Cashierless stores are popping up at gas stations, stadiums and even Dunkin':
Pretty soon you might find Amazon Go-like concepts just about everywhere.
Mastercard on Friday said it's joining the effort to create more of these kinds of cashierless stores, unveiling a platform it calls Shop Anywhere. It teamed up with retail tech company Accel Robotics to create a handful of new test concepts that let customers check into a store, grab what they want and walk out.
[...] For instance, the team created a new self-service Dunkin' store that allows people to check in at a kiosk, get doughnuts and coffee, and leave without stopping at a cashier. The store will be staffed with workers to restock items and provide customer service, but there won't be a register.
[...] The payment network pitched these concepts as more flexible than Amazon Go, with Shop Anywhere capable of going into all kinds of locations and being retrofitted into existing stores -- something Amazon Go hasn't yet done. Both Shop Anywhere and Amazon Go are powered by a series of cameras that are kitted with computer vision and AI.
Customers will no longer have to interact with proprietors or employees.
(Score: 4, Touché) by requerdanos on Friday August 28 2020, @11:53PM (7 children)
Although this only happens in a few very specific locations, to wit, those that have this paticular
(which makes sense), they seem to be promoting it as some universal thing...
... which makes much less sense. It's the opposite of everywhere, and doesn't let you "shop" anything like "anywhere." Wonder why this focus?
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday August 29 2020, @04:47AM (5 children)
We've had this at McPlastics for some years now, all touchscreen interfaces and contactless payments. It's awful, the only time you interact with a human is when they hand you your soggy cardboard and the box that it comes in.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:21PM (4 children)
Then why do you go there?
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:43PM (3 children)
Only once. Friend of mine has young kids...
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:56PM (2 children)
Ah yeah, I got dragged into those places a handful of times by peers as well in the past. I won't consume anything there again though. I'm a lot more stubborn these days.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:01PM (1 child)
It used to be my favorite place as a kid. Now it makes me sick to eat their food; I suspect it's because they have replaced all the real food with fillers.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @12:17AM
I'm not allowed to go there anymore, since they had their "365Black" campaign, where they're only for black people 365 days of the year. I'm not black, so I can't go there any day of the year. Except Leap Day. I have to admit I don't miss it, though.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:47AM
"Wonder why this is the focus?"
Because it makes it much easier to keep track of how much you spend, what you spend it on and where you spend it.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:26AM (8 children)
We don't need Amazon Go-like concepts during a looting craze.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:45AM (7 children)
Looting craze? You mean a few blocks in a few cities?
This will be installed in the burbs and along interstates long before it's used downtown.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @01:04AM
No peace, anywhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @06:29AM (5 children)
There. FTFY.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:03PM (4 children)
Do you mean like Kenosha, Wisconsin two nights ago?
Something tells me the business owners who lost everything haven't gotten over it yet. Nor have the families of those who have been killed.
But, it happened somewhere else to someone else, so it doesn't really matter to you, amirite?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @10:12PM
My fault. I thought we weren't supposed to count the incidents where the MAGA crowd are the instigators.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @11:41PM
Oh look, Phoenix666 is continuing the "omg riots" bullshit. Tell me Phoenix, why are you more concerned with buildings than the lives of your fellow citizens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @12:11AM
If folks are breaking the law, arrest and prosecute them.
But don't conflate the folks carrying signs and chanting slogans who are legally exercising their rights, with a few folks who need to go to jail for their actions.
What's that? The police are refusing to do their jobs? That's a failure of the police. They need to stop standing around whinging like little girls, "ooh, they don't like us! we're scared! Mommy!"
Which is what these protests are all about -- the police failing to do their jobs competently.
Whether that's not weeding out (or encouraging the hiring of) the thugs from their ranks (think "A Clockwork Orange"), summarily executing whoever they feel like, panicking like little bitches and shooting people in the back, and not policing their own ranks.
I'll say it one more time. Those involved in violence and looting need to be arrested and prosecuted, just like the cowardly scumbags with badges running around shooting, asphyxiating and beating people to death.
You, like your anti-hero, aren't interested in equality under the law or accountable public officials. You just want to "own the libs" and keep the darkies "in their place."
Do you watch old newsreels of George Wallace at night and stroke off too? I wouldn't be surprised.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @12:12AM
No.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:59AM (6 children)
3 people go into a store and crowd around a jewelry counter. They leave and the camera decides some valuable merchandise is missing... who do you stop? Here in Canada you can't just go around stopping people and saying "Please let me look through your bags and see if you have our merchandise".
Will they not let you into the store if you are wearing a PPE mask that hides your face?
As an autistic, i kind of like this concept.
As a person who wants to see others keep their jobs, i hate this concept.
As a human, this concept SCARES THE POO OUT OF ME. #Never
HillaryThis--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @01:11AM (1 child)
Is cashierless as autistic as buying everything online?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Saturday August 29 2020, @04:13AM
Sometimes it's nice to see and touch and you can't do that online... Just like I'd rather see my Korean wife-by-mail in person than just by a picture, lol.
But yeah: sometimes I just want no interactions with idiots. It's okay if they know what they are talking about, but how often does that occur anymore?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @04:52AM (3 children)
From the looks of it, or maybe my assumptions, you swipe your card as you go through the turnstile to get in. As long as the cameras can track you / your mask through the store it'll work fine.
But your points are basically why they still need employees - to make sure nobody gets in without being carded (credit carded here) or gets up to any shenanigans to defeat the cameras (crowding, vandalism, opening a bunch of umbrellas in the store, ...)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:27PM (2 children)
They will also always need employees to call the cops when black people come in. Machines don't get "scared" if more than one black male is present, but they could probably train that in with some machine learning, I suppose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @06:59PM (1 child)
hopefully the robots will just handle the execution themselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @12:20AM
Can I code the vivisection subroutine? I mean, sure I've killed off processes before, but now... muhahahahaha!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Saturday August 29 2020, @01:24AM (4 children)
The slopes are slippery!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:02PM
yeah and i'm all for not having to pay for baggers and cashiers (or deal with them in some cases), but the suited whores won't pass on the savings and they insist on proprietary software and privacy invasions. when people can't get what they need, hopefully they will shoot/hang/bludgeon the CEOs in front of their families, but i'd rather people push back now.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:05PM (1 child)
I'm looking forward to moving beyond consumer culture and 3D-printing everything we need.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:22PM
The real money is in the cartridges :-)
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @05:22AM
We've been Cashless since 2003 [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Saturday August 29 2020, @01:27AM (9 children)
Australian petrol stations tried "pay at the pump" card machines, but there were so many people driving off without oaying they took them all away.
Noe, the few places that offer cashierless fuel make you swipe your card for a default $100 purchase before the bowser will unlock. Once you've filled up, you swipe again for a refund of your the $100 minus your purchase.
Not sure the AI is going to help, unless it "recognizes" drivers or vehicles thta have been involved in thefts before...
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @01:35AM (8 children)
Wait, what? In the US you have to pay before the pump will start, either by inserting a credit/debit card or by finding the cashier and giving them cash (I assume you can get a refund if you manage to overpay... but I've never heard of someone trying to fill their tank when paying with cash). It's normal for a hold to be put on your account when the card is provided and the actual amount charged later (e.g. this happens for tips at restaurants as well). I guess cards must work differently there if a second swipe is required to finalize the amount.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday August 29 2020, @02:08AM (1 child)
A second swipe is not required. There's one near me that I regularly use because it's usually several cents/litre cheaper than manned stations. You insert the card (chip cards), key in the amount, and remove the card. The pump stops at what you keyed. If you stop earlier it only charges the card for how much you dispensed.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday August 29 2020, @04:16AM
That's how it works here in Ontario Canada.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @02:10AM (1 child)
In the US, you're not "paying" yet when you swipe your card at the pump to start the process - you incur a hold of like $100 that clears in a few days. Once the pump turns off again, the purchase goes through on the card.
If you pay inside with cash, you hand money to the cashier who then turns on the pump, which will automatically stop dispensing once the deposit has been used up. If you didn't use all, you get your change from the cashier.
As for people driving off, I think the industry has made arrangements with the state governments to cancel their driving licenses.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday August 29 2020, @06:22AM
Pay-at-pump card payments work just the same in the UK. But if you plan to pay at the cashier's desk, the cashier activates the pump remotely (once they're happy that numberplate cameras have noted your car's details, in case of a drive-off).
Oh, and service pumps are practically unheard of here: it's all self-serve.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 29 2020, @04:22AM (3 children)
I've done exactly that, often. Tell the cashier I want to fill up, I think it will take about $40, hand her the money, then pump. I can't overfill, as she has set it to shut off at $40. I end up pumping $32 or $36 or even $39.50, she cheerfully gives me the change.
I recently did the same using a credit card. Driving a different vehicle at the time, and the pump wouldn't read my card. Went inside, and paid in advance. Because I was annoyed and distracted, I told cashier it would probably take about $40 to fill up - but this vehicle has a smaller tank. $25 filled it up, so I went inside to ask for my change. Cashier informed me that the transaction would only take the $25 that I actually pumped, I was getting no change back. I watched the account until that transaction showed up, and she was right.
Ehhh - whatever works, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @09:32AM (2 children)
> I recently did the same using a credit card.
Man, things take awhile to get to Arkansas. I think I did that transaction, for the first time, about 40 years ago(??) So long ago that it's hard to remember where it might have been. Probably using a carbon-less credit card multi-part-form and a card imprinter, before mag stripe readers were common. I'm in the Great Lakes area.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @06:52PM
Until relatively recently, I never used a card at gas stations. Now though, the 10c/g surcharge for credit has disappeared nearly universally, and the pumps at most places have been replaced with more physically secure models, so I do it way more often.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:06PM
It's the drawl.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @02:34AM
https://allthatsinteresting.com/automat [allthatsinteresting.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:54PM (2 children)
So basically, this is an oversize vending machine.
The last time I went to Home Depot a few years ago they had changed everything to self checkout. Even had a slot to insert dollar bills. That made the entire store feel unpleasantly like one huge vending machine. I'll never go back there unless I absolutely have to. My small ACE store still has real people, who go out of their way to be friendly and helpful.
It is not perfectly clear if the place in this story is also "cashless", but any brick and mortar location that does not take cash is evil, un-American, and needs to be shot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:08PM
real people are annoying as shit, unless it's young women. but it's usually not. It's usually the dumbest, most incapable people in society, and i am not running a fucking charity shopping operation.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:10PM
Home Depot has those self checkout stations, but knowledgeable employees are not superfluous at all. There's a branch in Brooklyn I never go to because their employees know nothing about building anything; Instead I wait to go to a branch in Long Island, where most people working there are ex-plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc. That really helps when you don't know the proper key words for the items you need and can only explain what you're trying to do.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:18PM (2 children)
This kinda shit is so concerning on so many levels.
Looking at the way cashflows are moved from the bottom up these days, the costs they're cutting aren't going to the consumer. They'll end up, likely directly as feasible, right in the pockets of the people instituting these systems. They'll destroy the workforce piece by piece, dismantle everything while meanwhile concentrating their wealth (and thus their power) and they'll do it, not unimpeded, but assisted not only by the general public, but the system of law. I just wonder how these developments are going to pan out when you're cutting tens of millions of jobs in retail and transit as these systems become increasingly viable. Looking into available statistics on debt, and incomes, we seem directed evermore into the abyssal realities of a serfdom. Even implementing something like a UBI I wonder how much income one might expect, probably on the order of minimum wage, but with so many job losses compounding moneyflows would be increasingly competed over.
I think there needs to be some sort of balance struck immediately while these advancements are being made.
But beyond the economics, these sort of things are troubling. We've seen a massive erosion of community, and social currency as people become increasingly isolated. It's difficult to pinpoint the root of this unraveling, but it's important to note. No matter what point we find ourselves in the future, humanity has built its strength from social groups. This faculty seems to be rapidly dissolving, and continued stripping of personal interactions will certainly only stand to exacerbate the issue. And I say this as someone who is a hardcoded introvert, I certainly don't mind the idea of dodging people entirely, not at face value, but the impacts of it on the underlying substrate of society I think make a damning argument against it.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:13PM
I rather think it won't be too long before we render the power elites obsolete, too. If you have the means to make what you need, why buy it? Why buy something when so many companies vie for ever more egregious vendor lock-in? We all should just say no to the stupid control games.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:17PM
That's the plan of the Jew World Order. Breakdown of the family, followed by breakdown of all social groups not controlled by the Jews via technology. Take a look at Teletubbies if you want to see the future of mankind unless we wake up. That show was not an accident. Androgynous humanoids wearing biohazard suits, in very small, likely non-family groups, who live underground in a bunker, and only come outside to worship the global religion (the sun with the baby's face) when the computer says they can.