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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

#371

Post by tchock23 »

joezydeco wrote: post #135
mozman wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Target has a very impressive security system. There is a uuid on your receipt that can be used to track your movement within the store beginning from when you walked in They also have a top forensic lab that some smaller law enforcement units rely on, and they do it for free! https://corporate.target.com/article/2012/02/an-unexpected-c...

Target's procedure is that they don't bother with small shoplifters, but they track the value of the items stolen. Once you hit the felony limit, they go into action and provide all the evidence to law enforcement.

That’s exactly what happened in the jury case I was on. They waited until the person had stolen a large amount of goods before pressing charges.

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

#372

Post by tchock23 »

justeleblanc wrote: post #61
tchock23 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was on a jury for larceny from a Target. The footage they showed from so many points around the store made me feel creeped out with every store I go into now.

Larceny goes to a jury where you live?

Value of the stolen goods exceeded a certain amount (I think it was $3k) so it went to a trial.

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

#374

Post by paxys »

mabbo wrote: post #366
paxys wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is easy to say from the perspective of someone making tech money, but plenty of people (immigrants, minorities, people below the poverty line, people without a high school diploma) depend on such jobs and will gladly do them. Unless you also have a solution for employment for all such groups, "let's get rid of these jobs" comes off as way too simplistic. The benefits of automation are largely enjoyed by the uppe…

As is always said when this argument comes up: fine, let's automate the job and then just give those people the money they would have otherwise made. The people in need get the money, but no one has to do the awful job. Win-win. Or we could just pay them to dig holes and fill them back in again, if you demand that they must perform labor to "earn" their way. These are needless jobs. They should be destroyed.

Who exactly is going to "just give" them this money? Big corporations? Why would they do that exactly? Under some law? What would the law say? That each company has to give some random people money? Or is it the government handing out the cash? Who all will they pay? Where will this money come from? What are the chances any of this actually gets voted for and enacted? How will it be enforced?

It's easy to create these fantasies in one's head, but think about it realistically for 5 seconds and it all breaks down.

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

#376

Post by mjevans »

oblio wrote: post #299
emodendroket wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the long-term goal but in reality it was not yet cheaper. Automation often proves more difficult than one would expect.

https://xkcd.com/1319/ This should be branded on the forehead of every CEO of a company that promises full self driving capabilities for cars before 2030 and cryptocurrency mass adoption, also before 2030.

The image caption text seems very fitting as well. Not quite the dictionary definition of auto-mation but maybe it should be.

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

#377

Post by throwaway22032 »

I always find app-based stuff like this odd. It adds a level of completely unnecessary friction to the process. I drove an EV for a while and the same issue came up - none of them had card/cash payments. It was a significant contributor to me giving it up.

They could just as easily have set it up such that I could walk in and they could figure out what I've bought and just let me tap a card or put cash/coins into a self service machine at the end to open the turnstile. No tappy tap = no open turnstile.

But they don't, because... I dunno. Less data? I mean, they could facially recognise me and track me that way if they really wanted.

If Amazon the website required an app then I wouldn't use it. I bet they'd lose out on a significant number of customers.

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

#378

Post by btgeekboy »

cavisne wrote: post #290
kentosi wrote: post #8

Slightly misleading title. They're closing 8 of their stores across NYC, SF, etc, and this is after they just opened a few more across the US.

And the 2 “closed” in seattle have been boarded up for some time, they are in an area that became even higher crime during Covid and never really recovered.

One of those stores was only accessible by badged Amazon employees, too. It was basically just a grab and go cafeteria for them.

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

#379

Post by 1letterunixname »

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…

My interpretation is the tech worked but they got greedy, and failed at supply and demand optimization. (Failed at execution.)

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

#380

Post by gumby »

rsynnott wrote: post #312
__derek__ wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I assumed that every one of those stores were experiments or at least test jigs, and closing or opening them means nothing to anyone outside Amazon.

NYC is a tough market because there is so much competition. But if you're not trying to make money yet you can learn a lot. Perhaps they learnt that New Yorkers don't have the patience to install an app. You generally don't wait that long in a bodega -- I expect to wait longer inside a gas station on the Interstate!

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