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

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

#601

Post by moffkalast »

robertlagrant wrote: post #583
ScoobleDoodle wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social safety net is more than just being able to afford it. It's a combination of not being able to afford it and general erosion of social values leading to "take what you can get away with" mentality. So even those that can afford it will still try to get more since it's everyone for themselves. Instead of cooperation under a system with a social safety net, we get a game theoretic weighting on defection without a…

> Instead of cooperation under a system with a social safety net, we get a game theoretic weighting on defection without a social safety net. There is a safety net. Here's how I'd describe the situation: There will be a number of people, fewer than the total who benefit from the safety net, who almost everyone would say it was good that they were helped. There will be a number of people, fewer than the total who bene…

> who almost everyone would say it was not good that they were helped

I'm sorry, what? Only in the US helping someone can be sold as a bad thing. It's better to help a few more people that may not really need it than help a few fewer that actually did.

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

#602

Post by Dylan16807 »

winter-day wrote: post #105
jonnycat wrote: post #89

Can we start a list of technological magic that is actually "1000 people in India watching and labeling videos" (or functional equivalent)?

while I agree with the sentiment, as an Indian, I hope this doesn't happen in India. countries which typically do this mechanical turk-like work typically don't raise themselves out of poverty (esp. Philippines, Indonesia, etc.). If anyone wants a specific example, I lead an aspect of web crawling for a FAANG and then other public companies. Over the last 10 years we heavily used those offshore teams, aforementioned,…

> the offshore team that's been loyal for years

Why, though? I'd say outsourcing that way is a clear indicator that loyalty is not part of the picture.

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

#603

Post by account-5 »

gruez wrote: post #547
account-5 wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perspective actually. And what you perceive to be value.

Why are you pivoting to "value"? The original discussion was about skilled vs unskilled labor and whether that assessment is subjective vs objective. You might think that accountants are useless paper pushers whereas burger flippers are Hard Working People That Get Actual Things Done™, but that's orthogonal to how much skill[1] is needed to flip burgers vs be an accountant. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill_(la…

Pivoting to nothing.

> Skilled workers have long had historical import...

Value, import(ance); potatoe, potartoe.

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

#604

Post by Dylan16807 »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #545
kjkjadksj wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that money down the drain now that people just wear hoodies and facemasks to shoplift

https://phys.org/news/2012-09-tracking-people-gait-signature...

That's not going to get a felony conviction.

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

#605

Post by Jochim »

jfoster wrote: post #474
ryukoposting wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my point of view, Uber and DD were always going to head in that direction because by any objective measure, they are worse than the solution that already existed. The introduction of a middleman created new costs for drivers, customers, and restaurants alike, yet it's actually worse at delivering food than the conventional "drivers work for the restaurant" model. Sure, you get one website where you can see all t…

It's true that delivery services add a middle-man, but you don't seem to be considering that they add a lot of value in some important ways: 1. The single website/app is not just useful for discovery, but also to provide a consistent ordering experience. An individual restaurant might take orders over the phone, via their website, or via their own app. Those options will vary from one restaurant to the next. Not grea…

I'm curious as to how food delivery worked in your country before Uber et al.

In the UK, outside of corporate chains, it was largely a cash in hand operation for both the restaurants and drivers.

Drivers would typically be paid a small sum for showing up on the night and then keep the delivery charge and any tips. The cost to the restaurant was pretty much negligible.

The middle-men, in addition to their own cut, have likely lead to a larger tax burden on many of the drivers and restaurants.

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

#606

Post by intended »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #551
intended wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair warning to all who come after - the children comment for a decent distance below are a battle based on correct/ incorrect/ technical/ personal definitions of skilled labor.

Does that warrant a warning? That's just a natural occuring discussion, and selecting threads to follow is basic forum-reading skill. The rare gems of surprising insight are often found in the depths of slightly off-topic discussions. Previously I've noticed another kind of meta-comment, the top level complaint by a self-appointed moderators about the overall shape of the discussion elsewhere, instead of engaging dir…

Yes.

With intellectual pursuits, you can always find diamonds in the rough. Simply due to the effort YOU are putting in, given your then state of mind, knowledge and experience.

You can wade through a conversation on creationism and evolutionary denial and understand humanity or even deepen your skills.

However that's you - your unique circumstances bringing more to the table.

Others would very much appreciate a warning, because they already have working definitions, have seen this argument before and would prefer spending their time on other pursuits.

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

#607

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

capybara_2020 wrote: post #575
jfoster wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that delivery services add a middle-man, but you don't seem to be considering that they add a lot of value in some important ways: 1. The single website/app is not just useful for discovery, but also to provide a consistent ordering experience. An individual restaurant might take orders over the phone, via their website, or via their own app. Those options will vary from one restaurant to the next. Not grea…

You bring up an interesting point. Just thinking out loud for a moment here. Is the current VC business model potentially the problem area and not the actual businesses? The need for rapid growth/software company like profit margins when these companies need more time and potentially are like non-software companies in terms of profits?

Yeah, demanding software level margins for physical world businesses basically hasn't worked anywhere in the past ten years.

Like the only success I can see is AirBnB and that's because houses are expensive and in short supply.

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

#608

Post by prmoustache »

getToTheChopin wrote: post #422
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...

Decathlon stores have the same self-checkout experience. Worked flawlessly the few times I've used it.

I've had a few times when I bought lots of small items and it missed a few of them. Once, they were recognized when I moved stuff in the bin, another time I made sure I didn't move anything before paying and it worked in my favor.

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

#609

Post by [deleted] »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #544
intended wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair warning to all who come after - the children comment for a decent distance below are a battle based on correct/ incorrect/ technical/ personal definitions of skilled labor.

I should have listened to your warning and just skipped it.

[deleted]

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

#610

Post by gruez »

account-5 wrote: post #603
gruez wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you pivoting to "value"? The original discussion was about skilled vs unskilled labor and whether that assessment is subjective vs objective. You might think that accountants are useless paper pushers whereas burger flippers are Hard Working People That Get Actual Things Done™, but that's orthogonal to how much skill[1] is needed to flip burgers vs be an accountant. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill_(la…

Pivoting to nothing. > Skilled workers have long had historical import... Value, import(ance); potatoe, potartoe.

So you're trying to derail the discussion to something about "value", because the page I linked about "skill" has a passage about how skilled laborers were historically important to the economy? What does this have to do with the subjectivity/objectivity of "underpaid", "unfair wages", "unskilled labor", or whether a burger flipper is more "skilled" than an accountant? As I said earlier, even if you think that accountants are useless paper pushers, the fact that they're pushing papers in a very specific way that takes years to learn, makes them more skilled.
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