Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know. But you won't be a master barista right away either.
Starbucks coffee tastes the same whether it's the barista there for year or the 3-day newbie.
Lots of coffees won't.
And speed matters too.
Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
721–730 of 769 posts
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#722Earlier quoted context omitted.
They likely meant that onboarding takes three days. As there is no meaningful metric for competence beyond that (or at least no metric that is measured and used) "good" doesn't apply. There are of course tons of ways a good, seasoned barista distinguishes themselves from a trainee with 3 days of onboarding but those are externalities. The difference between skilled and unskilled labor is not whether competence and ex…
> They likely meant that onboarding takes three days. You can onboard welding in less than 30 days too. > As there is no meaningful metric for competence beyond that (or at least no metric that is measured and used) "good" doesn't apply. Barista quality isn't much harder to measure than weld quality. "and used" is a cop-out.
Knowing professional welders myself, and trying my hand at welding, it takes a lot more than 30 days to get good at it. A welder also needs to learn some chemistry, all kinds of techniques, the strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of welds, how to prep the weld, etc.
A good weld is a thing of beauty.
Welding is also pretty dangerous. It takes a good welder to do it safely, and do it without ruining very expensive parts.
There's good reason that competent welders get paid a lot of money.
In 30 days, the new welder probably has learned how not to set himself on fire, blind himself, fill his lungs with poisonous gasses, etc.
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#723Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They likely meant that onboarding takes three days. You can onboard welding in less than 30 days too. > As there is no meaningful metric for competence beyond that (or at least no metric that is measured and used) "good" doesn't apply. Barista quality isn't much harder to measure than weld quality. "and used" is a cop-out.
Knowing professional welders myself, and trying my hand at welding, it takes a lot more than 30 days to get good at it. A welder also needs to learn some chemistry, all kinds of techniques, the strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of welds, how to prep the weld, etc. A good weld is a thing of beauty. Welding is also pretty dangerous. It takes a good welder to do it safely, and do it without ruining very expensiv…
I don't think any of this makes what I said less true.
There's a lot you can learn in many basic service jobs, and become much more effective than if you don't learn it.
But if the standard is "onboarding", then both are quick.
> In 30 days, the new welder probably has learned how not to set himself on fire, blind himself, fill his lungs with poisonous gasses, etc.
I am not a welder, but I've had some welding safety training. It doesn't take a month.
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#724I've done all checkout styles and I think the best is scan as you shop with a little handheld scanner is best by far, you can pack as you go along and I think I've had a random check like 3 times in years of doing a weekly shops.
I like having a running total and being able to price check, it's mostly fantastic. Only downside is fruit and veg which you have to weigh and print a sticker for, that's about it.
In my mind the perfect experience would be a trolley/cart/basket with a screen on it that detects what was inside.
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#725this might be my first comment here heh. i've worked on a similar product before. there's no way they were turning a profit. they definitely missed stuff all the time even with a ton of sensors. and sensors aren't the only cost. annotation is by far the most costly operational expense. new product? needs several annotated photos and recalibrated weight sensors. merchant decides to put Christmas branding on the same U…
I want to know why these places don't simply dramatically drop the accuracy requirement.
Rather than giving itemized receipts, give just a total dollar value. Then just make sure that most customers are charged within 10% of the correct amount.
Only if the customer requests and itemized receipt, then go watch the video and generate them one. But after a while most customers won't request it, and that means you can just guess at a dollar amount and as long as you're close-ish (which should be easy based on weight and past purchase history), that's fine.
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#726Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently this news came out in May 2023. I also was bamboozled into thinking that sophisticated computer vision algos -- that worked -- were doing this. I'm now picturing the remote workers constantly switching between cameras, studying: Did he put down the can of kidney beans or the can of corn there? Wait, the man picked up the bananas, but then he handed them to the woman in the white shirt. Let's charge them to…
> the workers might otherwise be doing: perhaps just toiling in the fields for 16 hours a day That is robber barron propaganda to make you believe their enslavement of people (by creating the right situation where the people have no choice) is actual good for them.
They are not slaves, they are free to quit and work somewhere else. Are they not?
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#727Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's the real difference under all this - Dominos employs drivers (and they get paid by tips, sure there are issues) but it's all one thing. If they deliver a cold pizza it's on them. All the delivery app companies are NOT making the food so the blame game starts AND they are not employees so a bunch of gaming is going on. I know my one experience with Uber eats is such that I'll never use it again, and ins…
Also food delivery drivers employed directly by restaurants typically have an insulated carrier in their car or on their bike to keep your food warm. Uber Eats drivers don't so the food gets cold way faster.
Guess that depends on your location - in the 3 European countries I've lived in, Deliveroo and Uber drivers/riders almost universally had insulated cuboid bags (usually with one of the companies' branding on) in their car or on their bike in all three countries, while Dominos pizza was the same in one country, in another country Dominos used cars with no insulation except the cardboard pizza box, and I don't know about Dominos in the 3rd.
(And I'm not sure if my experiences were representative of each country, just that they were consistent in each city.)
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#728Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Pay will never be enough, as a point of fact can you explain this a bit further please? also, what's the storm that's coming?
It'll "never be enough" in the sense that there is a non-existent potential of higher wages to stop agitation for more money. Because there is no disincentive for labor to ever-advance the claim that their wages are enough. In addition, the incentive to ever-claim that wages are not enough is unable to be quneched due to the fact that there is no risk. That logic is what supports my point. The point can be proofed to…
Not sure why you're being downvoted, this is all pretty clear.
The storm may or may not come depending on how long your prediction time window is.
In any of these discussions about wages and fairness, I wonder if the people with strong opinions have ever tried to hire unskilled labor.
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#729Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That's a silly definition of "enough" to label as a fact. There's no "factual" definition of "enough" as "enough" is subjective. I'm also not sure what you're trying to argue. I already said that it can't be 100% for practical reasons and that the market actively incentivizes companies to aim for as close to 0% as possible instead. You pick 90% as an arbitrary percentage. So it might be 99% or 50% or 1%. But you're…
> There's no "factual" definition of "enough" as "enough" is subjective. I agree. Which is why "enough" is not an objective threshold of 100% of surplus value. > I'm also not sure what you're trying to argue. I'm arguing that "less than 100% means not enough" is an incorrect statement. That's all. The bulk of your post isn't relevant to what I was saying. (To be extra clear, that's my paraphrase of this line: "in a v…
I'm following this thread and still don't understand what you think "enough" is. The person you are replying to makes sense to me.
This is just a fyi when trying to write out your thoughts.
Re: Amazon ditches 'just walk out' checkouts at its grocery stores
#730Earlier quoted context omitted.
Knowing professional welders myself, and trying my hand at welding, it takes a lot more than 30 days to get good at it. A welder also needs to learn some chemistry, all kinds of techniques, the strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of welds, how to prep the weld, etc. A good weld is a thing of beauty. Welding is also pretty dangerous. It takes a good welder to do it safely, and do it without ruining very expensiv…
I don't think any of this makes what I said less true. There's a lot you can learn in many basic service jobs, and become much more effective than if you don't learn it. But if the standard is "onboarding", then both are quick. > In 30 days, the new welder probably has learned how not to set himself on fire, blind himself, fill his lungs with poisonous gasses, etc. I am not a welder, but I've had some welding safety…
You both are talking around each other I feel.
In any job there is a spectrum from bare minimum to a master. This goes for welding and baristas. Is someone who pushes a button on a Nespresso a barista? If I go get a soldering iron am I a welder?
You overlay the normal distribution of all baristas and welders and look at the difficulty in learning various skills. I'm sure they are not exactly equal.