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Amazon Go

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Re: Amazon Go

#951

Post by Apocryphon »

darpa_escapee wrote: post #947
Apocryphon wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Losing 10 jobs to automation would be far less concerning if the businesses and individuals that cut the jobs would reinvest a greater percentage of their newfound profits into social programs to retrain the 10 people who are now without jobs. Or into a fund for the much-vaunted basic income, even.

Reminder that unions have negotiated and continue to negotiate compensation plans from employers that automate away or move jobs overseas to workers that are replaced.

Unions... in the U.S.???

Re: Amazon Go

#952

Post by vlunkr »

n0b0dythere wrote: post #792
vlunkr wrote: post #430

As someone who regularly takes kids to the grocery store, this would be a nightmare. You'd get charged for every random thing your kid decided to pull off a shelf and stuff somewhere else. Unless their AI ignores kids or something.

So basically you're saying that you let your kids run rampant through stores, pulling items off shelves and placing them randomly around instead of back where it should be on the shelf. So your bad parenting and bad kid behaviors will suddenly be a nightmare for you, since you'll be charged for this misconduct instead of simply ignoring it like before? Sounds like a win for everybody, except the problem maker.

Well it was a joke, but you can be a dick about it and insult my kids, that's fine.

Re: Amazon Go

#953

Post by modeless »

crottypeter wrote: post #197
BjoernKW wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesco also has pushed self scanning tills for years now. However, the number of employees working at the cash register is still the same because those scanners sometimes do not work and most importantly their user experience is deplorable. So, you frequently have to ask someone for help (and I'm in my mid-thirties and very tech-savvy. I can only imagine how someone twice my age would feel when using these scanners).

Terrible UX is spot-on. I was using one of these just this morning: got all my shopping onto the scale/shelf and was getting ready to pay. The machine asks how many 5p bags I used. So I start packing the stuff into my backpack to find out whether I need a bag. The machine pipes up: "Did you remove something from the scale?" The screen has a full screen modal warning that I have to put the shopping back. I put the thi…

You can blame that bad UX on the government, not the store. Next time you can just lie. The store doesn't care. They'd be happy to give you as many bags as you need for free if they were allowed.

Re: Amazon Go

#954

Post by nihonde »

This strikes me as yet another over-engineered workaround for a problem with society. In Japan, I rarely wait in line at a grocery store or convenience store. If I do, it's a short wait, and my interactions with the staff often brighten my day a little bit.

Why is Japan different? For one thing, they use a checkout system that is designed to move lines quickly. Two employees can work concurrently, one ringing up a customer and the other handling money exchange with another customer. Customers do their own bagging in a seperate area. The POS system takes cash in and spits out the correct change, and also handles IC cards, credit cards, Apple Pay, etc seamlessly and usually without requiring anything more than a PIN at most. And of course, customers can prepare exact change or get their cards out and place it on the tray while the cashier is still ringing them up. And the final, most important element is the people--polite, attentive, careful, and professional. Cashiers are trained to call out every item and price, and offer extras such as ice packs for cold items, dry ice for ice cream, utensils for ready to eat items, and so on. A quick, efficient, pleasant interaction that ends with a bow and a gracious thank you goes a long way toward encouraging everyone to treat each other well. And, by the way, the money that would be sunk into Amazon's infrastructure and inevitable support services goes to keeping people in jobs.

Re: Amazon Go

#955

Post by chongli »

ceedan wrote: post #946
chongli wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know what volunteering is: I do it myself. Every week I spend several hours helping kids with their homework at a local school. This is not at all the same thing as spending 8 hours a day working a cash register, dealing with rude customers without being rude in return, being expected to cover coworkers' shifts when they're sick, working during holiday hours instead of spending time with family, etc. etc. etc.

Your response seems irrelevant to mine. Being nice is not a behavior that is only exibited when paid to do so, as you seem to believe.

as you seem to believe.

I didn't say that. I said they would be fired if they were rude. It's a selection process that favours nice people, it does not make people nice (whatever that means).

Re: Amazon Go

#956

Post by literallycancer »

nihonde wrote: post #954

This strikes me as yet another over-engineered workaround for a problem with society. In Japan, I rarely wait in line at a grocery store or convenience store. If I do, it's a short wait, and my interactions with the staff often brighten my day a little bit. Why is Japan different? For one thing, they use a checkout system that is designed to move lines quickly. Two employees can work concurrently, one ringing up a cu…

I pay with a contactless card when I do my shopping, so the money transaction takes about a second. It's still too slow, because you have to put your stuff in the bag/backpack etc. (admittedly, this is the shop's fault - they don't have the separator so people can load stuff while the next person is being ringed up).

But in most countries, it's not that the shops can't make it faster, it's that they don't want to. They make the biggest margins on the impulse buy merchandise along the queue and people won't stop going there just because they have to wait 3 minutes.

>And of course, customers can prepare exact change or get their cards out and place it on the tray while the cashier is still ringing them up.

Good luck putting your card on the tray in poorer countries :D :D, good way to get it stolen.

>And, by the way, the money that would be sunk into Amazon's infrastructure and inevitable support services goes to keeping people in jobs.

Keeping people in jobs is of dubious value, especially since Amazon's infrastructure would create jobs too, it's not just money disappearing and things materializing out of thin air.

Re: Amazon Go

#957

Post by literallycancer »

anonbanker wrote: post #357
School-Cotton wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that illegal?

Not when the city council are your accomplices. Who is going to prosecute?

The state apparently.

>"The Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, state governments and private parties who are sufficiently affected may all bring actions in the courts to enforce the antitrust laws."[1]

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law

Re: Amazon Go

#958

Post by nihonde »

literallycancer wrote: post #956
nihonde wrote: post #954

This strikes me as yet another over-engineered workaround for a problem with society. In Japan, I rarely wait in line at a grocery store or convenience store. If I do, it's a short wait, and my interactions with the staff often brighten my day a little bit. Why is Japan different? For one thing, they use a checkout system that is designed to move lines quickly. Two employees can work concurrently, one ringing up a cu…

I pay with a contactless card when I do my shopping, so the money transaction takes about a second. It's still too slow, because you have to put your stuff in the bag/backpack etc. (admittedly, this is the shop's fault - they don't have the separator so people can load stuff while the next person is being ringed up). But in most countries, it's not that the shops can't make it faster, it's that they don't want to. Th…

Keeping people in jobs is absolutely not of dubious value. And if you think Amazon Go is designed to create new jobs, I think you're in for a serious disappointment. Working at a grocery like Aeon is probably a legit full-time career for a lot of single mothers, elderly, and others who need jobs that don't require advanced degrees.

Re: Amazon Go

#959

Post by billatq »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #713
tekklloneer wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's why coffee shops haven't been made obsolete by vending machines I really don't think that's why. Vending machines can't compete with humans still for freshly produced goods. There have been a few shots across the bow, but producing food that requires adjustment is still beyond the range of our sensors. I can't imagine a robot "dialing in" an espresso machine based on taste like a barista would, at least for an…

I think if someone made a vending machine that actually makes coffee the way a barista would, instead of pouring hot water into dried powder of random chemicals, I'd never ever visit a coffee shop again. But as it is now, vending machine coffee tastes so bad it's almost a separate category of awfulness (and don't get me started on vending machine tea ...).

It's not quite a vending machine, but Nespresso has replaced going to the coffee shop for my morning espresso. I think it does a better job than Starbuck, personally.
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