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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

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

"if you don't give up all your privacy to mega corp then you deserve to be blacklisted by society"

It's somewhat unclear to me what you have to lose here. You're going to their retail store that is littered with cameras as a feature they heavily advertise. You're returning a package with your name and address on it. If typing your password into the turnstile is the last straw, that just seems weird to me.

But even that wasn't required. OP did their return successfully.

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

#203

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 pe…

> nobody ever went there

As a shopper, sounds great! Not hard to understand why they’re closing, though.

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

#204
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting quinoa in everything and assuming the addressable market had more disposable income seems like one of the signs of the last bubble.

Why are people so weird about food? What about quinoa made it associated with rich yuppies? If you didn’t already know you would probably assume the main consumers would be dudes who want their chicken and carb to have even more protein.

> What about quinoa made it associated with rich yuppies?

poor people use wheat etc.

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

#206
The cashierless thing is fine, but is never going to be the reason people pick one store over another. The problem with Amazon Go is that they have been trying to target the "upscale convenience store" demographic which doesn't really exist. If getting rid of human labor lowers operating costs then why doesn't that reflect on the price tag on the shelf? Charging 2x what the CVS next door does defeats the purpose.

Moreover, if having an Amazon account is a requirement for entering the store then they are effectively targeting people who'd rather order stuff online. Their focus shouldn't have been on Amazon users but the rest of the world.

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

#207

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…

Or, just log in to your account in the browser and the return page has a QR code for the store employe to scan. I did a return a few weeks ago and I was in and out in 30 seconds, even though I don't use the app.

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

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It's a "member's only" club. This is how they restrict access and dodged the NYC requirement to accept cash payment.

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

#210
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Only if monopolies are allowed to flourish, because, that's what the government basically is - a monopoly on all services for which there's no private counterparts.

Like capitalists don't aspire to be monopolists. You'll do so too if you become successful.
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