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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

#81

So they are offloading checkout onto the consumer via dash carts. There's no value proposition for the consumer unless somehow they are able to lower prices by not hiring cashiers.

But I don't want to interact with the cashier. The store near me is almost the thing I actually want. I walk into the store, I wander about picking items I want off shelves, and scanning them with my phone, I put them in a bag I happen to have with me, or my pockets, or my backpack, or whatever, it doesn't matter, then I walk to the big graphical terminals near the exit and scan that too.

That's the only place where it has a step I don't need, it wants payment because capitalism, so there's a bunch of touch, tap, touch again sequences to get from it knowing what I took to being satisfied that I have exchanged money for goods and then I can go.

One thing I barely noticed at all until after it had happened was the removal of cashier operated checking out from most of the store. Ten years ago there were maybe 20 such checkouts, then sixteen after they added some self-checkout features - obviously rarely all manned but they existed. Today it's four, and often none of them are open, because almost nobody stands in a line to have somebody else scan your shopping, why would you?

Instead there are three distinct self-checkout zones. First, the one I use almost always, for people who have scanned their purchases already. There's nowhere to put anything, because these are just vertical terminals for taking payment. Then, short order terminals, a small built-in scale is provided so that you can buy say, lunch, but there's nowhere to load and unload a whole trolley of groceries. Finally the big shop terminals with lots of dedicated space for you to transfer from a trolley onto a scanner and weigh scales, then to your bags, this takes up most of the space previously occupied by cashiers.

If you've scanned everything you can actually use any of these areas, because the terminal understands that you've already done the whole job, but unless it's super-busy it will be easier to use the dedicated area for people who've done all the scanning.

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

#82
post #29

Wait what? When did they reveal it's offloaded to workers in India? I remember this being touted as fully automated when it was announced, surely being watched by strangers from creepy angles would discourage a large portion of customers.

There is usually a mention of "humans in the loop" when articles discussed Amazon Go[1]. Amazon just always refused to give actual numbers. The best "give" that humans were watching you was that Amazon Go receipts often arrived in your email many hours after you left.

Anyone who works in computer vision immediately knew this wasn't possible beyond a cool proof of concept in a tiny room with [1] https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/21/inside-amazons-surveillanc...

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

#83
post #43
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've had that in France for years, and noone uses that as far as I can tell. The main usage I see is mainly self checkout. Please note that I'm biased towards dense areas. We have on-the-go scanning in super stores as well, I feel it's not being used but I could be wrong

> We've had that in France for years, and noone uses that as far as I can tell. Why not? what makes it unpopular?

You have to remember every time to scan what you get which is a bit annoying and tedious.

And then if you are unlucky you hit a random "let's recheck everything" at the cashier which nullifies all the work that you have done.

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

#84

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

When I worked there back in 2005, Best Buy had an RFID test setup in the basement of their HQ that could tell what you had in your cart without scanning.

Walmart was also working on similar technology, but from what I heard they couldn’t convince suppliers to include RFID tags on all of their products.

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

#85

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

The problem with your second suggestion is that it gives the customer no recourse for improperly tagged/scanned items. Interaction with a human or checkout system before leaving the store is necessary, given how ripe for abuse a totally automated checkout system would be.

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

#86
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan anything. Isn't that basically what Amazon had claimed they were doing here, except apparently maybe they weren't?

Nope, they were using camera technology and QR codes

It always seemed so needlessly complex, relative to well-established RFID tech -- Uniqlo can count the number and type of garments in a pile in a big bucket, and compute an invoice from that.

Even if you couldn't do this at the exit, seems like it would have been a far easier lift to incorporate the same idea into shopping carts or baskets all along.

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

#88
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skit or ad?

amazon is notorious for paying late night sketch comedy shows to make fun of them in order to promote their niche projects that only exist in a few cities.

do you have a source for this?

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

#90
post #19

I think that the scan-as-you-shop style systems are definitely the next realistic step for grocery stores. I really like using them, as they allow me to put stuff directly into my bags as I go. I think a further improvement on a system like that would be to use the cheap RFID tech (UHF EPC) so that when you walk through the anti-theft barriers, the system knows exactly what you got, and then there's no need to scan a…

We've had that in France for years, and noone uses that as far as I can tell. The main usage I see is mainly self checkout. Please note that I'm biased towards dense areas. We have on-the-go scanning in super stores as well, I feel it's not being used but I could be wrong

I see a couple people using it at the shops near me in the UK (but it's not that popular here either). It's pretty universally available in the bigger shops, but rare in the little metro shops. I really like just slinging my bag in the trolley and running around the store with a scanner. It's dramatically easier than unpacking a trolley for self-checkout or the old school checkouts. It's annoying when there are security tagged items though, because it defeats the purpose of the self scanning.
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