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“Just walk out” technology by Amazon

justwalkout.com

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Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#691

Aaaand there’s the play. Amazon wasn’t trying to compete with other retails stores by leveraging their tech edge, they were positioning themselves to becoming the single provider of retail checkout solutions for the future. You either opt-in to giving Amazon all your retail data, or you become the only old fashioned “wait in line to get served” store on the street. And where is the competition? Is there anyone at all…

Probably not as impactful as it would have been 20 years ago - why go to the store at all when I can order from Amazon online?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are number of tech companies directly competing in this space: https://standard.ai/ https://grabango.com/ https://www.getzippin.com/ https://www.v7labs.com/retail https://www.getzippin.com/ There are competitive options, if you’re in retail you do not have to give Amazon all your “retail data” or use their tech.

Do any of those companies actually have a live customer? Not a demo store, a real paying customer with more than one location live? Standard.ai apparently has a demo store in SF, although it's been closed due to the coronavirus epidemic. Grabango - one installation in test at a Giant Eagle store. Getzippin - one installation in test at a Lojas Americanas store. Their site gives the impression that it's really about g…

https://www.thirdeyelabs.com/ - real customers - real money - multiple-sites Plus they beat Amazon to this concept by a good few months. https://www.thirdeyelabs.com/news. Granted all the focus/attention in this space is in the US. But it is happening elsewhere too.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#693
post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprising to me that Whole Foods still doesn't have this tech integrated. You'd think that'd be the "beta" step after the Amazon Store's "alpha" step.

Maybe they don't want to draw attention to how many people are going to lose their jobs because of this yet. Cashier is the #2 job in the US (by number of people employed) [0]. If they released this at Whole Foods, I'd guess they'd fire all the cashiers there. That would make this rollout a lot less exciting for a lot of people. I hope Amazon comes up with an awesome way to help the cashiers this technology replaces.…

The thing we need to come up with is a basic income allowing robots to take over our work. Not because it's the right thing to do or a kind thing to do, but because the alternative is civil unrest on a scale few of us are familiar with.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#694

Aaaand there’s the play. Amazon wasn’t trying to compete with other retails stores by leveraging their tech edge, they were positioning themselves to becoming the single provider of retail checkout solutions for the future. You either opt-in to giving Amazon all your retail data, or you become the only old fashioned “wait in line to get served” store on the street. And where is the competition? Is there anyone at all…

There are number of tech companies directly competing in this space: https://standard.ai/ https://grabango.com/ https://www.getzippin.com/ https://www.v7labs.com/retail https://www.getzippin.com/ There are competitive options, if you’re in retail you do not have to give Amazon all your “retail data” or use their tech.

What are the false-positive/negative rates of this technology?

What if I grab two items with one hand, and then put one back? Will the system correctly track this?

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#695
post #658
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having visited the Amazon Go stores in Seattle at-least 30 times over the last couple of years, including the newly opened Amazon Go Grocery store, I can confidently say that the technology works quite well for the typical shopper. I agree, the question of, can this technology be integrated into existing retail spaces and still work well enough to be economically viable is important. But considering that there hasn't…

How does this technology deal with theft?

Theft doesn’t happen in an ideal world. They’ll discover the flaws at some point. Id say theft and hacking scheemes could make this unfeasible or a big pain in their rearend

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#697

Aaaand there’s the play. Amazon wasn’t trying to compete with other retails stores by leveraging their tech edge, they were positioning themselves to becoming the single provider of retail checkout solutions for the future. You either opt-in to giving Amazon all your retail data, or you become the only old fashioned “wait in line to get served” store on the street. And where is the competition? Is there anyone at all…

> And where is the competition?

Technically Walmart did this in their Rogers, AR flagship store in the late 90s, but consumers found it awkward/error prone and didn’t use it much. I have a feeling Walmart shockingly enough was just to far ahead of the curve technology and culture wise (if memory serves, self checkout wasn’t even a common thing back then or if so, was just becoming one).

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, if they did pull off a seamless integration of the tech into WF, it would be a massive selling point. Amazon Go demonstrates that the tech can work in a store designed around it, WF would show that it can be integrated into an existing business. But they have no reason to rush and use themselves as the guinea pig if they can offload that risk onto literally anyone else. Moving WF over will be the s…

>But they have no reason to rush and use themselves as the guinea pig if they can offload that risk onto literally anyone else. Not only that, Amazon would be literally paid by others to take over Amazon's own risk. This is such a nice play all around, they just need to manage not screwing it up somehow. But execution never was a weakness for Amazon imo, so I bet it will mostly go smoothly.

It will be interesting to see if any large brands take Amazon up on the offer.

If I was a major business, I wouldn't pay Amazon to be a guinea pig, especially when I see them unwilling to do it at their own major retail chain.

Re: “Just walk out” technology by Amazon

#700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The third-last FAQ entry speaks precisely to your comment: > Will people still be working in stores with Just Walk Out technology? > Yes. Retailers will still employ store associates to greet and answer shoppers' questions, stock the shelves, check IDs for the purchasing of certain goods, and more - their roles have simply shifted to focus on more valuable activities.

I wonder what percentage of people will still have a job there?

Do we need to have people working soul-sucking, unnecessary jobs so they can bring food to the table?
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