961–970 of 1001 posts
They will most certainly be tracking a lot more than just you picking up your item. The data they collect about shopping behavior will be interesting. Like, how long I hesitated before I picked up something, what I had already in my "cart" at the time, what deals I looked at but passed on, etc.
Technology aside, shoppers are going to feel so weird doing this at the beginning. There's already social anxiety when people pay for things and walk past a security guard, or a security barrier. Whether it's an airport, or a clothes store, or a ticket barrier, there's always a nervousness about being called out. It's bad enough in the Apple Store where you can pay and walk out, this will take some real getting used…
I have heard people talk about this as becoming a race issue, and I agree. This is basically an iteration of self-checkout, and if that has issues with people being profiled at the store exit (which it does) then this will too.
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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.
And I can guarantee that there are zero businesses designed to create jobs. Businesses are designed to create value, jobs are a byproduct.
There are going to be fewer and fewer jobs in the future, and the sooner societies adjusts, the better. Keeping people in unsustainable jobs will only slow this transformation.
I'm biased, by the way, because I'm from a post-communist country - we've had the "jobs for everyone" thing, and it wasn't working very well.
Look, I know this might not be a popular view here on HN, but I think this is useless. And bad. I'm not talking about the technology behind it (I think it's an amazing achievement).. I live in Barcelona and I have at least 5 medium-sized supermarkets within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. Plus there are several smaller shops that sell fruits and vegetables. I know all the people who work in these supermarket…
It seems you agree with Vonnegut: [When Vonnegut tells his wife he's going out to buy an envelope] Oh, she says, well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some…
Me: "Sir, are you Mr.Vonnegut?".
KV: "Hmph". Me: "It is an honor to meet you. Fan of yours from when I was 16".
KV: "OK".
Still very fond of him and his works :)
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Is there any evidence that reducing the number of jobs correlates to lower prices?
The last 300 years during which capitalism and tech have done more for the common man than any other ststem in the last 30,000.
I'm specifically asking about the assumption that "if we remove cashiers, supermarkets will obviously bring the prices down" (as a counter-example, I remember reading somewhere that Seattle's minimum wage didn't affect inflation in any meaningful way)
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In Australia if you break something in store, they typically wont charge you, but if they do, they have to charge at cost. I wonder if this another reason many stores dont charge. As any store with a larger markup would have to let you know that $55 vase they were trying to sell you cost them $6.
I've never heard this "rule" before, do you have a source? "Cost" is a pretty flimsy concept.
https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/shopping/refunds-and-returns...
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In Australia if you break something in store, they typically wont charge you, but if they do, they have to charge at cost. I wonder if this another reason many stores dont charge. As any store with a larger markup would have to let you know that $55 vase they were trying to sell you cost them $6.
I've never heard this "rule" before, do you have a source? "Cost" is a pretty flimsy concept.
I don't have a source for that.
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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.
I'm going to steal something I saw in my social media feed a while ago: "I'd like people to move away from the notion that people need to be doing boring, tedious things in exchange for money". And I can guarantee that there are zero businesses designed to create jobs. Businesses are designed to create value, jobs are a byproduct. There are going to be fewer and fewer jobs in the future, and the sooner societies adju…
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It's not "dystopian" if you're on private property and have accepted their terms of service. You can avoid surveillance by, you know, choosing not to shop there.
If there is no way for me to delete my personal data after i leave the store, i find it distopyan. If one day all the stores are like this, I guess you may argue I can still grow my own food, and everything is fine.
By "personal data", if you mean the video footage of your shopping, then it will probably be deleted after a few days/weeks. It will just be used to train (reinforce) the machine learning model, and will be discarded eventually. But your shopping history will always be there, as it is now in online shopping sites...