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posted by Fnord666 on Monday January 22 2018, @03:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the ripe-for-hacking dept.

Amazon Go is a go:

The first clue that there's something unusual about Amazon's store of the future hits you right at the front door. It feels as if you are entering a subway station. A row of gates guard the entrance to the store, known as Amazon Go, allowing in only people with the store's smartphone app.

Inside is an 1,800-square foot mini-market packed with shelves of food that you can find in a lot of other convenience stores — soda, potato chips, ketchup. It also has some food usually found at Whole Foods, the supermarket chain that Amazon owns.

But the technology that is also inside, mostly tucked away out of sight, enables a shopping experience like no other. There are no cashiers or registers anywhere. Shoppers leave the store through those same gates, without pausing to pull out a credit card. Their Amazon account automatically gets charged for what they take out the door.

[...] There were a little over 3.5 million cashiers in the United States in 2016 — and some of their jobs may be in jeopardy if the technology behind Amazon Go eventually spreads. For now, Amazon says its technology simply changes the role of employees — the same way it describes the impact of automation on its warehouse workers.

Also at TechCrunch.

Previously: Amazon Go: It's Like Shoplifting


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  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday January 22 2018, @04:46PM

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Monday January 22 2018, @04:46PM (#626127) Journal

    enables a shopping experience like no other

    Um actually no.

    Um, actually, yes. From this review [geekwire.com], emphasis mine:

    In my first test of Amazon Go this past week, my elapsed time in the store was exactly 23 seconds — from scanning the QR code at the entrance to exiting with my chosen item. Most of that time was spent choosing my preferred flavor of Odwalla juice.

    To re-emphasize: 23 seconds, and the majority of that accruing to the shopper's own benefit instead of delaying and inconveniencing them.

    Looks to me that if they can achieve price parity, or better, that they're got something that can be very successful. There's every reason to think they can, as they will incur reduced costs as compared to an employee-based checkout operation. As to the privacy aspects... the volume of business Amazon does, and the success of the Alexa product, are pretty clear indicators that isn't a major consumer hurdle.

    You only get so much time - it's a naturally limited resource, and people don't like to do things that they perceive as "wasting their own time." This makes a significant inroad on that.

    Another example is where blue collar people making their kid a bookcase is called "life" but urban hipsters making a bookcase is a fetishized holy worship to tweet about their unique experience of the "maker movement".

    No, you're completely missing the human side of this.

    • Making a bookcase because you want to is spending time your way, which is generally pleasurable.
    • Standing in line at a checkout waiting on other people's fumbling is not generally pleasurable.
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