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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

#311

Post by vhold »

CydeWeys wrote: post #183
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…

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.

My hunch is that the store wasn't meant to be particularly popular with lots of customers, it was meant to demonstrate technologies they wanted to sell to businesses.

https://aws.amazon.com/just-walk-out/

https://aws.amazon.com/one/

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

#312

Post by rsynnott »

__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

If you have a US-wide convenience store chain with a multi-billion-dollar company behind it, and you have 29 stores after six years, well... I mean, it's not exactly a stand-out success, is it?

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

#313

Post by dan_quixote »

paxys wrote: post #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. Mor…

> The cashierless thing is fine, but is never going to be the reason people pick one store over another.

There is a Go-style Amazon Fresh very near my house. There are 4 other grocery stores roughly the same distance away. I find myself going to Amazon Fresh more often than not because of how easy it is to walk in, grab something, and walk out. They even put your shopping time on the emailed receipt - and I've made it through in less than a minute on more than one occasion.

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

#314

Post by AnthonyMouse »

luckylion wrote: post #125
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't know about small, but the store I usually shop at is owner-operated (though part of a owner-coop in Germany), but they don't do it. I get the point of shoplifting watchers not caring about queues, but am I just naive that this should be easy enough to solve with tech? You have lots of images from multiple directions, you know how the store looks empty, you can probably do a decent-enough image discovery to fi…

The tech is redundant. The people working in the store can see with their eyes how long the queue is. They don't need a machine to ring a bell. They have a brain.

But not an incentive to use it.

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

#315

Post by aflag »

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.

I find it nice that you don't have to scan anything, use a shopping cart or even move items from one place to another. Just grab it from the shelf, put in your backpack and go. Sure you have to scan your phone when you come in but you'd have to do that when you pay anyway.

So, it's much more convenient, you'd never be embarrassed because you forgot to scan something or the scan didn't work properly. Security guards won't be profiling you as you walk around. I find it great.

It provides value that less sophisticated solutions don't. So, I'd consider it well engineered.

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

#316

Post by flangola7 »

davidgay wrote: post #162
flangola7 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. You're not actually stealing from the "ruthless retail corporation". You are stealing from the customers who don't steal.

Incorrect, it is stealing from the retail corporation.

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

#317

Post by philwelch »

capableweb wrote: post #244
baq wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh the irony. Rye was poor people’s cereal back then, wheat was for the rich.

Lobster was once for prisoners and slaves or a poor mans food, while nowadays it's almost exactly the opposite. It'll be hard to find a prisoner or slave that gets to eat lobster.

That’s mostly because they didn’t really know how to prepare it back then.

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

#318

Post by dylan604 »

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…

To just do a drop off requires all of that? That is quite simply dumb to the nth degree. I get not having the app would make a shopping experience difficult, but that's not what the op was attempting to do. So your whataboutism is just tone deaf

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

#319

Post by aflag »

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.

Wouldn't that require people typing in the product id and making a payment several times if they want more than one thing?

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

#320

Post by nivenkos »

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…

When I was in Seattle it was pretty cheap lunch option.

Although Whole Foods had better food for the same price tbh.

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