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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

#331

Post by CydeWeys »

twelve40 wrote: post #306
HDThoreaun wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The food was just really, really bad. The ones near me stocked a bunch of pre made meals and they were all horrible. I can't wait for this tech to get into my grocery store, but the convenience stores were not it.

it might never make it, depends on where you live. where I live, they were banned because must accept cash, and they can't sell things like booze because id checks, so you end up having a bunch of humans around anyway, which kind of defeats the purpose of installing hundreds of cameras and other expensive systems.

Automated cash registers exist and are widely used, and are much simpler technologically than a scanner-less checkout. Amazon is choosing not to use them.

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

#333

Post by CydeWeys »

baq wrote: post #216
chordalkeyboard wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What about quinoa made it associated with rich yuppies? poor people use wheat etc.

Oh the irony. Rye was poor people’s cereal back then, wheat was for the rich.

It's not ironic. Agricultural methods have changed over the millennia and as a result the relative price of many foods has gone way down. See also white rice.

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

#334

Post by oceanplexian »

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…

This will be huge rant but as someone who worked right next to one of these in San Francisco I didn’t use it because it was obnoxiously annoying.

Speaking as someone technically inclined who writes code for a living, I don’t want to have to scan a QR code or use an App to go through some weird robot gate to buy a thing from the automated store. And that’s (me), not the average Joe Blow who can’t even figure out how to open the calculator app on his phone.

It was a terrible idea from the start and 10x more convenient to walk into a corner market, grab a drink and hand the cashier a few $1’s from my wallet. All this super advanced technology and it has zero real world benefit or time savings for normal human beings.

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

#335

Post by bestnameever »

CydeWeys wrote: post #183
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…

Isn't the whole point of Amazon generally, and these stores specifically in not having staff, that it's supposed to be cheaper? I think you've pinpointed the reason it failed, but I can't imagine why they thought it was going to succeed at those prices.

They also recently opened cashierless Whole Food locations that use the same technology. I would not be surprised if some of these Gp stores were never intended to stay open but rather existed as a concept and to test ideas.

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

#336

Post by CydeWeys »

aflag wrote: post #303
CydeWeys wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's definitely a failure of the Amazon cashier less store concept if they railroad you into doing your returns there but then it doesn't even work.

Sounds more like a failure on the returns drop off location listing. It seems that improving the filters and visibility of what you'll need to have to drop off returns in each location is a far less drastic solution than dropping some stores because otherwise it messes the website lists.

Amazon gives you very few choices on how to return items, oftentimes just 1 (and it'll be something bad like UPS pickup or Kohl's dropoff). They would need to change this too. The problem really is with the overall experience.

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

#337

Post by twelve40 »

roncesvalles wrote: post #258
paxys wrote: post #206

The cashierless thing is fine, but is never going to be the reason people pick one store over another. The problem with Amazon Go is that they have been trying to target the "upscale convenience store" demographic which doesn't really exist. If getting rid of human labor lowers operating costs then why doesn't that reflect on the price tag on the shelf? Charging 2x what the CVS next door does defeats the purpose. Mor…

Not sure if it's the same in the US but in Canada the convenience store is already inherently an upscale destination because of how much more everything costs compared to a supermarket.

Not sure about Canada, but in the US all convenience stores I've been to (except Amazon) sell a very narrow subset of goods found in a supermarket: mostly shitfood, cigarettes, booze and lottery tickets, maybe a small shelf with emergency supplies or a brown-looking banana. This attracts the type of crowd that enjoys consuming these goods.

Amazon, as I agree with the parent, was neither here nor there, not as well stocked as the CVS, and too weird/too hip for a 7-11.

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

#338

Post by baq »

CydeWeys wrote: post #333
baq wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh the irony. Rye was poor people’s cereal back then, wheat was for the rich.

It's not ironic. Agricultural methods have changed over the millennia and as a result the relative price of many foods has gone way down. See also white rice.

I don't disagree. It's the fads and narratives that come alongside which are... looking for the right word here - dumb?

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

#339

Post by desiarnezjr »

vhold wrote: post #311
CydeWeys wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the whole point of Amazon generally, and these stores specifically in not having staff, that it's supposed to be cheaper? I think you've pinpointed the reason it failed, but I can't imagine why they thought it was going to succeed at those prices.

My hunch is that the store wasn't meant to be particularly popular with lots of customers, it was meant to demonstrate technologies they wanted to sell to businesses. https://aws.amazon.com/just-walk-out/ https://aws.amazon.com/one/

They've employed a "Amazon is the first and best customer" for most of the services they've launched. Amazon.com / AWS is an example.

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

#340

Post by satvikpendem »

gretch wrote: post #267
joezydeco wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don’t think this is true. In high school my friend was caught and arrested for stealing a bottle of luxury cosmetic shampoo (dumb teenager brain). Not cheap but certainly not felony limit

They track how much you've shoplifted over time and once it hits felony level amounts, then they charge you. From the below articles:

> "[If] you take a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff, they're gonna be like 'Bye gorgeous. You have a great day.'"

> However, the self-identified ex-employee said that there is a catch - if the shoplifting becomes a pattern, Target allegedly takes action, as they track stolen items.

> Hannah claimed that the company waits "until you're thousands and thousands of dollars in debt" to "put you behind bars."

> This would generally make the stealing a felony-level charge.

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/target-thefts-shoplifti...

https://www.the-sun.com/news/6797941/target-employee-theft-s...

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