Amazon Go • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Go

#351

Post by joezydeco » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:14 PM UTC

MertsA wrote: post #291

So what happens when someone asks a good samaritan to help them get some expensive item off of a high shelf? How does this deal with things like a couple shopping together, one with an Amazon account and one without where both of them are getting items off of the shelves? Even if all of the video was monitored by a human I can still envision several pitfalls to this where it's hard to know who to bill for what withou…

See my theory above. There's no real inventory of your items until you walk out. What the vision system is doing is matching up your account (scanned upon entry) to the lane you choose when exiting (where the items are scanned).

Re: Amazon Go

#352

Post by altcognito » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

gohrt wrote: post #261

solatic wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RFID probably works better if you control the packaging, for instance, for deli counter products. But for packaging that you don't control, you either have to slap an RFID tag on when the items get to the store, negotiate with suppliers to start to include RFID tags in their packaging for items shipped to your store, or arbitrarily limit yourself in terms of which products your store may sell. Not to mention that, if…

> because somebody would be able to steal a product by discreetly removing a tag and then walking out of the store. That's already handled in grocery -- people can mess with regular barcodes if they want. it's a known cost of business

And if they know who you are because of your phone, and they are doing inventory on a really regular basis (every 6 hours, maybe even less), they might actually be able to track down who it was.

Re: Amazon Go

#353

Post by CodeSheikh » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

JPKab wrote: post #211

CodeSheikh wrote: post #201

Guys this is not good. As much as I love the convenience of pick-and-go, this eventually will prove out to be drastic for a variety of bad socioeconomic reasons, that most of us are already aware of. Small businesses were already suffering at the hands of Amazon Prime. Now Amazon Go wants to not only kick out those businesses out of the block but it also wants to take away jobs of small retail salesperson. Unacceptab…

I'm not thrilled with the socio-economic impact this will have, but it's inevitable. A big hope I have is that, similar to the automation and efficiency boost of agriculture (once upon a time most humans worked in farming), this will unlock huge sums of money that can be diverted to other hard to automate services that will employ these folks.

"this will unlock huge sums of money that can be diverted". Agree. But what guarantee do we have that Amazon or similar large companies such as Apple had ever re-invested their profits back into economies? So far none. Yes Amazon can hire more people for warehouses, but is it fair for a displaced retail person to go and work at warehouses (trust me I have worked at warehouses and it is not a FUN place to work at!)?

Re: Amazon Go

#354

Post by ncr100 » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

ncallaway wrote: post #330

deusofnull wrote: post #306

What happens if someone sneaks into the store without an amazon account and walks right the hell out with whatever they want? Not a criticism, just curious what we speculate the theft prevention systems used here might be.

> What happens if someone sneaks into the store without an amazon account and walks right the hell out with whatever they want? This is also a perennial concern at any tradition grocery store as well. Presumably, in a system that operates primary off of computer vision, you would: A) Be able to quickly detect an unrecognized person in the store and alert security, and B) Have very good video evidence of the person co…

This requires "Amazon Man Trap", too.

Person can blip in and blip out with one of those baguettes unheeded otherwise.

Re: Amazon Go

#355

Post by swalsh » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

halotrope wrote: post #25

So technically they built something to automatically detect shoplifting (but charge to customer in the process). If this worked in generic stores they could make a killing with theft detection services.

Amazon makes a bigger killing by having a competitive advantage of not having to worry about theft. Just like Kiva gave Amazon an edge in warehousing, this gives them an edge in meat space stores.

Re: Amazon Go

#356

Post by toss1941 » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

anonbanker wrote: post #317

djsumdog wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about just not shopping at Wal-Mart? I stopped shopping there in 2009. When I returned to the US, I stopped shopping at Amazon because it had pretty much become the new Wal-Mart; maybe worse even. This is cool tech and I'd want to try it, but I hate shopping anything Amazon. They had sd cards at their brick and mortar store, but I decided to buy one at Office Depot instead, even though it was $10 more.

Upvoted for sensibility. in many rural areas of the United States, it is literally impossible to shop anywhere but Wal-Mart. Nebraska and Kansas had a rather large economic dive in the early 2000's due to the expansion of the Waltons. Their business plan is essentially: 1) Announce intention to move into area 2) woo politicians for financial kickbacks to subsidize expansion 3) launch with prices _far_ lower than all…

In my fly-over town I have 4 Super-Walmarts within 30 minutes of me and there are still as many Grocery stores around as when we only had 2 Super-Walmarts several years ago. There have also been quite a few smaller grocery stores popping up yearly, especially tiny ethnic markets. If your premise is true, and I'm sure it is to some extent, it isn't having a very big impact in my neck of the woods.

Re: Amazon Go

#357

Post by anonbanker » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #339

anonbanker wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upvoted for sensibility. in many rural areas of the United States, it is literally impossible to shop anywhere but Wal-Mart. Nebraska and Kansas had a rather large economic dive in the early 2000's due to the expansion of the Waltons. Their business plan is essentially: 1) Announce intention to move into area 2) woo politicians for financial kickbacks to subsidize expansion 3) launch with prices _far_ lower than all…

Isn't that illegal?

Not when the city council are your accomplices. Who is going to prosecute?

Re: Amazon Go

#358

Post by maxerickson » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

cpmsmith wrote: post #283

0xfeba wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sorry but if you cost the store $25 by leaving a damned ROAST in the cereal aisle, I would be perfectly happy to never let you in the store again. Wouldn't a better solution be to charge the customer for the roast and if they complain, you explain: "sorry, you didn't put it on the proper shelf, the technology considers that as a purchase", and possibly eat the cost in the form of some incentive to come back to…

IMO, any messaging in the format "sorry, $thingYouDid, the technology considers that as $notWhatYouDid" is a recipe for customer loss.

Getting rid of bad customers is exactly what is being suggested.

Re: Amazon Go

#359

Post by pimlottc » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

ben0x539 wrote: post #231

Merad wrote: post #86

I hate it when companies offer a "how this works" section that doesn't actually tell you a damned thing about how it works. * How does my Amazon account get associated with the items I take? * How are items detected when leaving the store? If my friend and I walk out side by side, how does it know (if it does) which items are mine and which are hers? * What happens when someone picks up an item and leaves without fir…

As a customer-facing thing, "how it works" means "what do I have to do to get stuff". Like, how does the process work on a UX level.

Which is already addressed earlier in the video. The "How it works" section of the video adds no practical details on how to use the system. It's just a slot to drop in a bunch of impressive-sounded jargon.

Re: Amazon Go

#360

Post by heliumcraft » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 5:18 PM UTC

agentgt wrote: post #328

heliumcraft wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (even if it requires some GMO) You say that like if it's a bad thing, you might want to better inform yourself on GMOs as there are A LOT of myths and misconceptions out there.

> You say that like if it's a bad thing, you might want to better inform yourself on GMOs as there are A LOT of myths and misconceptions out there. And you might not want to assume what I know and don't :) I say it because GMOs are not open source. Local farms don't get access to GMOs and it can create an unfair advantage to big farms. As for health reasons I don't believe that GMOs are bad for you but they may have…

95% of seeds are patented, GMO or not, including those used in Organic Farming, the 'open source' / patents part is not something specific to GMOs (although the Organic industry works really hard to spread that myth).

Organic farming can also use pesticides (and most do), some of these pesticides are as bad or even worse than the ones used in modern agriculture.

And in regards to nutrients https://gmoanswers.com/studies/how-do-gm-crops-impact-soil-h...