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Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

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Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#101

Post by JoeAltmaier »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #100
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tags used to be 60 cents. Now 5 cents. If they got used for masses of things e.g. groceries, they'd go down to a negligible cost. Folks like WalMart can actually drive this themselves.

Walmart already uses RFID in the backroom and for palettized loads, but not for stock that customers handle. In my own work with RFID, the main problem we have is (after disregarding the cost of the transponders) is getting someone to put a transponder sticker on every single widget - stores already stopped using those "pricing guns" when they adopted UPCs/EANs, they don't want to regress backwards. The solution is u…

If they got really cheap, you could imagine 'spraying them on' a pallet and then wanding each item in. Combined with a simultaneous read of the RFID tags that 'stuck', and presto. Just brainstorming.

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#102

Post by maherbeg »

zwily wrote: post #76
dangrossman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen that at Sam's Club, and at a couple grocery store chains, but nobody seems to use them at the grocery store. I did once. I wish Costco would do this too. The lines at my Costco are huge no matter what day or time I visit. Sometimes I'd like to go in just for one or two things, but I decide to get it somewhere else at a higher price just to avoid standing in line behind a dozen full carts. Self-scan would fi…

I'm guessing since they just got rid of self checkout they're not gonna be doing that. (I heard they got rid of it because of too many people sharing cards, and no cashier to check the picture. Seems like an easy thing to fix, but oh well.)

That seems rather silly. Why not check the reciept + card at exit?

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#103

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #101
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart already uses RFID in the backroom and for palettized loads, but not for stock that customers handle. In my own work with RFID, the main problem we have is (after disregarding the cost of the transponders) is getting someone to put a transponder sticker on every single widget - stores already stopped using those "pricing guns" when they adopted UPCs/EANs, they don't want to regress backwards. The solution is u…

If they got really cheap, you could imagine 'spraying them on' a pallet and then wanding each item in. Combined with a simultaneous read of the RFID tags that 'stuck', and presto. Just brainstorming.

If they're using serialized EPCs (which track a unique item, not just SKUs) then this won't work because need to ensure each physical item is uniquely tagged, and that two tags with different serial numbers aren't on the same item (though duplicate tags with the same serial are fine) and that no two items have tags with the same serial.

If they're using non-serialized EPCs (so just logging SKU) then they need to ensure exactly 1 tag is on each item - no more and no less - otherwise inventory counts will be inaccurate.

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#104

Post by boulos »

arjie wrote: post #62
boulos wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a gorilla suit, not a bear suit ;): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

There's a variant with a moonwalking bear which is rather well known: https://youtu.be/Ahg6qcgoay4

Interesting. Your post got me to finally look up the history of this [1]. Apparently it was a woman with an umbrella in a 1975 study, but made extreme by Simons in 1992 with the gorilla. The moonwalking bear is apparently from a 2008 Transport for London advertisement [2] to remind people to see cyclists.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/nov/16/transport-invisib...

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#105

Post by mulletboy »

dx034 wrote: post #81
zitterbewegung wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen supermarket chains do away with automated checkout (Jewel which parent company is Albertsons) systems because they increased loss factors.

I guess it depends on how you set them up. In the UK you'll find self-checkout scanners in nearly every supermarket that contain scales. Stealing with those isn't easier than just stealing in the first way. You can't just "forget" to scan an item. Scanning while you shop, however, doesn't really seem to work. Tesco tried that and basically stopped it again. You either need to check really often (high staff costs) or…

> Scanning while you shop, however, doesn't really seem to work.

Carrefour does that in France, and it works like a charm (I've used that for years when I used to live there). They run semi-random manual inspection of your grocery bag at checkout (happened like once every 1-2 months).

Re: Amazon Delays Opening of Cashierless Store to Work Out Kinks

#106

Post by JoeAltmaier »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #103
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they got really cheap, you could imagine 'spraying them on' a pallet and then wanding each item in. Combined with a simultaneous read of the RFID tags that 'stuck', and presto. Just brainstorming.

If they're using serialized EPCs (which track a unique item, not just SKUs) then this won't work because need to ensure each physical item is uniquely tagged, and that two tags with different serial numbers aren't on the same item (though duplicate tags with the same serial are fine) and that no two items have tags with the same serial. If they're using non-serialized EPCs (so just logging SKU) then they need to ensu…

Unique tag serial numbers would work fine. No duplicates (don't even understand how that would happen). More than one tag not a problem (enter one or all; whatever, as long as scanning later identifies the one item).
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