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Amazon Go

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Re: Amazon Go

#451

Post by loverachelcook »

delegate wrote: post #387

Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…

The moment you start trying to keep things the same instead of being open to change is the moment you become the old generation always complaining about how back in your day blah blah blah. The world will change all the same.

Re: Amazon Go

#452

Post by LyndsySimon »

anonbanker wrote: post #391
icebraining wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I find it hard to believe, but since we don't have them around, is there any data showing (5)?

Here's a few: EDIT : Multiple lawsuits for predatory pricing: https://ilsr.org/walmart-charged-predatory-pricing/ http://www.academia.edu/1511858/The_Effect_of_Wal-Mart_on_Sm... http://business.time.com/2014/02/24/walmarts-big-push-to-go-... http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/study-proves-wa... here's a few directly related to wage fraud: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/walmart_n_4466850.h... http:…

> http://www.academia.edu/1511858/The_Effect_of_Wal-Mart_on_Sm....

This is literally someone's homework.

> http://business.time.com/2014/02/24/walmarts-big-push-to-go-....

This offers no evidence of any harm at all.

> http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/study-proves-wa....

This talks about a study (but doesn't link to it) that says:

"The payroll results indicate that Wal-Mart store openings lead to declines in county-level retail earnings of about $1.4 million, or 1.5 percent. Of course, these effects occurred against a backdrop of rising retail employment, and only imply lower retail employment growth than would have occurred absent the effects of Wal-Mart."

If anything, that's evidence to counter your assertion that WalMart raises prices after eliminating its competition - retail in the counties is more efficient, and people are spending less money.

> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/walmart_n_4466850.h....

> http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-low-wage-employers-cost-taxp....

"Wage fraud" isn't what you asserted before, but even that isn't supported by these links. These links talk about the fact that WalMart employees low-income workers.

Re: Amazon Go

#453

Post by devy »

simonvc wrote: post #190
devy wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all merchandise in the Amazon Go store have been RFID tagged, this is a non-issue for checkout, as the turnstile tag scanner should be able to sense the items you take out of the store. As far as randomly put back at a different place of the items, the staff can use the tag scanner to detect that and fix it up even easier as oppose to physically locate the item by human vision which is arguably harder and less eff…

Faraday cage bags are already a thing.. I can see them being a lot more popular..

RFID along cannot solve it - it's Computer vision + RFID. Don't forget cams are everywhere in the store that will capture the moment you pick something up...

Re: Amazon Go

#454

Post by JustSomeNobody »

crazypyro wrote: post #429
delegate wrote: post #387

Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…

Trying to save jobs that are no longer the most efficient way of solving a problem is not the way to promote the value of humanity, in my opinion. People want groceries as cheap and fast as possible. They don't go to the grocery store for social interaction and forcing the majority of people to pay extra for something that only the minority get value out of is not a competitive strategy. If humanity were to take your…

Evolve as a society, yet remove the social experience of shopping.

Interesting. I don't believe I want us to evolve in that direction.

Re: Amazon Go

#455

Post by Natanael_L »

simonvc wrote: post #190
devy wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all merchandise in the Amazon Go store have been RFID tagged, this is a non-issue for checkout, as the turnstile tag scanner should be able to sense the items you take out of the store. As far as randomly put back at a different place of the items, the staff can use the tag scanner to detect that and fix it up even easier as oppose to physically locate the item by human vision which is arguably harder and less eff…

Faraday cage bags are already a thing.. I can see them being a lot more popular..

If the system detects tags disappearing while inside the store, it can trigger an alarm and tell approximately where they were (to be combined with surveillance footage).

Re: Amazon Go

#456

Post by _gfrc »

kalmi10 wrote: post #280
_gfrc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RFID tags are still to expensive in the supermarket context. The margins are usually razor thin (at least in Germany) and the products are quite cheap. Even when buying RFID tags in bulk they are too expensive.

Disclaimer: I am more or less pulling this numbers out of thin air. Assume that having a single cashier costs $15 per hour. Assume that an RFID tag costs $0.05. Assume that in average a cashier handles 1 item for only 5 seconds (including payment). That means that a cashier can handle 720 items per hour, and that costs the supermarket $15. Having RFID tags for 720 items would cost $36. That's still a ~$20 dollar diff…

That sounds about right. Depending on the store, though, the cashier will handle a lot more articles. E.g. at Aldi, a cashier is expected to process at least 3k articles per hour.

The big problem is: Most people are not willing to pay for that :) Depending on the product, 1-2 cents might be your whole margin.

Re: Amazon Go

#457

Post by hx87 »

CodeSheikh wrote: post #385
zaargy wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it or not, this is the future. If Amazon don't do it then someone else will. People want cheap goods and this will give them cheaper goods. The solution to your worries is a universal basic income.

Try to become a part of the solution not part of the problem. As an engineer, this is a mesmerizing and a very appreciative tech. Kudos. As a (selfless) neighbor, I can never be happy to see unemployed neighbors. Sure we can create these autonomous technologies, but we also should be active in policy-making for our cities e.g. if 10 jobs are being displaced then collectively what are we doing to create 10 more jobs.…

Get more people (and a greater variety of people) to invest in Amazon, and other companies who displace jobs, perhaps?

Re: Amazon Go

#458

Post by dunham »

delegate wrote: post #387

Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…

Heh, I live in Seattle, and I've got two grocery stores 1 km from my house (and a small seafood / poultry place at about 1.1 km). My first thought was why would I drive down to Belltown, when I can just walk to the store.

Edit: To be fair, looking at the video, it's mostly prepared food, so I'm probably not even in the target audience for this store. (I tend to buy raw ingredients, like produce and meat.)

Re: Amazon Go

#459

Post by anonbanker »

icebraining wrote: post #380
anonbanker wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this was the only tactic one could use to waste money at Walmart, then yes, it would be trivial. Now, imagine a team of 20 people doing this, as well as numerous other tactics to waste their money, weekly at 5 locations in a city. the numbers start adding up real quick. the wageslaves don't care. Wal-Mart pays them low enough that the company assists them with acquiring welfare benefits to supplement their incomes…

I think the point wasn't that employees cared about the loss, but about having to clean-up the mess. Especially if they're forced to work overtime on account of that.

There's some interesting concepts you've brought up here:

1) Does Wal-Mart force their employees to do overtime? How is this legal?

2) Are Wal-Mart employees paid well enough to take pride in the appearance of their store?

3) Do Wal-Mart employees have a bad day because they have to fish an open bag of sliced ham out of a box in the Shoe Department?

my personal experience is "no" on all three, but I'd be interested to see other experiences from current or former Wal-Mart employees.

Re: Amazon Go

#460

Post by thex10 »

delegate wrote: post #387

Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…

I don't disagree with you. But many people don't experience this humanity, currently.
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