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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

#171

Post by SkyPuncher »

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…

Sam’s club offers this. I’ve stopped using it because it’s too easy to forget to scan something.

I just scan everything at the end. Not really any different than going to self checkout.

I also use checkout as a time to organize my groceries for unloading at home.

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

#172

Post by I_AM_A_SMURF »

noodlesUK wrote: post #30
lgfrbcsgo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would prevent someone from lining their shopping bag with metal to shield the RF?

Nothing, the same as current self-checkout systems. You can already easily just put stuff in your pocket or ring expensive items up as incorrect, cheaper things. I suspect shops have done a risk analysis and decided that they'd prefer to have more shoplifting and fewer staff.

> You can already easily just put stuff in your pocket or ring expensive items up as incorrect, cheaper things

This is actually already somewhat solved. The other day I was at a Safeway and one carton of milk had an unreadable label so I scanned a different carton and put the unreadable one in the bag instead (same product). The system showed me a video of me doing that, highlighting the fact that I didn't put the item I scanned on the bag (!) and asked me to wait for an assistant. Pretty impressive.

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

#173

Post by hackable_sand »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #100
Ajay-p wrote: post #80

I recently finished a book called "The Secret Life of Groceries" by Benjamin Lorr. Amazing book. I learned that grocery and supermarket stores of the past, seemed to have worked very hard to give the best customer experience possible. Today it feels that customer experience has been replaced by cost cutting. Self checkout has been rife with problems, internally and socially, but supermarkets keep pushing them. I can…

One of the various jobs I had during the 90s to put myself through college was stocking store shelves in a large grocery store. During my time there, I placed every item on the shelf by hand, rotated forward, so that the shelves were easy to front and look respectable by the time the morning came. After a few months, it was fairly easy to eyeball an item in the case, lift it while rotating, and place it on the shelf…

I appreciate the effort. I think manual, menial labor is pushed very hard in the US today.

One thing that really bothers me is that older stock is not brought to the front and they just push it back with the new stuff.

It's doubly frustrating because sometimes products change so you'll find what you're looking for after digging through three layers of assorted items.

I don't really blame the apathy directly, but there are doubtless solutions over the horizon.

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

#174

Post by orra »

diggan wrote: post #54
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…

> I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. Scan-as-you-shop has been around for at least a decade at this point I think, at least in some parts of the world. ICA (supermarket in Sweden) been doing it for as long as I can remember, and I came across this image of the scanner being used at the store on Mediawiki: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S…

Scan as you shop goes back way further! Safeway UK had it, and they were bought over yonks ago.

Looks like they had it in 1996, 28 years ago. https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/safeway-uk-expands-s...

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

#175

Post by badwolf »

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.

HEB in Texas has scales and label printers scattered throughout the product section for you to weigh and print a label while you shop for this reason.

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

#176

Post by mparkms »

LawnGnome wrote: post #101
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)?

Expensify was a pretty well known case of this several years ago — their marketing was all about their advanced scanning technology, and it turned out they were using Mechanical Turk in many cases with little concern for PII (or corporate security) concerns. (I have no idea if this is still the case, for the record.)

That would explain why their receipt scanning is so damn slow even for easily scannable PDF receipts.

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

#177

Post by asdff »

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…

I can't wait for food to be expensive and the ewaste from supplying an rfid chip with every tomato and potato

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

#178

Post by spike021 »

whyenot wrote: post #44

"Ginger Market" on the SJSU campus has attempted to use a similar "Just Walk Out" approach. It has not worked well. I've been double charged, charged for items I did not take, not charged for items I've taken, etc. The refund process was also a pain. It was so bad that they had to stop using it last spring, although they claim they are going to give it another go. Why even bother? Self checkout or a cashier work so m…

Doesn't that take away jobs students used to get? Which storefront is that? The one at the bottom of MLK Library or McQuarrie Hall?

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

#179

Post by JohnFen »

jhbadger wrote: post #128
graemep wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the supermarkets where I live (English Midlands) have scan as you shop. I stopped using it after they required using their loyalty cards/apps to use it.

I'm not a fan of the data tracking that I know those loyalty programs are for, but at least in the US most stores overcharge you if you don't use them (they present it as giving a "discount" if you use them but really you are just getting the fair price denied to non-members) so you would need to have deep pockets to resist them out of principle.

In my part of the US, anyway, there are several grocery stores that don't use loyalty cards at all, so you can avoid the extortion by shopping at those.

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

#180

Post by nottorp »

cdchn wrote: post #33
sircastor wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like a gift-registry, but you take all the stuff with you when you're done instead of letting other people buy it for you later. We've got Barcode guns at self-checkout here, and I've begun to arrange my items barcode-up in the cart, so I can just get everything rapidly. I often don't bring my bags with me, because I'm going to have to load everything into the car anyway.

>I often don't bring my bags with me, because I'm going to have to load everything into the car anyway. Thats an interesting optimization. Don't bag your stuff in the store just walk out with a cart of loose groceries. Especially for someone who simply MUST bring all the groceries inside with one trip, I can just load up a crate.

Always did that. But I keep large, solid, reusable bags in the trunk.
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