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Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

gizmodo.com

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Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#131

Post by hot_gril »

noodlesUK wrote: post #6

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

The hardest things are produce and by-weight items. Even self-checkout doesn't handle that well a lot of the time.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#132

Post by jcotton42 »

hot_gril wrote: post #131
noodlesUK wrote: post #6

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

The hardest things are produce and by-weight items. Even self-checkout doesn't handle that well a lot of the time.

The Wegmans I shopped at in Rochester had scales that would produce a special barcode you could scan into the app that would record both the item and the weight.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#133

Post by shawabawa3 »

nicklecompte wrote: post #118
jonnycat wrote: post #89

Can we start a list of technological magic that is actually "1000 people in India watching and labeling videos" (or functional equivalent)?

I wonder if GPT-4's performance has degraded in recent months because there are less human data contractors on standby to answer questions GPT flags as low-confidence. GPT might be "refusing to answer questions" because it's not able to escalate tough queries to a human.

Not plausible, even when it's on slow mode it's too fast to be contacted out to humans

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#135

Post by noodlesUK »

michaelmrose wrote: post #94
noodlesUK wrote: post #6

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

Scanning with your phone camera sucks its very slow and scanning as you pass the anti theft barriers normalizes running the barriers which will make catching thieves basically impossible. It also runs contra to shoppers expectations. Raises the question of charging the wrong person when multiple phones are nearby as when multiple people are shopping together or just adjacent to one another or when carts are just too…

The scan as you shop systems that I am referring to are where you are given a little barcode scanner with a display, and you go around the shop scanning your items as you pack them. At the end of the shopping trip, you still go to the self checkout machine, but you just transfer your scan list from the portable barcode scanner to the till. At no point are you using a phone camera to scan items. Usually the trolleys have a little mount point for the scanner so you don't even need to touch anything.

I agree that having to scan out via the anti theft barriers is idiotic.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#136

Post by hot_gril »

jonnycat wrote: post #89

Can we start a list of technological magic that is actually "1000 people in India watching and labeling videos" (or functional equivalent)?

Not India, but my favorite example was the Kiwi food delivery robot fleet in Berkeley, CA. They were controlled manually from Colombia, and from the looks of it, seems like one person was trying to drive 20 robots at once.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#137

Post by hot_gril »

jcotton42 wrote: post #132
hot_gril wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardest things are produce and by-weight items. Even self-checkout doesn't handle that well a lot of the time.

The Wegmans I shopped at in Rochester had scales that would produce a special barcode you could scan into the app that would record both the item and the weight.

If customers are willing to use an app, that makes things a lot easier to implement. Safeway/Vons in the US only have self-checkout machines. Seems like it's shifted towards per-item produce pricing, but the stickers often fall off.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#138

Post by hot_gril »

frakkingcylons wrote: post #25
fullshark wrote: post #5

So they are offloading checkout onto the consumer via dash carts. There's no value proposition for the consumer unless somehow they are able to lower prices by not hiring cashiers.

It’s a huge advantage if you don’t have to wait in line for self checkout machines or human checkout.

I don't feel like checking out is any faster than it used to be. They replace 10 human checkout lanes with maybe 15 self-checkout lanes and 2 human checkout. Maybe the self-checkout is a cheaper so they can have more, but people are so much slower on those that it doesn't win in the end. Dunno if the store is even really incentivized to make checkout fast, given that they sell high-margin stuff in the lines.

Maybe one advantage is it finally stops customers from asking to pay half with a check and half with cash for a $2 item in certain places. There's an entire Walgreens I avoid because that's happened 3 times already.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#139

Post by deathanatos »

shmatt wrote: post #82
vultour wrote: post #29

Wait what? When did they reveal it's offloaded to workers in India? I remember this being touted as fully automated when it was announced, surely being watched by strangers from creepy angles would discourage a large portion of customers.

There is usually a mention of "humans in the loop" when articles discussed Amazon Go[1]. Amazon just always refused to give actual numbers. The best "give" that humans were watching you was that Amazon Go receipts often arrived in your email many hours after you left. Anyone who works in computer vision immediately knew this wasn't possible beyond a cool proof of concept in a tiny room with [1] https://techcrunch.com…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmMk1Myrxc says nothing about humans in the loop, and that it's technology, all automatic.

Am I surprised? No, not at all. But there is a definitely "how it was marketed", "how it was implemented" here.

Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores

#140

Post by bonton89 »

vultour wrote: post #29

Wait what? When did they reveal it's offloaded to workers in India? I remember this being touted as fully automated when it was announced, surely being watched by strangers from creepy angles would discourage a large portion of customers.

Less creepy being watched by actual people I think. They'll usually just forget about you after a few days instead of cataloging every time you lingered at a shelf selling hemorrhoid cream and storing it in a database forever.
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