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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

#301

Post by sammalloy »

hgsgm wrote: post #173
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #92

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…

What is quinoa put in?

Mostly grab and go foods like salads. It’s terrible just like the OP said.

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

#302

Post by grogenaut »

novok wrote: post #254
phphphphp wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if they've evolved their approach, if my local store is an outlier, or if yours was an outlier, but I live near an Amazon store and go in a few times per week: the experience you describe doesn't match my experience. Over maybe 100 visits: there's usually a few people in there at minimum, the food is pretty good (as far as convenience food store goes) and prices are the same as similar stores. I sometime…

For a convenience store, they were missing items you'd find reliably in 7-11s, like charging cables or headphones, at least when i asked the guy at the front.

The food was good quality and very fast. It was basically a micro cafeteria for my building. I went there daily for the soda and sushi or salad until we had our catered lunches back. This is the Stewart location in Seattle... Which there isn't much food around right nowand is across the street from my office

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

#303

Post by aflag »

CydeWeys wrote: post #186
buzzerbetrayed wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Well it's definitely a failure of the Amazon cashier less store concept if they railroad you into doing your returns there but then it doesn't even work.

Sounds more like a failure on the returns drop off location listing. It seems that improving the filters and visibility of what you'll need to have to drop off returns in each location is a far less drastic solution than dropping some stores because otherwise it messes the website lists.

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

#304

Post by sammalloy »

kazinator wrote: post #272
swatcoder wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food choice being a proxy and signal for class/culture is nothing new. You’d be hard pressed to find a cultural tradition that doesn’t speak to it. While everyone needs sustenance, there are often several adequate choices about how to get it and making those choices become a way of communicating to others. And communicating is an defining and seemingly valuable part of being human. It’s not really weird and it’s not…

Consumption of quinoa doesn't demonstrate your food choice as much as that you follow quaint trends.

I share the same concerns about quinoa as OP. My guess is that it has to be made and served fresh, and these stores have it sitting on shelves for days at a time and it tastes funny after a while.

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

#305

Post by grogenaut »

__derek__ wrote: post #232
CydeWeys wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the whole point of Amazon generally, and these stores specifically in not having staff, that it's supposed to be cheaper? I think you've pinpointed the reason it failed, but I can't imagine why they thought it was going to succeed at those prices.

How did it fail? They just announced that eight stores were permanently closed after having been closed indefinitely, one of which was inside of an Amazon office that shut down last year.[1] It looks like they still have 29 Go stores open nationwide.[2] [1]: https://www.geekwire.com/2023/amazon-closing-eight-amazon-go... [2]: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=16008589011

I'm also seeing this tech in some airports in basically a linear contained store. Walk in, walk down the tunnel grab what you want, walk out. Seemed very efficient and airport appropriate

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

#306

Post by twelve40 »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #233
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #92

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…

The food was just really, really bad. The ones near me stocked a bunch of pre made meals and they were all horrible. I can't wait for this tech to get into my grocery store, but the convenience stores were not it.

it might never make it, depends on where you live. where I live, they were banned because must accept cash, and they can't sell things like booze because id checks, so you end up having a bunch of humans around anyway, which kind of defeats the purpose of installing hundreds of cameras and other expensive systems.

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

#307

Post by philwelch »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #187
nprateem wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it wasn't clear I needed to use an app (and therefore would require access to my password which I didn't have on my phone) since I was just trying to return a product.

Amazon lists lockers in buildings with controlled access as drop off points as well. It’s up to you to confirm you have access to the locker. If you need an app to enter that store and you need to enter the store to return an item, then it’s pretty clear you need an app to return an item at that store.

> Amazon lists lockers in buildings with controlled access as drop off points as well. It’s up to you to confirm you have access to the locker.

I don’t think this makes the point you think it makes.

> If you need an app to enter that store and you need to enter the store to return an item, then it’s pretty clear you need an app to return an item at that store.

“Excuse me, you need to install the app on your phone to enter the store”, the store manager said to the paramedic responding to a call of an unconscious senior citizen on the floor of the Amazon Go store.

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

#308

Post by aflag »

olyjohn wrote: post #289
mynameisvlad wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but Amazon Go is, as the comment you replied to states, a store which literally is built to require an app to use . This argument is thrown out the window when you shop at a store which explicitly and from its inception has required this. As the commenter stated, > So then why attempt to go to a store that’s entirely based on using the app?

So let's say I don't shop at Amazon Go because I just never cared and had no idea what it was. But I am a frequent Amazon.com shopper. I return an Item and it tells me a list of places I can take it. I see Amazon Go listed just like the UPS store. Or just like any other drop location. So I go to the Amazon Go store just assuming it's like every other store in the entire world. Only to find it's closed to me because I…

Because if they do they'll probably get in trouble. There are cameras everywhere being monitored by computers and the incident will definitely be flagged somehow. If you steal something, then it's even worse. Why would they risk that? I think that's a minor issue with their drop off listings, which I suspect they will eventually fix.

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

#309

Post by [deleted] »

wzdd wrote: post #293
mynameisvlad wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s as if you didn’t read my comment at all. > If you need an app to enter that store and you need to enter the store to return an item, then it’s pretty clear you need an app to return an item at that store.

You don't need an app to enter the store. You need an app to shop at the store. Presumably many classes of person enter the store for various non-shopping reasons without needing the app. It's not beyond the bounds of reason to imagine that for the non-shopping purpose of returning an unrelated item you may not need the shopping app to enter the store -- or, indeed, to imagine that for the product return flow the sho…

[deleted]

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

#310

Post by rsynnott »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #92

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…

> two people standing by to help people install the Go app on their phones and explain the concept

That feels like a problem with the concept, really. That's one more than you need for conventional automatic checkouts.

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