Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

gizmodo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 769 posts

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

#221

Post by bigger_cheese »

mateo1 wrote: post #205
weinzierl wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a German it is always a culture shock to see how popular self checkout is in the UK, even though I see it used more often recently in Germany too. I think Germany is about a decade behind...

There's a simple formula that makes you chose it: they keep as few manned checkouts open as possible, as long as the wait for the manned checkouts is inconvenient enough the majority of people will use the self-checkouts.

Yep this is my experience here in Australia, the manned checkouts are understaffed the stores want to deliberately funnel you into the self checkout.

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

#222

Post by CharlieDigital »

ssl-3 wrote: post #148
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.

At Meijer stores I've shopped at, there are fancy scales in the produce section. They work like this: Scan the barcode on the produce if it has one (or pick it from a picture-list, or search by name, or just key in the 4-digit PLU if you're cool like that), put it on the scale, and it spits out a barcode label that identifies the product and the weight. At self-checkout, one just scans the generated barcode label and…

They have the same at my local Wegman's but there's really no incentive to use it. I'm not any faster than the cashier so there's no time savings.

And it has several problems as well with respect to loss (e.g. adding more items to the bag). To deal with that, you'd have to weigh it or count again to verify.

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

#223

Post by mudlus »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #188

I wish Target would add computers to their carts. For most people, it'd be a nice alternative towards the self checkout area with limited space to place things. For the more unsavory customers, it could offer video evidence that they're stealing stuff, lock the wheels at the door if more than $X isn't paid for, and create GPS reports of where all the stolen carts end up.

This is another thing Japan has implemented in certain areas. There's a supermarket near us called Trial that has this method of checkout: https://www.trial-net.co.jp/prepaid/regi-cart/

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

#224

Post by hot_gril »

CharlieDigital wrote: post #222
ssl-3 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At Meijer stores I've shopped at, there are fancy scales in the produce section. They work like this: Scan the barcode on the produce if it has one (or pick it from a picture-list, or search by name, or just key in the 4-digit PLU if you're cool like that), put it on the scale, and it spits out a barcode label that identifies the product and the weight. At self-checkout, one just scans the generated barcode label and…

They have the same at my local Wegman's but there's really no incentive to use it. I'm not any faster than the cashier so there's no time savings. And it has several problems as well with respect to loss (e.g. adding more items to the bag). To deal with that, you'd have to weigh it or count again to verify.

Was going to say, this process sounds a lot more complicated than just putting stuff in my bag and letting a cashier deal with it. If they want to automate the cashier away, fine, but I'm not doing their job for them.

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

#225

Post by rgmerk »

smugma wrote: post #194

Uniqlo (in Japan and at least in SF) has a cool checkout method. You drop your clothes into a big bin (I’ve always done it one piece at a time, didn’t think to do all at once) and it adds up all your items. I’ve used this maybe 8 times, 100% accurate so far. Not sure how it works but I guessed RFID and quick Google appears to confirm: https://www.wsj.com/articles/uniqlos-parent-company-bets-big...

It’s been discussed before on HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38715111

Unlikely to work for groceries given the costs of RFID tags, I imagine.

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

#226

Post by hn_user82179 »

bilalq wrote: post #190

This is pretty sad to read. Before Covid, the Amazon Go store experience was phenomenal. All the convenience of a 7-Eleven but with the pricing of a normal grocery store. The food options were really good and the BlueApron style meal-kits were amazing. The Alexa integration was also nice for being able to just verbally ask what's the next step on a recipe while you're busy stirring or chopping things. When it rolled…

Regular grocery stores have really gone downhill as well. Whenever I shop, there’s at most 1 cashier doing checkout and usually 0 (only self-checkout being open). I consider myself pretty proficient about knowing what sets off the machine but still set it off 60% of the time (about some weight imbalance etc) that requires an attendant to come fix manually. I’ve gotten to dread the grocery store trips as they require so much overhead time. I really wish the “just walk out” could’ve been popularized and caught on at more stores.

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

#227

Post by steelframe »

Cool. Now can I pay with cash? Because I'm not going to let anyone build a profile on whether I like warming lube or just regular lube, how much sugar and alcohol I consume, what kind of romance novels I read, how often I floss, and whether I feel I can afford organic fruit.

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

#228

Post by dahdum »

smugma wrote: post #194

Uniqlo (in Japan and at least in SF) has a cool checkout method. You drop your clothes into a big bin (I’ve always done it one piece at a time, didn’t think to do all at once) and it adds up all your items. I’ve used this maybe 8 times, 100% accurate so far. Not sure how it works but I guessed RFID and quick Google appears to confirm: https://www.wsj.com/articles/uniqlos-parent-company-bets-big...

> Uniqlo (in Japan and at least in SF) has a cool checkout method.

Saw this in the Honolulu location and was similarly impressed. It's got to be pretty close to a theoretical minimum in check out speed, while requiring no labor and no accounts.

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

#229

Post by satellite2 »

_xivi wrote: post #43
phh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've had that in France for years, and noone uses that as far as I can tell. The main usage I see is mainly self checkout. Please note that I'm biased towards dense areas. We have on-the-go scanning in super stores as well, I feel it's not being used but I could be wrong

> We've had that in France for years, and noone uses that as far as I can tell. Why not? what makes it unpopular?

Because the trust level is under zero. In France you have to put items one by one and the weight of your shopping bag has to add up before you can scan the next article. It's the prison feeling with the speed of an 90 year old in any other country's self checkout. 0/10 would not recommend.

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

#230

Post by awelxtr »

smugma wrote: post #194

Uniqlo (in Japan and at least in SF) has a cool checkout method. You drop your clothes into a big bin (I’ve always done it one piece at a time, didn’t think to do all at once) and it adds up all your items. I’ve used this maybe 8 times, 100% accurate so far. Not sure how it works but I guessed RFID and quick Google appears to confirm: https://www.wsj.com/articles/uniqlos-parent-company-bets-big...

Self checkout systems based on RFID are very convenient, quick and quite accurate compared to self checkout on grocery stores'l. The main problem on groceries is that the tags are expensive compared to the product (tags prices are in the order of tens of cents depending on manufacturer and size)

Disclaimer: I work on a RFID reader manufacturing company

Post reply on HN