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Amazon Go

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Re: Amazon Go

#471

Post by alistproducer2 »

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 can't agree with this. Give people basic income and let technology do what it does.

Re: Amazon Go

#472

Post by AWildDHHAppears »

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…

Wouldn't it be better if the cashier were a robot who sang the song you wanted to hear?

Re: Amazon Go

#473

Post by subdane »

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…

This makes sense from a suburban, car-based perspective. From a walking, city-based lens, neighborhoods and social interactions make a lot of sense. It's why coffee shops haven't been made obsolete by vending machines - at least here in New York. Point is, it depends on your perspective.

Re: Amazon Go

#474

Post by Nacraile »

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…

Your situation in Barcelona sounds nice and all, but it is does not describe the typical American's grocery experience at all, and therefore does not really apply to what Amazon is doing in downtown Seattle.

The typical grocery store here (i.e. what Go is actually going after) is basically a warehouse, with checkout lanes staffed by apathetic teenagers. The process is already almost entirely devoid of meaningful human contact. It might as well be more convenient.

Hopefully, whatever has protected your local stores from the economic forces that have produced the experience I describe will also protect your local stores from this incremental improvement on automated checkout.

Re: Amazon Go

#475

Post by nkassis »

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 think what's probably going to happen is those sorts of shops will continue to exist as is. They provide an experience (a bit like local cafes etc...) They may even be able to charge a premium for this. The big bucks stores will end up converting to more automated systems. Stocking shelves probably one of the next things to go. So you get to choose, local more human experience or efficient highly automated experience.

Similar reason why Amazon hasn't caused small bookstores to close down.

Re: Amazon Go

#476

Post by flaviojuvenal »

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…

> They don't go to the grocery store for social interaction

Not true for my grandmother and many other elderly people. Maybe it's loneliness. But maybe it's a generation thing, not sure. We need to question if it's best to not interact with people who sell us stuff.

Re: Amazon Go

#477

Post by joshuawright11 »

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 places I feel where I know the cashiers and employees are not large supermarkets though, but small time specialty shops (the Polish butcher shop near my house, the florist, etc). To me large scale supermarkets (wal mart, target, whole foods, etc) tend to have young or post retirement, disinterested staff that are simply there to make a little extra cash and go home. Besides, there are often 10-15 cashiers on a schedule with ridiculous turnover. I don't see this competing with the specialty shops and thus not erasing that social connection involved in some shopping. Rather, it will reduce the drudgery and annoyance of going to huge grocery stores with no personal connection and a disinterested staff.

IMO non-specialty grocery stores with a few staff closely knit in the community have already been mostly eliminated by the larger corporations.

Re: Amazon Go

#478

Post by sqeaky »

rhino369 wrote: post #293
sqeaky wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are bigger problems, like how they implicitly assume everyone is a thief and are will to damage usability for everyone because that assumption. That stupid scale isn't going to stop any shoplifter, but it does inconvenience me every time. EDIt - Grammar.

It's not just to catch thieves, but to catch errors in scanning too. When I was a cashier (this was back in 2004 but these self check outs appear to be running the same UI), about 70% of the time I had override the machine, the person had thought they scanned something but didn't. And it rarely appeared to be an attempt to steal. I even catch myself doing it. If you are smart you can notice the error, take it out of…

That is not when the machine messes up for me. If I just got done scanning the 5th case of some beverage and it needs to be weighed what should I do. The screen provides little hint. Sometimes there is a "remove my bags" button but often its not there. If I try to move goods to my cart it complains and stops the process, I put the stuff I Just scanned directly in my cart I get an error.

If you say that the scale does find honest mistakes (which I doubt, I think you just have dumb shoplifters) and I say the scales are strictly harmful to user experience then it seems these things must have a bad UI until some advance comes along.

Re: Amazon Go

#479

Post by gamegoblin »

LesZedCB wrote: post #303
TulliusCicero wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1800's - "If you are a farm equipment manufacturer, you have to acknowledge that you are slowly corroding the farming sector, which employs most people in the country." Even if they "acknowledge" it, so what? It's not their job to create extra jobs to replace the ones that they've automated out of existence. It's never been the jobs of the companies creating disruptive technology, like farm equipment or cars or co…

and income inequality has skyrocketed since then.

I agree with you that income inequality is a big problem, and it is a major cause of social discord, but to be fair, quality of life increased significantly across all percentiles since then.

e.g. which society is better to live in:

    (low inequality, less wealth)
    10th percentile average wealth: 100
    99th percentile average wealth: 1000
 
    (high inequality, more wealth)
    10th percentile average wealth: 1000
    99th percentile average wealth: 1000000
Of course this is an oversimplification, but you get the idea: income inequality is not the only important factor.

Re: Amazon Go

#480

Post by mememachine »

problems wrote: post #444
des429 wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism says if the majority of people agree with you they will spend their money at the supermarkets w/ the friendly clerks.

Not necessarily majority - it's an interesting ability of capitalism over many other systems - multiple solutions to a problem can co-exist. As long as enough people still demand it to make it economically viable. With "just walk out" the friction is extremely low. It might see less pushback than other technological approaches. However I have to think security will be a major issue. If I can rob the store by just lea…

A lot of security concerns are resolved by just hiring a person or two to monitor the entry. Still far cheaper than cashiers and so on
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