is some kind of unthinkable sin.

My mom and dad regularly lifted from wally world to make sure our family had enough. Always taught my siblings and I that stealing from regular people or small local/ethical businesses is wrong, but against enormous manifestations of brazen greed it was was open season. As I grow older and more crotchety old person assertive I realize it's more true than ever, and much more even than when I was in need of baby food 40 years ago.

I miss you dad.

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